Let an agent grade, comment on and redline Word documents

A developer built a CLI so agents can edit Word docs with tracked changes and comments, starting with a TA agent for his wife, a professor.

Difficulty
IntermediateOur rating
Time to build
Not reportedOur estimate
Monthly cost
Not reported
Revenue
Not reportedWe only show revenue the source states
Engagement
70 HN points31 comments · fetched Oct 15, 2026

What they did

The agent uses docx-cli to add comments, edit with track changes on, fill forms and update tables without breaking the file.

How it went

He says it now fills NDAs, marks up contracts and fills invoices, in about half the time and tokens.

Worth knowing

This is the builder launching their own product on HN.

Builder recipe

Our own starting point, written from the source. Adapt it to your setup.

Stack

  • A coding agent
  • docx-cli

Steps

  1. Collect the documents.
  2. Have the agent extract and summarize.
  3. Have a qualified person review.
  4. Store the result securely.

Starter prompt

Mark up this contract with tracked changes: flag any uncapped liability, auto-renewal or exclusivity clause and add a comment explaining each.

Tags

Tool Word
Industry Education Legal

Read the original

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