Editing Toolkit

Use the Editing Toolkit to apply content changes from your own AI agents, chat interfaces, backend workflows, or scripts to CKEditor 5 documents. Your code or service produces the revised content, and the toolkit compares it with the original so users can review and accept the changes in the editor.

The toolkit has two components:

• Compare finds the differences between the original and revised content and applies them, directly or as suggestions. You can also use Compare without AI, for example to apply updates from a script or an HTML version edited elsewhere.
• Coauthor lets AI agents read and edit documents on the server through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Your backend can also call the same tools over REST without using an AI model.

Both components treat each difference as a separate, granular change. For example, a reworded phrase can appear as an individual change for users to review, be recorded as a Track Changes suggestion, or be applied to the content directly.

In the video, a backend job runs two agents over several documents. The second agent checks the work of the first one, and a person reviews their suggestions. The backend agent workflows guide describes this setup.

• Have an agent update a document on the server and leave Track Changes suggestions for a person to review later. Coauthor runs the editor on the backend, so nobody needs to have the document open in a browser.
• Connect your existing AI chat to the document and let users review its edits where they appear, using the Proposed changes UI. Users can apply or reject individual changes, or handle all of them at once.
• Let people keep editing while your agent works. Compare merges the agent’s changes with the edits made in the meantime, including other users’ edits in real-time collaboration.

Compare provides document comparison APIs and the Proposed changes UI for CKEditor 5. Your integration takes a snapshot of the document, processes its content with your code or service, and passes the revised content back to Compare to compute and apply the differences.

• Comparing documents – The DocumentCompare API takes a snapshot of the document, lets your code or service process it, computes the differences, and applies them as granular changes or suggestions.
• Proposing changes – The Proposed changes UI lists the computed differences in a panel before they appear in the document. Users can apply or reject each change, or record it as a Track Changes suggestion for collaborators to review later.

Coauthor is the backend part of the toolkit. It exposes documents to AI agents through MCP and runs a CKEditor 5 instance on the server. Agents use its tools to read, edit, and verify content. Backend code can call the same tools over REST. Compare applies changes inside that server-side editor, so agents can work without anyone having the document open in a browser.

The server-side editor runs the same editor bundle that you upload to Cloud Services, so it uses the same features, plugins, and configuration as the editor your users see. Coauthor works with both real-time collaboration and non-real-time setups.

These guides cover integrations with agents, chat interfaces, backend services, and scripts. The agent app, custom chat, and backend workflow guides use Coauthor.

• Working from agent apps – Start editing tasks in an app such as Claude or ChatGPT and review the results in CKEditor 5.
• Custom chat implementation – Build your own AI features: Compare handles the review in the editor, and Coauthor helps your agent produce content the editor accepts.
• Backend agent workflows – Run server-side flows, for example one agent drafts and a second one reviews.
• Using with CKEditor AI – Let the CKEditor AI Document Processing endpoint produce the changes and the toolkit propose them.
• Scripts and external versions – Review changes from scripts or compare an updated Word file with the current document.

• Track Changes – Apply toolkit changes as suggestions that users can accept or reject.
• CKEditor AI – A complete AI stack with ready-made editor features, an AI agent, and an AI service.