datasette-agent-edit 0.1a0
Simon Willison · Simon Willison · 2026-06-07
Simon Willison releases datasette-agent-edit 0.1a0, a Datasette base plugin implementing Claude-inspired agentic text-editing tools (view, str_replace, insert) for reuse across collaborative editing plugins.
Appears in
Extraction
Topics: datasettellm-tool-useagentic-editingplugin-development
Claims
- Agentic editing of text is non-trivial to implement correctly in LLM-based systems.
- The Claude text editor design — with view, str_replace, and insert tools — is Willison's preferred published pattern for agentic editing.
- datasette-agent-edit implements these three tools as a reusable base layer so other Datasette plugins do not need to recreate the pattern.
- The plugin is intended to support use cases like collaborative Markdown editing, SQL query updates, and SVG file editing.
Key quotes
Agentic editing of text is a little tricky to get right. My favorite published design for this is for the Claude text editor, which implements the following tools: view, str_replace, insert.
Rather than recreate these patterns for every plugin that needs them I decided to create this base plugin, datasette-agent-edit, which implements the core tools in a way that allows them to be adapted for other plugins.