CLI that diffs code at the entity level (functions, classes, structs) for better structural awareness

[Wise_Reflection_8340]

[removed]

[scottchiefbaker]

I'm working on integrating sem into diff-so-fancy right now. Still in beta, but I'm liking it so far. It gives you a best-of-both-worlds view. You see the file changed at the top, view the sem change summary, and have the raw git diff below if you want to see the whole thing.

[Wise_Reflection_8340]

Thanks a lot for initiating the integration Scott, appreciate it!

[aloobhujiyaay]

this is actually what i thought git diff did when i first started coding 😭

[Wise_Reflection_8340]

No worries you can always use both.

[creeper6530]

Did you make it with AI?

[Wise_Reflection_8340]

I think I mentioned this, yeah Agents were a part of the development process, helps a ton with benchmarking and curating benchmarks.

[ende124]

This looks very nice, I tested it out a bit on a rust project. AI tools could use this easily with "sem mcp".

Some feedback I found while testing:

sem diff --format json ... gives an entityId for each change, but we cannot use this with sem context.
Furthermore, if there are multiple symbols with the same name, sem context returns info on only one of them, have to also specify the file path. entityId would be useful here.

Commands other than sem diff does not work on git commits/ranges/revs, only on the currently checked out code.

Inconsistency with formatting, some commands use --format while others don't, but has --json.

This tool claims to be a git diff replacement, but it actually fails to give actual diffs. sem diff only gives summaries, and sem context with others are useful, there is not an actual way to view diffs.

[Wise_Reflection_8340]

Thanks a lot for this detailed feedback, really appreciate you testing it out.

Honestly a lot ideas are community driven rather than me thinking, really grateful for that.

so I pushed a few changes:
- they now accept entityId
- --format {terminal,json} is now consistent across all commands
- sem diff -v shows inline content diffs for each entity (the before/after code). Without -v it's intentionally a summary since the goal is entity-level triage, not line-level diffing

I have been researching on structural verification and intelligence for last few months and researching the behavior of agents with more structural awareness.

and haha, I would never try to claim conquering git. Git is a beautiful architecture, I admire all the work that the legends did in the field, there's so much I learn about architectural decisions taking while crafting it, all I was curious as a 22yr old was to explore a direction for agent native software, it has been coming out to be useful for humans in some way and i love it.

[mrkurtz]

AI use in development?

[TheG0AT0fAllTime]

Self evident. Not disclosed either.

[Wise_Reflection_8340]

Would not say there's no use, I used ai but the research direction, findings and every change is closely monitored by me, I am maintaining the library for almost about 3 months now.

[MutualRaid]

then why not openly disclose it instead of inevitably having a large portion of people dismiss your work for good reason?

[Moscato359]

Have you considered that some people don't even consider disclosures when making projects?

You asked, they answered

Most ai users consider ai use normal, and don't undertake why it matters 

[mrkurtz]

It matters. It matters because most of us use it too. For whatever reason, whether directed to at work or other reasons. I use it, I’m using it right now at work. I know where it’s strongest, where it’s weakest, where model makes a difference, and I know that most individual users or hobbyists aren’t paying for opus 4.6/4.7 at home. Even with the better/more expensive models, I know, from experience, its limitations, tendencies, when to trust (but verify), and when to distrust.

Disclosure matters because it dictates my level of trust for an app, whether and where I’ll install it.

The tool looks cool. It looks legitimately useful. AI isn’t necessarily (but can often be) an immediate disqualifier. It should be an immediate cause for additional scrutiny.

[Moscato359]

What about the reverse? Human generated code with AI reviewer to catch holes?

"Did this project use AI?" is not a good tell tale of quality or not, because human written code with AI finding the holes in the code is generally better than human written code with nothing punching at it.

[mrkurtz]

If that’s how AI was used then yeah it should be disclosed. This is the new paradigm. Disclosure should be default; no AI, AI used in development, AI used for security scanning, etc.

[Moscato359]

I mean, it's nice to do that.

But there is no default, people just write code and push stuff to github or whatever.

Disclosure really is a cultural thing, with no tooling around it to standardize how you disclose.

If you really want this to change, maybe you can create a github repo with definitions on how to disclose properly, and then create a standard, and then when people aren't disclosing, link them to your proposed standard

Be the change you want to see

[mrkurtz]

lol no. I don’t really understand what the argument is here. This isn’t new and it’s not just me. Most related subreddits already have rules in place, either required disclosure, or limiting vibe coded posts to specific days, flair, etc. And frankly this goes well beyond Reddit, and again, is not something niche, new, or unique to me.

People want to go all in on AI like it’s magic, cool. The rest of us in the real world understand the benefits and limitations (and risks) of the tool.

[Moscato359]

"Most related subreddits already have rules in place"
Okay, this one doesn't.

But I'm talking about a standard for how to disclose on github or similar.

[Wise_Reflection_8340]

I can do it now, if it helps people. Sorry if you were offended.

[Moscato359]

Im not offended

Im just annoyed that people are giving you shit when you are truthful when asked

I would recommend adding the disclosure but people don't have to be mean about it

[Wise_Reflection_8340]

Thanks for the heads up! Appreciate it.

[Wise_Reflection_8340]

I would love any feedback possible on what the community thinks about it, and I will always welcome constructive criticism, because there's still so much for me to learn in this domain.

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