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Editing with other tools

A Whittl project is an ordinary folder of files, and you are free to change them with another editor, or with another AI tool, while Whittl is open. New in v2.6.0: Whittl notices those changes and keeps them instead of writing over them.

What Whittl does

When you save or press Test Run, Whittl compares each file in the project with the copy it last loaded or wrote:

  • A file changed outside Whittl is taken into the editor as it is on disk. The chat says so: "Reloaded 2 file(s) changed outside Whittl: main.py, ui.py".
  • A new file made outside Whittl is added to the project. The chat says so: "Added 1 file(s) created outside Whittl: tests/test_ui.py".
  • A file changed on both sides (on disk by another program, and in Whittl's editor without saving) keeps the editor's version, and the chat tells you, naming the file. To take the disk copy instead, use File > Refresh Files.

Before v2.6.0, a save could write Whittl's older copy over an edit made outside it, and could delete a new file Whittl had never seen as a leftover.

File > Refresh Files reloads the whole project from disk at any time.

What Whittl leaves alone

Files and folders whose names start with _ or . are not part of the project as Whittl sees it, and neither are build output, archives and virtual environments. They are never adopted, opened or deleted.

Habits that keep it simple

  • Save in Whittl before you switch tools, and let the other tool finish before you go back. Edits on both sides of the same file at once are the one case that needs a decision.
  • Let one AI work on a project at a time. Two agents changing the same files in parallel will each be working from a copy the other has already changed.
  • Watch the chat after a save or a Test Run. The "Reloaded" and "Added" lines tell you exactly what came in from outside.

What's next