A tiny spider crawls over every diff Claude Code writes and marks the changed words.
Whenever Claude runs Edit or Write, diffspider replaces the plain diff with its own view.
A braille spider walks in from the left, steps from word to word on the added lines, and every
word a foot lands on lights up. When it is done it leaves to the right and the marks stay.
After the crawl:
Type this at the Claude Code prompt:
/plugin install diffspider --marketplace Silvertree2010/diffspider
Answer y to add the marketplace and press Enter to install it for your user. It is active right away, no restart needed.
- Terminal only. Other surfaces (desktop, VS Code) keep the normal diff.
- Collapsed tool groups unfold while a spider is crawling and fold back when it is done.
- Diffs show up to 250 lines.
- Edits from earlier turns skip the animation and show the final marks.
- Built on the Claude Code function hooks API, which is still in early access and may change between releases.
| File | Job |
|---|---|
hooks/diff.ts |
turns the tool result into numbered diff lines |
hooks/grid.ts |
lays out the text cells and picks the words to visit |
hooks/spider.ts |
body path, gait and steps |
hooks/paint.ts |
two-bone IK legs and braille body, packed into a Raster |
hooks/register.tsx |
the hooks: tool.call, ui.render for ToolUse and ToolGroup |
Each leg has a resting spot next to the body. A foot stays planted until it drifts too far from that spot, then it steps ahead. The legs move in two alternating groups, so four feet are always on the ground.
diffspider ships one function hook module, hooks/register.tsx, declared in hooks/hooks.json. Claude Code loads it in-process. It only draws: it reads the diff of the current Edit or Write row and renders the spider over it. It has no MCP servers, commands, skills or agents, and it does not run shell commands. It works in the Claude Code terminal only, not on claude.ai or in Cowork.
diffspider collects no data. It makes no network requests, writes nothing to disk, keeps no state between sessions and has no telemetry. The only thing it reads is the diff Claude Code is already showing you, and that never leaves your machine.
claude --plugin-dir ./diffspider
claude plugin validate ./diffspider
claude plugin test ./diffspider