docx-review

CLI tool for Word document review: tracked changes, comments, read, diff, and git integration. Built on Microsoft's Open XML SDK — 100% compatible tracked changes and comments.

Install

brew tap drpedapati/tap
brew install sciclaw-docx-review

Binary: /opt/homebrew/bin/docx-review (12MB, self-contained, no runtime)

Verify: docx-review --version

Workflow Choice (Critical)

Creating a NEW manuscript/docx with clean output

Use pandoc from Markdown, not docx-review edit manifests:

pandoc manuscript.md -o manuscript.docx

sciClaw auto-applies its bundled NIH reference template for DOCX output unless --reference-doc is provided.

Editing an EXISTING document with visible review markup

Use docx-review when tracked changes/comments are explicitly desired:

docx-review input.docx edits.json -o reviewed.docx --json

Anti-pattern to avoid

Do not use docx-review placeholder replacement manifests to create first-draft manuscripts. That workflow intentionally produces tracked changes and can make a fresh document appear as a markup-heavy revision file.

Modes

Edit: Apply tracked changes and comments

Takes a .docx + JSON manifest, produces a reviewed .docx with proper OOXML markup.

docx-review input.docx edits.json -o reviewed.docx
docx-review input.docx edits.json -o reviewed.docx --json    # structured output
docx-review input.docx edits.json --dry-run --json           # validate without modifying
cat edits.json | docx-review input.docx -o reviewed.docx     # stdin pipe
docx-review input.docx edits.json -o reviewed.docx --author "Dr. Smith"

Read: Extract document content as JSON

docx-review input.docx --read --json

Returns: paragraphs (with styles), tracked changes (type/text/author/date), comments (anchor text/content/author), metadata (title/author/word count/revision), and summary statistics.

Diff: Semantic comparison of two documents

docx-review --diff old.docx new.docx
docx-review --diff old.docx new.docx --json

Detects: text changes (word-level), formatting (bold/italic/font/color), comment modifications, tracked change differences, metadata changes, structural additions/removals.

Git: Textconv driver for meaningful Word diffs

docx-review --textconv document.docx    # normalized text output
docx-review --git-setup                 # print .gitattributes/.gitconfig instructions

JSON Manifest Format

This is the edit contract. Build this JSON, pass it to docx-review.

{
  "author": "Reviewer Name",
  "changes": [
    { "type": "replace", "find": "exact text in document", "replace": "new text" },
    { "type": "delete", "find": "exact text to delete" },
    { "type": "insert_after", "anchor": "exact anchor text", "text": "text to insert after" },
    { "type": "insert_before", "anchor": "exact anchor text", "text": "text to insert before" }
  ],
  "comments": [
    { "anchor": "exact text to attach comment to", "text": "Comment content" }
  ]
}

Change types

Type	Fields	Result in Word
replace	find, replace	Red strikethrough old + blue new text
delete	find	Red strikethrough
insert_after	anchor, text	Blue inserted text after anchor
insert_before	anchor, text	Blue inserted text before anchor

Critical rules for find and anchor text

1. Must be exact copy-paste from the document. The tool does ordinal string matching.
2. Include enough context for uniqueness — 15+ words when the phrase is common.
3. First occurrence wins. The tool replaces/anchors at the first match only.
4. Use --dry-run --json to validate all matches before applying.

JSON Output (--json)

{
  "input": "paper.docx",
  "output": "paper_reviewed.docx",
  "author": "Dr. Smith",
  "changes_attempted": 5,
  "changes_succeeded": 5,
  "comments_attempted": 3,
  "comments_succeeded": 3,
  "success": true,
  "results": [
    { "index": 0, "type": "comment", "success": true, "message": "Comment added" },
    { "index": 0, "type": "replace", "success": true, "message": "Replaced" }
  ]
}

Exit code 0 = all succeeded. Exit code 1 = at least one failed (partial success possible).

Workflow: AI-Assisted Document Revision

Standard pattern for using docx-review with AI-generated edits:

Step 1: Extract text

docx-review manuscript.docx --read --json > doc_content.json

Or use pandoc for markdown extraction:

pandoc manuscript.docx -t markdown -o manuscript.md

Step 2: Generate the manifest

Feed the extracted text + instructions to the AI. Request output as a docx-review JSON manifest.

Use this system context when prompting for manifest generation:

Generate a JSON edit manifest for docx-review. Output format:
{
  "author": "...",
  "changes": [{"type": "replace|delete|insert_after|insert_before", ...}],
  "comments": [{"anchor": "...", "text": "..."}]
}
CRITICAL: "find" and "anchor" values must be EXACT text from the document.
Include 15+ words of surrounding context for uniqueness. First match wins.

Step 3: Validate with dry run

docx-review manuscript.docx manifest.json --dry-run --json

Check for failures. If any edits fail ("success": false), fix the manifest (usually the find/anchor text doesn't match exactly) and retry.

Step 4: Apply

docx-review manuscript.docx manifest.json -o manuscript_reviewed.docx --json

Step 5: Verify (optional)

docx-review manuscript_reviewed.docx --read --json | jq '.summary'
docx-review --diff manuscript.docx manuscript_reviewed.docx

Workflow: Peer Review Response

For addressing reviewer comments on a manuscript:

1. Extract manuscript text (--read --json or pandoc)
2. Build manifest addressing each reviewer point — use replace for text changes, comments to explain changes to the author
3. Dry-run validate
4. Apply edits
5. The output .docx has tracked changes the author can review in Word

Workflow: Proofreading

1. Extract text
2. Generate manifest with grammar/style fixes as replace changes and suggestions as comments
3. Validate + apply
4. Author opens in Word, accepts/rejects each change individually

Workflow: Template Population with Explicit Revision Trail (Advanced)

Only use this workflow when the user explicitly wants visible tracked changes during template population (for audit/review history):

1. Start from a template-backed .docx
2. Read it with --read --json to identify exact placeholders
3. Build a manifest that replaces placeholders with real content
4. Apply with docx-review (tracked insertions/deletions are expected)
5. Review and accept/reject changes in Word

For normal first-draft generation, use pandoc manuscript.md -o manuscript.docx instead.

Key behaviors

• Comments applied first, then tracked changes. Ensures anchors resolve before XML is modified.
• Formatting preserved. RunProperties cloned from source runs onto both deleted and inserted text.
• Multi-run text matching. Text spanning multiple XML <w:r> elements (common in previously edited documents) is found and handled correctly.
• Everything untouched is preserved. Images, charts, bibliographies, footnotes, cross-references, styles, headers/footers survive intact.

Read mode output structure

For programmatic processing of --read --json output, see skill/references/read-schema.md.

Companion tools

The Open XML SDK ecosystem:

Tool	Install	Purpose
pptx-review	brew install drpedapati/tools/pptx-review	PowerPoint read/edit
xlsx-review	brew install drpedapati/tools/xlsx-review	Excel read/edit

Same architecture: .NET 8, Open XML SDK, single binary, JSON in/out.