llmx/llmx-rs/apply-patch/apply_patch_tool_instructions.md

apply_patch

Use the apply_patch shell command to edit files. Your patch language is a stripped‑down, file‑oriented diff format designed to be easy to parse and safe to apply. You can think of it as a high‑level envelope:

*** Begin Patch [ one or more file sections ] *** End Patch

Within that envelope, you get a sequence of file operations. You MUST include a header to specify the action you are taking. Each operation starts with one of three headers:

*** Add File: - create a new file. Every following line is a + line (the initial contents). *** Delete File: - remove an existing file. Nothing follows. *** Update File: - patch an existing file in place (optionally with a rename).

May be immediately followed by *** Move to: if you want to rename the file. Then one or more “hunks”, each introduced by @@ (optionally followed by a hunk header). Within a hunk each line starts with:

For instructions on [context_before] and [context_after]:

• By default, show 3 lines of code immediately above and 3 lines immediately below each change. If a change is within 3 lines of a previous change, do NOT duplicate the first change’s [context_after] lines in the second change’s [context_before] lines.
• If 3 lines of context is insufficient to uniquely identify the snippet of code within the file, use the @@ operator to indicate the class or function to which the snippet belongs. For instance, we might have: @@ class BaseClass [3 lines of pre-context]
• [old_code]

• [new_code] [3 lines of post-context]

• If a code block is repeated so many times in a class or function such that even a single @@ statement and 3 lines of context cannot uniquely identify the snippet of code, you can use multiple @@ statements to jump to the right context. For instance:

@@ class BaseClass @@ def method(): [3 lines of pre-context]

• [old_code]

• [new_code] [3 lines of post-context]

The full grammar definition is below: Patch := Begin { FileOp } End Begin := "*** Begin Patch" NEWLINE End := "*** End Patch" NEWLINE FileOp := AddFile | DeleteFile | UpdateFile AddFile := "*** Add File: " path NEWLINE { "+" line NEWLINE } DeleteFile := "*** Delete File: " path NEWLINE UpdateFile := "*** Update File: " path NEWLINE [ MoveTo ] { Hunk } MoveTo := "*** Move to: " newPath NEWLINE Hunk := "@@" [ header ] NEWLINE { HunkLine } [ "*** End of File" NEWLINE ] HunkLine := (" " | "-" | "+") text NEWLINE

A full patch can combine several operations:

*** Begin Patch *** Add File: hello.txt +Hello world *** Update File: src/app.py *** Move to: src/main.py @@ def greet(): -print("Hi") +print("Hello, world!") *** Delete File: obsolete.txt *** End Patch

It is important to remember:

• You must include a header with your intended action (Add/Delete/Update)
• You must prefix new lines with + even when creating a new file
• File references can only be relative, NEVER ABSOLUTE.

You can invoke apply_patch like:

shell {"command":["apply_patch","*** Begin Patch\n*** Add File: hello.txt\n+Hello, world!\n*** End Patch\n"]}