texchanges

texchanges is a LaTeX-native track-changes protocol for Overleaf, human reviewers, and AI agents. It keeps changes in plain text, renders Word-like review markup, and resolves the same source into accepted or original output.

Compared to the changes package, texchanges adds review decisions (pending/accepted/rejected), three document modes from one source, filterable change reports, and a merge CLI that resolves the markup back into clean LaTeX, plus an opt-in changes compatibility layer for migration. Compared to raw latexdiff, the markup is part of the source, so decisions survive revisions; a bundled latexmkrc still gives you automatic word-level diffs when you want them.

Explicit review	Automatic latexdiff
Keep authors, IDs, decisions, comments, and reports in one source file. Open the example or view the walkthrough.	Compare two complete revisions with word-level latexdiff. Open the example or view the walkthrough.

Installation

Texchanges is on CTAN and distributed through TeX Live:

tlmgr install texchanges

Then load it normally:

\usepackage[review]{texchanges}

For Overleaf projects whose TeX Live version does not include Texchanges, upload texchanges.sty beside the main document. The unified texchanges-overleaf.zip bundle (attached to every GitHub release) includes the package, an explicit review document, automatic comparison files, and latexmkrc. Overleaf updates TeX Live on its own release schedule, so a new CTAN package may take time to appear there.

Quick start

\usepackage[review]{texchanges}

\txreplace{old text}{new text}
\txadd{new text}
\txremove{old text}

Switch review to final to accept pending changes or to original to show the unchanged document.

Structured review

\txdefineauthor[name={Phuc Nguyen},color=orange]{phuc}

\txreplace[
  author=phuc,
  id=R12,
  comment={Clarify this claim.},
  status=pending
]{human-like behavior}{O\&M-aligned behavior}

Change keys are:

• author, a registered author ID.
• id, an optional document-unique change ID.
• comment, an attached reviewer note.
• status, one of pending, accepted, or rejected.

The legacy form \txreplace[Reviewer]{old}{new} remains supported as a visual label. Short aliases \add, \remove, \replace, \highlight, and \comment are installed only when another package has not defined them.

Modes and decisions

Reports

\txlistofchanges
\txlistofchanges[style=summary]
\txlistofchanges[
  style=list,
  title={Open reviewer changes},
  show={added,replaced,commented},
  status={pending},
  author={phuc}
]

Detailed reports need two LaTeX runs. With hyperref, entries link to changes that have an ID. Summary and compact-summary reports group counts by author and change type. Reports are displayed and recorded only in review mode. Report titles, change types, and statuses are localized through babel for English, British, German, French, Italian, and Vietnamese.

Visual customization

Presets are texchanges, default, underlined, bfit, and nocolor.

\usepackage[
  review,
  markup=texchanges,
  addedmarkup=uline,
  deletedmarkup=sout,
  highlightmarkup=background,
  commentmarkup=inline,
  authormarkup=superscript,
  authormarkupposition=right,
  authormarkuptext=id
]{texchanges}

• Added/deleted styles: colored, sout, xout, uline, uuline, uwave, dashuline, dotuline, bf, it, sl, and em where relevant.
• Highlight styles: background, uuline, and uwave.
• Comment styles: inline, todo, margin, footnote, and uwave.
• Author styles: superscript, subscript, brackets, footnote, and none.

Additions, removals, and highlights render in the author's registered color. Replacements deliberately use the fixed removed/added palette so the old and new text stay distinguishable within one change; the author label still carries the author's color.

Runtime hooks such as \txsetaddedmarkup, \txsetcommentmarkup, \txsetauthormarkup, and the width/auxiliary-file setters are documented in the online API reference.

changes compatibility

Compatibility is opt-in because replacement arguments use the opposite order:

\usepackage[review,compat=changes]{texchanges}

\definechangesauthor[name={Phuc Nguyen},color=orange]{phuc}
\replaced[id=phuc,changeid=R12]{new text}{old text}

Use commandnameprefix=none|ifneeded|always for compatibility commands. Native \txreplace always remains old then new.

Resolve source markup

The texchanges-merge CLI can update statuses or permanently merge markup from any working directory after it is installed by TeX Live:

texchanges-merge paper.tex reviewed.tex --accept
texchanges-merge paper.tex final.tex --accept --merge
texchanges-merge paper.tex --reject --id R12 --in-place
texchanges-merge paper.tex --accept --author phuc --dry-run

From a source checkout, use python3 scripts/texchanges-merge.py in place of texchanges-merge. The tool requires Python 3.10 or later and uses only the standard library.

In-place updates create a .bak file. Interactive mode, nested braces, Unicode, comments, and common verbatim-like environments are supported. Malformed input fails before any file is written.

Automatic latexdiff

examples/automatic-diff/ compares texchanges-original.tex and texchanges-revised.tex through Overleaf's latexmkrc mechanism, with texchanges-review.tex as the Main document. It uses word-level matching, so short shared phrases remain unchanged. The same latexmkrc compiles texchanges-explicit-review.tex normally when that document is selected as Main.

Run make dist to build the single dist/texchanges-overleaf.zip upload bundle. Its workflow guide explains both Main-document choices.

Reviewing faster

Keep the cheatsheet open while reviewing, and install the snippets and completion files in editors/ for VS Code or TeXstudio. Overleaf autocompletes the commands on its own. Screen reader and low-vision workflows are covered in accessible reviewing.

Roadmap

The path to 1.0.0 is tracked as a public checklist on the website: roadmap.

Development

make check    # full verification suite (TEST=<name> filters cases)
make example
make doc
make dist
make ctan
make website
make release-check

The suite covers all modes, metadata, reports, styles, compatibility syntax, the CLI, pdfLaTeX, XeLaTeX, LuaLaTeX, and automatic latexdiff. See tests/README.md for how to run and add tests.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for how to land a change, the compatibility rules, and what reviewers look for. Report issues at https://github.com/phucnht/texchanges/issues.

Limitations

• Complex display math, floats, headings, verbatim content, and some commands should be changed at a larger text boundary or reviewed with latexdiff.
• The merge CLI intentionally skips comments and common verbatim-like environments. Custom verbatim environments require manual review.

Maintained by Phuc Nguyen. Released under LPPL 1.3c or later. See LICENSE.