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introducing diffmap: a new document format for planning and reviewing agent code. The idea behind diffmap is letting you review the important design changes, not massive line diffs. "Write a diffmap spec for the changes on this branch. Use I've been working and iterating on this skill for more...

50,674 views • 5 days ago •via X (Twitter)

35 Comments

Tanishq (tk)'s profile picture
Tanishq (tk)5 days ago

diffmap gives your agent a ton of interactive diagrams and widgets to help collaboratively plan and review with you. one example is a services diagram. it shows you different involved services, along with state changes and data flow over time

Tanishq (tk)'s profile picture
Tanishq (tk)5 days ago

other ones include mermaid diagram diffs and of course, callstack diffs. the skill includes guidance on when to use each diagram.

Tanishq (tk)'s profile picture
Tanishq (tk)5 days ago

the agent writes the plan in phases. Each phase is meant to be a single commit. after an agent completes a phase, it shows a commit widget, with the most important files ordered. Clicking on a file opens a diff panel (powered by @pierrecomputer ofc!)

Tanishq (tk)'s profile picture
Tanishq (tk)5 days ago

You're also able to add comments to the diffmap and copy it for your agent

Tanishq (tk)'s profile picture
Tanishq (tk)5 days ago

Diffmap is open-source and MIT licensed! Check it out

joel's profile picture
joel4 days ago

looks interesting! a few thoughts on the video - we don’t find out what it actually is until about half way through. from the first frame i already knew what you were trying to address (by having skimmed the post). i would deliver the before and after payoff right away. the other alternative is to come up with a really good hook but then you have to keep attention for every second up to the reveal

Tanishq (tk)'s profile picture
Tanishq (tk)4 days ago

yeah i had the same thought, agreed! will have to show payoff faster

Jake Jillen's profile picture
Jake Jillen4 days ago

Good stuff. The psuedo code with links to actual implementation is the best part I think. I used it immediately to try to understand the repo itself and it did a great job. Nicely done.

Tanishq (tk)'s profile picture
Tanishq (tk)4 days ago

glad to hear! Lmk if you have any feedback

Neesh 🥭's profile picture
Neesh 🥭5 days ago

this is so sick

Morteza Hosseini's profile picture
Morteza Hosseini4 days ago

Nice idea

Pierrick Bignet's profile picture
Pierrick Bignet4 days ago

Excellent! Been using crit.md which has similar goal. Those tools are the key to unlock productivity.

José Miguel Arroyo's profile picture
José Miguel Arroyo4 days ago

Nice! I was wondering if you'd release it since last time I saw you talk about it. 👏

Tanishq (tk)'s profile picture
Tanishq (tk)4 days ago

yes it took a long time to dial in and until I was happy with it. Still a WIP honestly, but I use it every day so that was a good enough bar

Luke Igel's profile picture
Luke Igel4 days ago

Amazing Tanisqh!

Rictus 🍥❁'s profile picture
Rictus 🍥❁4 days ago

Tried it on few PRs, great execution!

Antonio Bonet's profile picture
Antonio Bonet4 days ago

This is really cool

Tanishq (tk)'s profile picture
Tanishq (tk)4 days ago

thanks! would love some feedback

Antonio Bonet's profile picture
Antonio Bonet4 days ago

Will see about trying it soon

Arshith varma's profile picture
Arshith varma4 days ago

This is crazy, I was working on the same idea and I was calling it replay.

Ivan Santos's profile picture
Ivan Santos4 days ago

This is awesome!

Doug Tabuchi's profile picture
Doug Tabuchi4 days ago

@bot save to my vault to check out

Calvin Cheng's profile picture
Calvin Cheng4 days ago

can you view this on mobile?

male manipulator (reformed)'s profile picture
male manipulator (reformed)4 days ago

What do you use to make sure the map lines up with what’s in the code? Programmatic tools that check some of the mapping between the two would make it a lot easier to trust the info. (As long as it’s clear what precisely is verified by the tools, and what we’re taking on trust)

Tanishq (tk)'s profile picture
Tanishq (tk)4 days ago

the diff panels are real code lines. everything else is written by the agent. the agent can reference the code lines in the diagrams, so you can audit whats in the diagram matches up with whats in the code, but realistically that’s not an issue

Mathew Chan's profile picture
Mathew Chan4 days ago

This is sweet! gonna try this.

Tanishq (tk)'s profile picture
Tanishq (tk)4 days ago

lmk if you try it and have feedback!

Asmir's profile picture
Asmir4 days ago

this would be so good with a validator that checks every callstack node points at an actual changed hunk and flags files in the diff that no node covers lol

Tanishq (tk)'s profile picture
Tanishq (tk)4 days ago

yes have thought about this! decided it was easier product ux to show a commit summary when implemented. but very interesting concept, just didnt know how to surface cleanly

Mark Maglana's profile picture
Mark Maglana4 days ago

Is the sharing feature being implemented via github gist a temporary thing? Would feel safer if it was something more restrictive.

Tanishq (tk)'s profile picture
Tanishq (tk)4 days ago

agreed! yeah its temporary, ill implement something better if more people want it

Daniel Lenton's profile picture
Daniel Lenton4 days ago

Does the ✅ version of a phase usually look much like the plan? That gap feels like the bit most worth reviewing

Tanishq (tk)'s profile picture
Tanishq (tk)4 days ago

basically, the plan is composed of phases (commit-length work). You review the plan, and (my preferred way of working) is going phase by phase, but you can also just decide to build the whole thing in one shot

Ricardo Vázquez's profile picture
Ricardo Vázquez4 days ago

cc @karrisaarinen ☝️

Tanishq (tk)'s profile picture
Tanishq (tk)4 days ago

@karrisaarinen oh yeah saw their recent launch! Need to dig into it more

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