---
title: Fixes and tracked changes
description: Previewing with --diff, applying with --fix, and how Word documents are edited.
icon: wand
---

Some findings carry a fix. `--fix` applies them in place.

```sh
lawlint --diff draft.md   # preview
lawlint --fix draft.md    # apply
lawlint --fix --diff draft.md   # apply, and show what changed
```

## Only what is safe

Every fix declares an **applicability**, and `--fix` applies exactly one of the
two.

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Column>
    **`machineApplicable`** — a mechanical substitution with no judgement in it:
    an em dash for a comma, a doublet reduced to one word. Applied by `--fix`.
  </Column>
  <Column>
    **`maybeIncorrect`** — a suggestion that needs a human to decide. Reported,
    and offered in the output, but never applied automatically.
  </Column>
</Columns>

Findings with no fix at all — most statistical and all inferential ones — are
reported and left alone. There is no `--fix-all`, and no flag that applies
`maybeIncorrect` edits: the guarantee that `--fix` never needs reviewing is
worth more than the handful of extra edits.

## Word documents

For `.docx`, `--fix` does not rewrite the document. It writes each fix as a
native Word **tracked change**, with a review **comment** naming the rule that
produced it.

1. **Run the fix**

    ```sh
    lawlint --fix brief.docx
    ```

2. **Open it in Word**

    Every change appears in the normal review flow, attributed and commented.

3. **Accept or reject, one at a time**

    Nothing is silently applied. If you disagree with a rule, reject its changes and
    [disable it](/docs/guides/linting#choosing-rules) for next time.

Everything else in the document survives byte for byte — styles, numbering,
headers, images, and any tracked changes already present.

:::warning[Fixes crossing run boundaries are skipped]
Word splits paragraphs into runs at every formatting change. A fix whose span
crosses one — a bolded word inside a flagged phrase — is reported and skipped
rather than applied. The finding still appears in the output; only the
automatic edit is withheld.
:::

## Handing the rest to an assistant

`--fix` deliberately leaves the judgement calls alone. For those, `--format
prompt` emits a revision brief — the flagged text plus instructions — to hand to
a writing assistant:

```sh
lawlint --format prompt draft.md | pbcopy
```

The deterministic engine decides *what* is worth changing; the model only
proposes wording. That ordering is the point: it keeps the model out of the
detection loop.

## Stdin has nothing to fix

`--fix` edits a file in place, so it does nothing for piped input. Use `--diff`
or `--format prompt` instead.