prosediff
See what changed between two drafts, and have an AI tell you whether the
revision is better: Word documents (.docx) first, OpenDocument (.odt) and
Markdown too.
- An AI reviews the revision: Claude Code, ChatGPT through Codex, a
local Ollama model (nothing leaves your computer) or any API model reads
the changes and gives a verdict (Improves, Mixed or Worsens), what
changed, what improved and what to fix.
- It marks each problem in the text: a numbered badge on the passage
and a card in the margin saying what is wrong and the fix it proposes.
- It hands you back the document: the Word or LibreOffice file with the
AI's comments, and its fixes as tracked changes to accept or reject one by
one.
- It reviews a single file too, with no older version to compare: the
report is then a diff of the file and the file with the AI's fixes
applied. It can also check whether the text reads as AI-written.
- It finds moved paragraphs even when they were edited: a paragraph,
sentence or passage moved elsewhere is shown at both ends as a move, the
words changed on the way highlighted, where code diffs see an unrelated
deletion and insertion (how).
- It is a git diff tool for Word files: after
prosediff --setup-git,
git diff, git log -p and git show print .docx and .odt files as
text instead of "Binary files differ", and git difftool -t prosediff
opens the side-by-side report (git integration).
What the AI reads. Comparing two versions, the AI is sent prosediff's
own word diff between them ([-removed-], {+added+}), computed from the
two texts and not from the files' Track Changes, and, by default, the whole
new version. Reviewing one file, it is sent the file. Other files can go with it as
context, to draw on, not to assess (--assess-file, or the window's
Other files switch): a journal's guidelines, a reviewer's report, a
cited paper, as PDF, Word, OpenDocument, Markdown or text. Either way, a Word or
OpenDocument file is read with its tracked changes accepted, so the AI sees
the final text, not who changed what: --docx-changes reject-all reads the
text before them, and --docx-changes show keeps them in the text as
marked insertions and deletions, with author and date, for the AI to see
(in the window, Tracked changes). Comments marked resolved are never
sent unless --no-skip-resolved. The AI's answers are saved beside the
report (NAME.ai.json), and --rebuild (the window's Rebuild tab)
remakes the report from them without asking the AI again.
Underneath is a diff made for prose, not code: a self-contained HTML report
of two versions side by side, each paragraph facing the one it came from,
changed words highlighted inside it. The versions are two Word or
OpenDocument documents, two Markdown or text files, two folders, or commits
of a git repository.
Why prosediff
- Code diff tools (
git diff, GitHub, diff2html, Meld) show a Word
document as a binary file and a paragraph as one long changed line.
Word's Compare Documents gives a third Word file full of revision
marks, and cannot compare folders, git history or Markdown.
- prosediff reads Word and OpenDocument files directly, whether or not
Track Changes was on, and shows only the comments added or removed.
Comments marked resolved in Word or LibreOffice, and their replies, are
skipped by default: hidden from the report and never sent to the AI,
whether two versions are compared or one file is reviewed
(
--no-skip-resolved, or the window's Skip resolved comments
switch, keeps them).
- It lines the versions up correctly: an edited paragraph faces the one
it came from, however rewritten; an inserted or split paragraph does not
shift the ones below.
- It can put tracked changes back: from a draft and a version returned
without them, it writes the returned document with each change a tracked
change, to accept or reject in Word or LibreOffice.
- The result is one HTML file: no server, no network, no Word needed to
read it; attach it to an e-mail, or print it.
Install
uv tool install prosediff
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
