diffdev

diffdev is a command-line tool that helps you make repo-wide code changes using an AI assistant. It allows you to interactively select files, provide a prompt describing the desired changes, and apply the AI-generated modifications as a git patch.

This is half my experimental playground, half useful tool for the community. Pull requests for wacky experiments welcome.

Key Features

• File Selection: Use a TUI to select files to include in the context
• Context-Aware Changes: The AI assistant analyzes the selected files and your prompt to generate contextual changes
• Structured Patch Generation: Changes are returned as a git-style patch for easy application and review
• Revision Control Integration: Apply patches using git apply and rollback changes when needed
• Claude AI Assistant: Leverages the powerful Claude language model from Anthropic
• FrankenClaude Mode: Enhanced capabilities by combining multiple AI models
• Colored Output: Improved readability with color-coded responses

Installation

If you have uv installed, you can just run

uvx diffdev

Make sure you have your Anthropic API key set if you want to use the main tool. If you want to use the FrankenClaude flag you also need to have a DeepSeek key set.

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
export DEEPSEEK_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

Usage

1. Navigate to your git repository
2. Run diffdev
3. Use the TUI to select files for context:
   • Space: Toggle file/directory selection
   • Tab: Expand/collapse directories
   • Enter: Confirm selection
   • q: Quit selection
4. Enter your prompt describing the desired changes
5. Review and confirm the generated patch

Run uvx diffdev --help for additional flags.

Commands

• select: Open file selector to update context
• undo: Rollback last applied changes
• redo: Reapply last rolled back changes
• exit: Exit diffdev

Example

$ cd my-project
$ diffdev

Starting diffdev...
Select files to include in the context:
[ ] + src/
[ ] + tests/
[ ] README.md

# After selecting files and confirming...

Enter command or prompt: Add type hints to the User class methods

# AI will analyze files and generate changes
# Changes are applied as a git patch that can be rolled back if needed

Development

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

TODO

• Fix bug in TUI file selector where directories with selected files don't show filled selector
• Add agents functionality (multiple LLMs solving same problem with result aggregation)
• Support OpenAI API compatible endpoints (with port configuration)
• Allow specifying model name to use
• Add general model configuration file
• Add flag to specify API key
• Add retry/refix functionality for failed diffs
• Add retry/fix for invalid JSON LLM responses
• Enhance TUI with more color options
• Improve code modularization
• Add automatic file searching capability
• Add tool support for fetching up-to-date documentation
• Add navigation system for reviewing changes in current session
• Add reference system for previous changes in current session