DiffToJson

A CLI for detecting and serializing Git commit Diffs and commit messages from a local Git repository to a .JSONL file.

This can be useful for preparing git commit diffs and message data for training AI/ML models or similar use cases.

NOTE: Whilst the CLI implements a Regex pattern matching based PII detector for detecting email addresses in Commit Messages and redacting them, redaction of email addresses is not guaranteed. If commit messages contain sensitive information, conduct a human review of the output .JSONL file.

Output Formats

Two output formats are available, selected via --format:

• raw (legacy): PascalCase JSONL with flat fields — Diff, CommitMessage, RepoName, License, RepoUrl.
• training (default): camelCase JSONL shaped for LLM post-training pipelines. Each record is a Training Example with a ChatML messages array, provenance, legal, and optionally originalAssistantMessage. See Training Example Output below.

Documented Information (raw format)

• The Git Diff
• The Git Commit Message associated with the diff
• The license Name if a LICENSE.txt, LICENSE.md, or LICENSE.txt file is present in the repo directory — An LLM call is required to compute this. As a fallback "Unknown" is returned otherwise.
• The Git project name — Obtained from the Git Repo Directory name
• The Git Repo URL if provided by the CLI caller.

Training Example Output

When --format training (default), each line of the JSONL file is a single Training Example in camelCase:

{
  "messages": [
    {"role": "system", "content": "You are a software engineer. Write a commit message for the following diff."},
    {"role": "user", "content": "Write a commit message for the diff in the repository 'my-repo' (MIT, https://github.com/example/my-repo):\n\n<diff text>"},
    {"role": "assistant", "content": "<commit message or LLM-generated response>"}
  ],
  "provenance": {"repoName": "my-repo", "repoUrl": "https://github.com/example/my-repo"},
  "legal": {"license": "MIT"},
  "originalAssistantMessage": "<human-written message, present only with --llm-assistant-output>"
}

Field	Description
messages	Array of exactly 3 ChatML messages: system, user, assistant.
provenance	Source repository name and URL. Present on every record.
legal	License identifier for the record's source code. Present on every record.
originalAssistantMessage	The original commit message preserved alongside an LLM-generated assistant message. Present only when --llm-assistant-output is enabled; absent otherwise.

See CONTEXT.md for canonical definitions of Training Example, Provenance, Legal Metadata, and Original Assistant Message.

Configuration & Requirements

System Requirements

• Git: The git binary must be installed and available in your system's PATH.
• Runtime: .NET 10 SDK is required for building and running the CLI. If running the CLI as a dotnet tool, only the .NET runtime is required.

LLM Setup for License Detection

To enable automatic license detection, you must provide an AI model configuration via CLI arguments:

• --model-id: The ID of the AI model to use (Required if --license is not provided).
• --endpoint-url: The endpoint URL of the OpenAI-compatible API (Required if --license is not provided).
• --provider: The AI provider ID (e.g., ollama). If not specified, it defaults to OpenAI compatible provider mode.
• --api-key: The API key for the provider (Required unless using ollama).

Supported Providers:

AI Provider	Endpoint Type	Supporting NuGet Package	CLI Provider Id to use	Notes
Ollama	OpenAI Compatible	OllamaSharp	ollama	Compatible wth Ollama Local and Ollama Cloud - Provide the desired Ollama endpoint URL. API Key required for Ollama Cloud.
Ollama Cloud	OpenAI Compatible	OllamaSharp	ollama-cloud	API Key is required.
OpenAI	OpenAI	Microsoft.Extensions.AI.OpenAI	openai	API Key is required.
OpenAI Compatible	OpenAI Compatible	Microsoft.Extensions.AI.OpenAI	N/A	Endpoint URL is required. API Key may be required by the provider.
Anthropic	Anthropic Compatible	Anthropic	anthropic	API Key is required.
Anthropic Compatible	Anthropic Compatible	Anthropic	anthropic-compatible	Endpoint URL is required. API Key may be required by the provider.

Alternatively, you can manually provide the license name using the --license flag to skip the LLM call.

Note: Provider Ids are case-insensitive.

Installation

As a .NET Tool

If you have the .NET 10 Runtime installed, you can install the CLI as a dotnet tool from the NuGet Gallery.

To install it, use:

dotnet tool install -g DiffToJson

To update it use:

dotnet tool update -g DiffToJson

To uninstall it, use:

dotnet tool uninstall -g DiffToJson

Quick Start

Without LLM - Specified license Name

diff-to-json --repo-directory "C:\path\to\your\repo" --license "[LICENSE_NAME]" -o "C:\output\folder"

OpenAI Compatible

diff-to-json --repo-directory "C:\path\to\your\repo" --model-id "[MODEL_NAME]" --endpoint-url "[OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_ENDPOINT]" --api-key "your-api-key" -o "C:\output\folder"

Ollama (Local)

You can substitute the model id for any of Ollama's Supported Models

diff-to-json --repo-directory "C:\path\to\your\repo" --model-id "qwen3.5:4b" --endpoint-url "http://localhost:11434" --provider "ollama" -o "C:\output\folder"

Note: The CLI does not automatically pull the AI model; it must exist on your device at the time the CLI calls the Ollama API endpoint.

Ollama Cloud

You can substitute the model id for any of Ollama's Cloud Supported Models

Ollama Cloud Models via Ollama CLI

diff-to-json --repo-directory "C:\path\to\your\repo" --model-id "gemma4:31b-cloud" --endpoint-url "http://localhost:11434" --api-key "your-api-key" --provider "ollama" -o "C:\output\folder"

Ollama Cloud API

diff-to-json --repo-directory "C:\path\to\your\repo" --model-id "gemma4:31b-cloud" --api-key "your-api-key" --provider "ollama-cloud" -o "C:\output\folder"

This will analyse the specified repository and create a file named {repo-name}-commits.jsonl inside the specified output folder.

Training Format with Conventional Commits Preset

diff-to-json --repo-directory "C:\path\to\your\repo" --format training --prompt-style conventional -o "C:\output\folder"

With LLM-Generated Assistant Messages

diff-to-json --repo-directory "C:\path\to\your\repo" --format training --llm-assistant-output --model-id "qwen3.5:4b" --endpoint-url "http://localhost:11434" --provider "ollama" -o "C:\output\folder"

Using Custom Prompt Overrides

diff-to-json --repo-directory "C:\path\to\your\repo" --format training --system-prompt "You are an expert Git user." --user-prompt "Summarize this diff for {repoName}: {diff}" -o "C:\output\folder"

Raw (Legacy) Format

diff-to-json --repo-directory "C:\path\to\your\repo" --format raw -o "C:\output\folder"

CLI Parameters

Parameter Name	Type	Optional/Required	Default	Notes
--repo-directory	DirectoryInfo	Optional	Current directory	The local git repository directory to analyze.
--repo-url	string	Optional	""	The URL of the git repository to include in the JSONL output.
--model-id	string	Conditional	""	Required if --license is not provided. The ID of the AI model to use.
--endpoint-url	string	Optional	""	Required if --license is not provided, or if the provider is not openai, ollama-cloud, or anthropic. The endpoint URL of the API.
--api-key	string	Optional	""	The API key for the AI provider.
--provider	string	Optional	""	The AI provider ID. See LLM Setup.
--license	string	Optional	""	Manually specify the license name. Skips LLM license detection.
--output / -o	string	Optional	{repoDir}/{repoName}-commits.jsonl	The output file path.
--format	string	Optional	training	Output format. training for camelCase ChatML JSONL; raw for legacy PascalCase JSONL.
--prompt-style	string	Optional	default	Prompt preset name. See Prompt Presets.
--system-prompt	string	Optional	"" (uses preset)	Override the system prompt template. Supports placeholders.
--user-prompt	string	Optional	"" (uses preset)	Override the user prompt template. Supports placeholders.
--llm-assistant-output	bool	Optional	false	Enable LLM-generated assistant messages. Requires --format training. See LLM Override.
--llm-override-prompt	string	Optional	"" (uses user prompt)	Override the prompt sent to the LLM when --llm-assistant-output is enabled. Supports placeholders. Requires --llm-assistant-output.
--redaction	string	Optional	message	PII redaction tier. See Redaction Tiers.

Cross-Option Rules

The following validators enforce constraints between flags:

Condition	Outcome	Message
--llm-assistant-output + --format raw	Error — incompatible	Error: --llm-assistant-output is not compatible with --format raw.
--llm-override-prompt set without --llm-assistant-output	Error — override prompt requires override enabled	Error: --llm-override-prompt requires --llm-assistant-output.
--redaction none + --llm-assistant-output	Warning — proceeds but may expose PII in LLM output	Warning: --redaction none combined with --llm-assistant-output may expose PII in LLM output.

Unknown placeholders in --system-prompt, --user-prompt, or --llm-override-prompt also cause an error before any records are written.

Prompt Presets

Available via --prompt-style. Each preset provides a system and user message template. Placeholders (see below) are substituted at serialization time.

Preset Name	System Prompt	User Prompt
default	You are a software engineer. Write a commit message for the following diff.	Write a commit message for the diff in the repository '{repoName}' ({license}, {repoUrl}):\n\n{diff}
conventional	You are a software engineer. Write a commit message following the Conventional Commits specification.	Write a Conventional Commits-style commit message for the diff in '{repoName}' ({license}, {repoUrl}):\n\n{diff}

Overrides take precedence over the selected preset: provide --system-prompt or --user-prompt to replace the respective message entirely.

Placeholders

Placeholder tokens in prompt templates are replaced with record-specific data at serialization time. Unknown placeholders cause a CLI error.

Placeholder	Substituted With
{diff}	The git diff content
{commitMessage}	The commit message
{repoName}	The repository name (directory name)
{license}	The detected or manually specified license
{repoUrl}	The repository URL from --repo-url

Redaction Tiers

Available via --redaction. Controls which fields are passed through the PII redactor (regex-based email redaction) before emission.

Tier	CLI Value	Commit Message	Diff	LLM Output
None	none	—	—	—
Message (default)	message	Redacted	—	—
Diff	diff	Redacted	Redacted	—
All	all	Redacted	Redacted	Redacted

LLM Override

When --llm-assistant-output is enabled, the assistant message of each Training Example is generated by an LLM at extraction time, rather than taken from the original commit message. The original message is preserved in originalAssistantMessage for downstream evaluation.

• Requires --format training (see Cross-Option Rules).
• Requires AI provider configuration (--provider, --model-id, --endpoint-url, --api-key).
• Use --llm-override-prompt to send a different prompt to the LLM than what appears in the user message.
• On persistent LLM failure, the record is emitted with assistant.content = null and originalAssistantMessage populated.
• When --redaction all is set, the LLM output is also redacted after generation.

How to Build

Standard Build

Build the project using the .NET CLI:

dotnet build src/DiffToJsonCli/DiffToJsonCli.csproj

Running the Tool

You can run the tool directly from the source:

dotnet run --project src/DiffToJsonCli/DiffToJsonCli.csproj -- [args]

Publishing (Native AOT)

For high-performance execution and a standalone binary without requiring the .NET runtime, publish as Native AOT:

dotnet publish -c Release -r [runtime-identifier] -p:PublishAoT=true

Replace [runtime-identifier] with the appropriate RID for your platform (e.g., win-x64, linux-x64, osx-arm64).

Technical Details

PII Redaction

The tool uses a regex-based approach to detect and redact email addresses within commit messages to help prevent the leaking of personally identifiable information (PII). Due to the nature of regex, this is a best-effort implementation and does not guarantee 100% redaction. For sensitive git email addresses, always conduct a human review.

License Detection Logic

The tool automatically discovers license information by searching for LICENSE.md, LICENSE.txt, or LICENSE files in the repository root. If found, the content is sent to a configured LLM (via OllamaSharp or Microsoft.Extensions.AI.OpenAI) to extract the license name. If no file is found or the LLM cannot determine the license, it falls back to "Unknown".

Merge Commits

Merge commits are omitted from the output. The tool retrieves diffs via git log -p, which by default produces no diff output for merge commits. The parser skips any commit with an empty diff body, so merge commits are excluded regardless of format.

Native AOT Compatibility

The application is designed for Native AOT compatibility, ensuring fast startup times and a small deployment footprint.

Roadmap

These are some things I'd like to work towards in future versions but are not guaranteed to appear in future versions.

In no particular order:

• AWS Bedrock support
• Support for working with Microsoft.Extensions.Compliance.Redaction to enable support for different implementations and types of PII redaction.

Star History

License

This project contains AI-generated code and human-written code. All human written code in this project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.