Simon Willison releases datasette-agent-edit 0.1a0, a base plugin for Datasette Agent that implements agentic text editing tools (view, str_replace, insert) reusable by other plugins.
# Release: datasette-agent-edit 0.1a0
Source: [https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jun/7/datasette-agent-edit/](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jun/7/datasette-agent-edit/)
I'm planning several plugins for[Datasette Agent](https://agent.datasette.io/)which can make edits to existing pieces of text \- things like collaborative Markdown editing, updating large SQL queries, and editing SVG files\.
Agentic editing of text is a little tricky to get right\. My favorite published design for this is for the[Claude text editor](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/text-editor-tool#use-the-text-editor-tool), which implements the following tools:
- `view`\- view sections of a file, with line numbers added to every line\.
- `str\_replace`\- find an exact`old\_str`and replace it with`new\_str`\- fail if the original string is not unique
- `insert`\- insert the specified text after the specified line number
Rather than recreate these patterns for every plugin that needs them I decided to create this base plugin,`datasette\-agent\-edit`, which implements the core tools in a way that allows them to be adapted for other plugins\.
Datasette 1.0a34 introduces built-in tools for inserting, editing, and deleting rows directly in the Datasette interface, a feature long overdue and inspired by Datasette Agent.
datasette-agent 0.1a4 adds a 'Start a new agent chat' interface integrated into Datasette's Jump to menu, leveraging the new makeJumpSections() JavaScript plugin hook.