Aider

Work in your repository

Aider helps developers edit code in a local Git repository through conversation. Its documentation also covers configuration files and other text files, so the workflow extends beyond writing a new function.

Connect a model

The DeepSeek guide requires a DeepSeek API key after installing Aider, then starts the tool from your project directory with a selected DeepSeek model. This is an API integration; the guide does not describe signing into the consumer chat instead.

Try a small edit

Suggested exercise: add one small source file and ask for clearer variable names. Aider edits the files in the chat and shows changes. The usage guide recommends adding only files needing edits: too many can confuse the model and consume more tokens. This is a proposed exercise, not our test.

Inspect changes already made

With Git integration and automatic commits enabled, Aider normally commits its edits before you inspect the result. Compare the applied changes against your request with /diff. The Git guide describes /undo as discarding the last change; here, use it only for the latest Aider change with those features enabled. This is not approval before editing or a general rollback. Git integration and automatic commits can be disabled.