Why AI revision should be reviewed before merge
The biggest risk in AI revision is not that the prose is bad. It is that the prose is fluent while facts, settings, tone, or argument boundaries quietly change.
Problems with direct overwrite
Common risks:
- necessary qualifiers disappear
- uncertain information becomes certain fact
- character voice or academic tone changes
- the original structure gets replaced
- later chapters conflict with earlier settings
Copy/paste workflows make these issues hard to inspect line by line.
Diff turns AI revision into review
Diff review shows:
- what was added
- what was removed
- which sentences changed
- which edits are acceptable
- which edits should be skipped
AI proposes; you decide what becomes manuscript.
Where this matters
Review-before-merge is especially useful for:
- novel revision
- academic paragraph polishing
- technical documentation updates
- brand essays and newsletters
- any content with factual boundaries
Recommended workflow
- Put writing rules and review criteria in
@system. - Ask AI to work on one section or paragraph.
- Tell it not to add unsupported information.
- Inspect Diff and accept or skip each change.
- Merge, then run the next round.