Annotate Git diff with explanation generated by AI for easier reviews

A new open-source Git diff filter uses Claude AI to annotate every changed line with a one-sentence explanation inline in the terminal, helping developers understand code changes during interactive staging. The tool integrates with `git add -p` and can be installed via a script or manual setup, supporting models like Haiku and Sonnet for speed or quality.

A Git diff filter that uses Claude AI to annotate every changed line with a concise, one-sentence explanation — inline, right in your terminal. - return user.age = 18; + return user.age = 21; <-- 🤖 Raised the legal age threshold from 18 to 21 Designed to work seamlessly with git add -p interactive staging , so you understand exactly what each hunk does before you stage it. AI coding tools Copilot, Cursor, Claude are fast — but they generate code you didn't write and may not fully understand. When you run git add -p to selectively stage that output, it's easy to rubber-stamp hunks you only half-read. This filter puts a second AI in the loop at exactly that moment. Before you decide to stage a hunk, every changed line already has a plain-English explanation attached to it — what changed, and why it matters. You stay in control without having to context-switch to read the diff cold. It's also useful outside AI workflows: reviewing a colleague's PR locally, digging into an unfamiliar codebase, or just double-checking your own changes before a commit. The script reads a Git diff stream from stdin, strips ANSI color codes so Claude can parse the raw text, sends the numbered diff to Claude via the claude CLI , and weaves the AI-generated explanations back into the original colored output — appended inline to each changed line. Claude Code CLI https://claude.ai/code — must be installed and authenticated claude available in your PATH bash v3.2+ perl for ANSI stripping awk for line weaving All three shell tools are pre-installed on macOS and most Linux distributions. curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kooskoos20/git-diff-ai-explainer-interactive-filter/main/install.sh | bash Clone the repo git clone https://github.com/kooskoos20/git-diff-ai-explainer-interactive-filter.git cd git-diff-ai-explainer-interactive-filter Run the installer bash install.sh Or install just the script to your PATH: chmod +x git-diff-ai-explainer-interactive-filter sudo cp git-diff-ai-explainer-interactive-filter /usr/local/bin/ Configure Git to run the filter automatically whenever you use interactive staging: git config --global interactive.diffFilter git-diff-ai-explainer-interactive-filter Now every git add -p session will show AI annotations inline as you step through hunks. Git passes the diff with colors already intact, so no extra flags are needed. To apply it to a single repo only, omit --global . Git disables colors when stdout is a pipe, so pass --color=always to preserve them: git diff --color=always | git-diff-ai-explainer-interactive-filter git diff --color=always HEAD~1 | git-diff-ai-explainer-interactive-filter git show --color=always abc1234 | git-diff-ai-explainer-interactive-filter Useful aliases to add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc : alias gda='git diff --color=always | git-diff-ai-explainer-interactive-filter | less -R' alias gdca='git diff --cached --color=always | git-diff-ai-explainer-interactive-filter | less -R' The script uses Claude's haiku model by default for speed and cost efficiency. To change the model, edit line 34 in the script: Default fast, cheap CLAUDE OUT=$ echo "$CLAUDE PROMPT" | claude --model haiku Higher quality explanations CLAUDE OUT=$ echo "$CLAUDE PROMPT" | claude --model sonnet rm /usr/local/bin/git-diff-ai-explainer-interactive-filter If you configured the interactive diff filter, remove it: git config --global --unset interactive.diffFilter Contributions are welcome See CONTRIBUTING.md /kooskoos20/git-diff-ai-explainer-interactive-filter/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.