break things up, do some proper mediawiki API stuff to support editing

util.mjs

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+// misc helpers
+
+import {execSync} from 'node:child_process';
+
+/**
+ * terrible terrible terrible string diff helper for debugging
+ * @param {string} a
+ * @param {string} b
+ */
+export function diff (a, b) {
+	// base64 input strings before passing to shell to avoid escaping issues
+	// https://stackoverflow.com/a/60221847
+	// also use `|| true` to not throw an error when `diff` returns non-zero
+	execSync(`bash -c '
+		diff --color -u <(echo ${btoa(a)} | base64 -d) <(echo ${btoa(b)} | base64 -d)
+	' || true`, {
+		// display result directly in terminal
+		stdio: 'inherit',
+	});
+}