@pi-archimedes/diff

See what changed. Not just that something changed.

Raw text diffs make it easy to miss the one line that matters. Diff puts Shiki-syntax-highlighted changes in front of you — side by side when there's room, unified when there isn't — with word-level emphasis on the parts that actually moved inside each line.

Install

Standalone:

pi install npm:@pi-archimedes/diff

Or the full suite instead:

pi install npm:pi-archimedes

New to Pi? Pi itself is a one-time global install and needs Node.js ≥ 22.19.0:

npm install -g --ignore-scripts @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent

After installing Pi, choose one installation command above, then cd into your project and run pi. Inside the session, /login signs you in and /model picks a model — the setup section walks through the first run. A running session picks the diff renderer up with /reload.

What you get

• Split view, and unified when it isn't — side-by-side diffs when the terminal is wide enough; a traditional unified view when it isn't. The choice is made automatically from the column width.
• Syntax highlighting — language-aware colouring of the diff body, from a Shiki theme.
• Word-level emphasis — sub-line highlighting that shows exactly which tokens changed inside an otherwise similar line.
• Graceful fallback — when Shiki is unavailable or the format isn't recognised, the change is shown as a plain text diff.

What it does (and doesn't) do

The renderer displays edit and write tool changes in the tool UI, including call previews. It is not an approval gate — it helps you read changes as they happen; it doesn't hold changes back.

Appearance

Standalone, the renderer runs on fixed defaults — the github-dark theme, a 150-column minimum for split view, and 60 code columns per side — and it does not read settings, because standalone has no config reader. In the suite, its archimedes.diff namespace supplies the same three values (diffTheme, diffSplitMinWidth, diffSplitMinCodeWidth) through the suite's config reader:

Setting	Type	Default	Description
diffTheme	string	github-dark	Shiki syntax-highlighting theme
diffSplitMinWidth	number	150	Minimum terminal columns for split view (≥ 100)
diffSplitMinCodeWidth	number	60	Minimum code columns per side in split view (≥ 30)

The palette is derived from the chosen Shiki theme; it does not automatically pick up Pi's active theme colours. If you want a different look, pick a closer theme rather than expecting a live match.

On/off is managed by the suite: toggle via /plugins (archimedes.diff.enabled, default on).

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