lix

Diffs

Lix diffs rows, not lines.

Plugins parse a file into rows: a CSV record, a spreadsheet cell, a Markdown block. Lix stores every change as a row in lix_change. A diff is therefore a set of changed rows. It names the row that changed and gives its new value.

That is the whole idea.

Example

An agent edits /orders.csv and sets order 1002 to shipped.

Before:

| order_id | product  | status  |
| -------- | -------- | ------- |
| 1001     | Widget A | shipped |
| 1002     | Widget B | pending |

After:

| order_id | product  | status  |
| -------- | -------- | ------- |
| 1001     | Widget A | shipped |
| 1002     | Widget B | shipped |

A text diff sees a line:

-1002,Widget B,pending
+1002,Widget B,shipped

Lix sees a row:

row_refschema_keysnapshot_content
lix_row_ref:v1:…csv_row{"id": "0192f3a1-…-7b2c", "order_key": "…", "cells": ["1002", "Widget B", "shipped"]}

The CSV plugin gives each record a stable id, so the row keeps its identity even when the file is reordered. cells holds the decoded record. One cell changed, and your app renders that:

order_id 1002 status:

- pending
+ shipped

Granularity comes from plugins

A plugin decides what a row is for its format. The Markdown plugin emits blocks, the CSV plugin emits records. Both ship with the JavaScript SDK. Other formats need a plugin you install yourself. Without one, Lix still tracks the file but does not split it into rows, so its diff is the whole file.

A plugin maps /orders.csv to SQL rows with row, field, and value columns

Application data that never touches a file works the same way. Register a schema and its rows diff like any other row.

What this buys you

  • Review the record, field, or paragraph that changed, not a patch hunk.
  • Query diffs by schema, file, row, branch, or time.
  • Revert one field without reverting the file.
  • Merge concurrent edits to different rows of the same file without a conflict.

Query it

Which rows of /orders.csv changed, most recent first?

SELECT
  f.path,
  c.created_at,
  c.snapshot_content
FROM lix_change AS c
JOIN lix_file AS f
  ON f.id = c.file_id
WHERE c.schema_key = 'csv_row'
  AND f.path = '/orders.csv'
ORDER BY c.created_at DESC;

Learn more

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