API Viewer

Inspect a codebase’s runtime structure:

• Views include call stacks and entry points.
• Use it to explore a codebase architecture, and to guide refactoring.
• It's an interactive, always‑current map of your code that complements source and design docs.

Status: Pre‑alpha.

What you'll see

Call stacks

Source files are two-dimensional and static; they show lines of code contained in methods, types, and packages.

Call stacks add the runtime dimension. They show:

• Why an API exists
• How it is implemented (calls to subroutines)
• Context: what calls an API
• Connections: where components are linked

API Viewer makes the map of callers and callees explicit.

Entry points

• In programs that run to completion -- call stacks originate in Main.
• In long‑running processes -- Main instantiates event handlers, and most call stacks start in those handlers.
• In network processes -- endpoints are event handlers or callback functions, which implement a network API.

How it's implemented

Model

It builds a model of the software:

1. Parses software in a build or installation folder.
2. Tokenizes code elements: packages, namespaces, types, methods.
3. Models the software as a token tree; method calls are token pairs (from → to).
4. Indexes tokens by ID for fast lookup.

Views

The UI renders multiple view types from the model:

• Expand groups, hide or select nodes
• Open multiple windows
• Inspect labels, tooltips, and details

Use cases

• Explore a new codebase
• Document or summarize an existing codebase
• Refactor or analyze work in progress

Advantages over traditional documentation

• Interactive
• High‑level and code‑level views
• Always up‑to‑date — one‑to‑one mapping with source

Privacy

• API Viewer runs locally.
• Model data stays on your machine.
• No network connection is used.

Notes

Status ⛔

Pre‑alpha: incomplete and unreleased.

Documentation ⛔

Documents -- *.md files -- are old, unfinished, unreliable.

Only this README and the ROADMAP are maintained recently.

Languages

Current version supports .NET only. Other languages (for example TypeScript) may be added later.

Implementation

• Parsing -- System.Reflection and ILSpy
• Storage -- SQLite
• Graphic -- GraphViz
• Packaged -- a VS Code extension; or a standalone Electron app