Latex Diff

LaTeX Diff

> Compare two versions of a LaTeX document and report what actually changed — > text, equations, citations, labels/refs, section titles, macros, environments, > file add/remove, and moves — each graded by severity. Wraps the latexdiff-agent > CLI (packages/latex-diff). Member of the latex-* source/build family.

When to Use

• "What changed between these two versions of the paper?"
• Building an R&R "summary of changes" or a preprint vN→vN+1 changelog
• Focusing a re-review on the changes that matter (semantic-impact only)
• Sanity-checking a co-author's edits before merging

When NOT to Use

• Compiling a document → /latex
• Prose quality / proofreading → /proofread
• A raw line diff is enough → git diff (this skill is LaTeX-aware: it knows a

changed \cite key from a reflowed paragraph)

What it produces

Two views from the same canonical diff:

1. Human summary — grouped by file and section, every line carrying a change

id, a severity badge, and a file:line location.

1. Machine-readable JSON — severity-graded ChangeRecords. `semantic_impact:

true` flags the changes a reviewer should actually read.

Severity ladder: `trivial : > /tmp/ld-old.tex git show : > /tmp/ld-new.tex # omit for working tree latexdiff-agent /tmp/ld-old.tex /tmp/ld-new.tex --summary -

Whole project across revisions (multi-file):

```bash
git worktree add /tmp/ld-old 
git worktree add /tmp/ld-new 
latexdiff-agent /tmp/ld-old/ /tmp/ld-new/ --summary - --compact --semantic-only
git worktree remove /tmp/ld-old && git worktree remove /tmp/ld-new

> Resolve revisions with git log --oneline -- when the user names a > round ("since submission", "v1") rather than a SHA. If ambiguous, ask.

2. Run the diff

Get both views in one pass — the human summary to read aloud, and the semantic-only JSON to reason over:

latexdiff-agent   --summary -                 # human view
latexdiff-agent   --compact --semantic-only   # the changes that matter

Useful filters (compose freely): --min-severity high, --type citation, --section Methods, --file sections/intro.tex. Add --json diff.json / --summary summary.md to save artefacts when the user asks.

3. Report

1. Lead with the summary line: total changes, semantic-impact count, impact score.
2. List the semantic-impact changes grouped by section, each with its

file:line, type, and severity. These are the ones worth attention.

1. Note (don't dump) the trivial/formatting/move changes as a count.
2. If the user wanted a changelog or response-letter "summary of changes", phrase

the semantic changes as prose bullets — but do not edit the manuscript (rules/manuscript-edit-budget.md); hand the bullets back for them to place.

Cross-References

| Skill | Relationship | |-------|-------------| | /latex | Compiles documents; this skill compares versions of them | | /strategic-revision | Consumes this to auto-draft the R&R "summary of changes" | | /preprint | Consumes this for a vN→vN+1 changelog on version bump | | paper-critic / referee2-reviewer | Can take --semantic-only JSON to focus a re-review on what changed | | packages/latex-diff/README.md | Full CLI flags, schema, and design notes |

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: flonat
• Source: flonat/flonat-research
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.