Text diff

Line-by-line diff of two texts (LCS). Send POST /api/text-diff with the required fields a and b and pay $0.001 per call over x402 or MPP, or call it free by solving a proof-of-work challenge. It returns a JSON object with added, removed, unchanged and diff.

Returns unified-style ops and change counts. Up to 2000 lines per side.

Category: Text processing · Tags: diff compare text

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Parameters

Example request

curl -i -X POST https://agent402.tools/api/text-diff \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"a":"line1\nline2","b":"line1\nline2 changed"}'

Without payment this returns HTTP 402 Payment Required with the exact price for text-diff; any x402 v2 or MPP client pays it and retries.

Example response

{
  "added": 1,
  "removed": 1,
  "unchanged": 1,
  "diff": [
    {
      "op": " ",
      "line": "line1"
    },
    {
      "op": "-",
      "line": "line2"
    },
    {
      "op": "+",
      "line": "line2 changed"
    }
  ]
}

From an MCP client

catalog.call {
  "slug": "text-diff",
  "params": {
    "a": "line1\nline2",
    "b": "line1\nline2 changed"
  }
}

On the hosted connector at https://agent402.tools/mcp, catalog.call runs text-diff free (rate-limited, no wallet). Local install: npx -y agent402-mcp.

Errors and behavior

• a and b are required. An input the tool rejects returns an HTTP 4xx whose body carries error, tool, expected, required and example, so the caller can correct it.
• A paid call that ends in any status of 400 or above is not charged over x402, MPP or a prepaid credits key: settlement is cancelled when the tool fails. The exception is a Tempo push credential, a transfer the buyer sent before the call: it settles before the tool runs, so if the tool then fails the payment is recorded as a refund owed to the paying wallet.
• Free tier: no outbound network call leaves the server for this tool, so proof-of-work (16 leading zero bits of sha256) pays for it.
• A GET or HEAD to /api/text-diff returns the same 402 quote, so the price can be read without a body.
• An Idempotency-Key header makes a retried paid call replay the first 200 instead of charging again (an answer larger than 1 MB is not replayed).

Paid call (JavaScript agent)

import { wrapFetchWithPayment } from "@x402/fetch";
import { x402Client } from "@x402/core/client";
import { registerExactEvmScheme } from "@x402/evm/exact/client";
import { privateKeyToAccount } from "viem/accounts";

const client = new x402Client();
client.setSpendControls?.(false); // keep your own spending ceiling in code
registerExactEvmScheme(client, { signer: privateKeyToAccount(KEY) });
const payFetch = wrapFetchWithPayment(fetch, client);

const res = await payFetch("https://agent402.tools/api/text-diff", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    "a": "line1\nline2",
    "b": "line1\nline2 changed"
  }),
});

No wallet? Pay with compute

Fetch a challenge, solve the sha256 puzzle (16 leading zero bits, a fraction of a second of CPU), and resend with the X-Pow-Solution header:

import { createHash } from "node:crypto";
const lz = (b) => { let t = 0; for (const x of b) { if (!x) { t += 8; continue; } t += Math.clz32(x) - 24; break; } return t; };
const c = await (await fetch("https://agent402.tools/api/pow/challenge?slug=text-diff")).json();
let n = 0;
while (lz(createHash("sha256").update(c.challenge + ":" + n).digest()) < c.difficulty) n++;
await fetch("https://agent402.tools/api/text-diff", { method: "POST", headers: { "X-Pow-Solution": c.token + ":" + n, "Content-Type": "application/json" }, body: JSON.stringify({"a":"line1\nline2","b":"line1\nline2 changed"}) });

Part of these workflows

Text diff is one step in these 2 skill packs, each sold as a single call:

• Feed watch - Monitor an RSS/Atom feed in one call: parse the feed, read the top story in full, extract the keywords driving the cycle, and diff the item list against your last run to isolate what's new.
• Markdown to HTML round-trip - Markdown to HTML and back - a round-trip conversion that proves fidelity and gives you both formats from one input.

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