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Show HN: Twain, a diff viewer like Meld, but for the age of AI

Developer andunieee released Twain, a GTK 4 diff viewer built as a Meld alternative for reviewing AI-generated code changes, available as a binary, Flatpak bundle, or via `cargo install --git https://github.com/andunieee/twain`. Twain shows all files from a Git diff sequentially in one view with a fast file tree, tree-sitter-based syntax highlighting, full-file or changed-only display with granular revealing of unchanged parts, and full-diff search, and it lets users comment on sets of changes and lines that AI agents can read and extend from a CLI via `twain comment --help`. Unlike Meld, Twain lacks merge, three-way comparisons, support for other version control systems, and direct file editing.

read1 min views1 publishedOct 17, 2026
Show HN: Twain, a diff viewer like Meld, but for the age of AI
Image: Michielbdejong (auto-discovered)

A diff viewer for people who love Meld, but wanted it to be slightly different.

Things that are like Meld:

  • intuitive and nice view of what changed to what, what was removed from where and added where;
  • scrolling minimaps of changes;
  • git support;
  • fast.

Things we have that Meld doesn't:

  • all files from a Git diff shown in the same view, sequentially;
  • a file tree on the side, super fast;
  • show either the full files or only the parts that changed, with granular revealing of the unchanged parts;
  • tree-sitter-based syntax highlighting;
  • the ability to comment on sets of changes and lines, and AIs can read these comments and add more from a CLI, like Hunk;
  • the ability to search through the entire set of modified files.

Thins Meld has that we don't:

  • merge;
  • three-way comparisons;
  • support for other version control systems;
  • ability to edit the files directly.

Run twain in your project's directory. It can also compare other Git revisions, but that doesn't matter much for now.

Select lines and press C or right-click the mouse to leave a comment on them.

Tell your AI agent to look into twain comment --help so it can participate.

Download a binary or a Flatpak bundle from the latest release or build from source (needs GTK 4, GtkSourceView 5 and libadwaita):

cargo install --git https://github.com/andunieee/twain
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