DiffView

A developer-focused toolkit for checking, validating, generating, formatting, linting, explaining, converting, templating, diffing, previewing, fixing, and reporting on code and text artifacts — all from the command line with full history tracking.

Commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | diffview check <input> | Record and review check entries (run without args to see recent) | | diffview validate <input> | Record and review validation entries | | diffview generate <input> | Record and review generation entries | | diffview format <input> | Record and review formatting entries | | diffview lint <input> | Record and review lint entries | | diffview explain <input> | Record and review explanation entries | | diffview convert <input> | Record and review conversion entries | | diffview template <input> | Record and review template entries | | diffview diff <input> | Record and review diff entries | | diffview preview <input> | Record and review preview entries | | diffview fix <input> | Record and review fix entries | | diffview report <input> | Record and review report entries | | diffview stats | Show summary statistics across all log files | | diffview export <fmt> | Export all data in JSON, CSV, or TXT format | | diffview search <term> | Search across all logged entries | | diffview recent | Show the 20 most recent activity entries | | diffview status | Health check — version, data dir, entry count, disk usage | | diffview help | Show usage info and all available commands | | diffview version | Print version string |

Each data command (check, validate, generate, etc.) works in two modes:

With arguments: Logs the input with a timestamp and saves to the corresponding .log file
Without arguments: Displays the 20 most recent entries from that command's log

Data Storage

All data is stored locally in ~/.local/share/diffview/. Each command writes to its own log file (e.g., check.log, lint.log, diff.log). A unified history.log tracks all activity across commands with timestamps.

Log format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM|<input>
History format: MM-DD HH:MM <command>: <input>
No external database or network access required

Requirements

Bash 4+ (uses set -euo pipefail)
Standard POSIX utilities: date, wc, du, head, tail, grep, basename, cat
No root privileges needed
No API keys or external dependencies

When to Use

Tracking code review notes — Use diffview check or diffview report to log observations during code reviews, creating a searchable history of what you've inspected
Recording lint and format decisions — Use diffview lint and diffview format to keep a timestamped record of linting results or formatting choices across sessions
Building a diff journal — Use diffview diff to log file comparison notes over time, then diffview search to find specific changes later
Generating exportable audit trails — Use diffview export json to produce a structured JSON file of all logged activity for compliance or reporting purposes
Quick project health checks — Run diffview status and diffview stats to see how much data has been collected, disk usage, and last activity time at a glance

Examples

Log a check entry and review history

# Record a check
diffview check "Reviewed auth module for SQL injection"

# View recent check entries
diffview check

Use lint and format tracking

# Log a lint finding
diffview lint "ESLint: no-unused-vars in utils.js line 42"

# Log a format action
diffview format "Ran prettier on src/ directory"

# Search across all entries
diffview search "utils.js"

Export data for reporting

# Export everything as JSON
diffview export json

# Export as CSV for spreadsheet import
diffview export csv

# Export as plain text
diffview export txt

View statistics and status

# Summary stats across all log files
diffview stats

# Health check
diffview status

# Recent activity (last 20 entries)
diffview recent

Diff and explain workflow

# Log a diff observation
diffview diff "config.yaml changed: added redis cache block"

# Log an explanation
diffview explain "Redis cache added to reduce DB load on /api/users"

# Generate a report entry
diffview report "Sprint 12 review: 3 config changes, 1 new service"

How It Works

DiffView uses a simple case-dispatch architecture in a single Bash script. Each command maps to a log file under ~/.local/share/diffview/. When called with arguments, the input is appended with a timestamp. When called without arguments, the last 20 lines of that log are displayed. The stats command aggregates counts across all logs, export serializes everything into your chosen format, and search greps across all log files for a given term.

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