Edit formats

Edit formats

Aider uses various "edit formats" to let LLMs edit source files. Different models work better or worse with different edit formats. Aider is configured to use the optimal format for most popular, common models. You can always force use of a specific edit format with the --edit-format switch.

whole

The "whole" edit format is the simplest possible editing format. The LLM is instructed to return a full, updated copy of each source file that needs changes. While simple, it can be slow and costly because the LLM has to return the entire file even if just a few lines are edited.

The whole format expects the file path just before the fenced file content:

show_greeting.py
```
import sys

def greeting(name):
    print("Hey", name)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    greeting(sys.argv[1])
```

diff

The "diff" edit format asks the LLM to specify file edits as a series of search/replace blocks. This is an efficient format, because the model only needs to return parts of the file which have changes.

Edits are formatted using a syntax similar to the git merge conflict resolution markings, with the file path right before a fenced block:

mathweb/flask/app.py
```
<<<<<<< SEARCH
from flask import Flask
=======
import math
from flask import Flask
>>>>>>> REPLACE
```

diff-fenced

The "diff-fenced" edit format is based on the diff format, but the file path is placed inside the fence. It is primarily used with the Gemini family of models, which often fail to conform to the fencing approach specified in the diff format.

```
mathweb/flask/app.py
<<<<<<< SEARCH
from flask import Flask
=======
import math
from flask import Flask
>>>>>>> REPLACE
```

udiff

The "udiff" edit format is based on the widely used unified diff format, but modified and simplified. This is an efficient format, because the model only needs to return parts of the file which have changes.

It was mainly used to the GPT-4 Turbo family of models, because it reduced their "lazy coding" tendencies. With other edit formats the GPT-4 Turbo models tended to elide large sections of code and replace them with "# ... original code here ..." style comments.

```diff
--- mathweb/flask/app.py
+++ mathweb/flask/app.py
@@ ... @@
-class MathWeb:
+import sympy
+
+class MathWeb:
```

editor-diff and editor-whole

These are streamlined versions of the diff and whole formats, intended to be used with --editor-edit-format when using architect mode. The actual edit format is the same, but aider uses a simpler prompt that is more narrowly focused on just editing the file as opposed to solving the coding task. The architect model resolves the coding task and provides plain text instructions about which file changes need to be made. The editor interprets those instructions to produce the syntactically correct diff or whole edits.