All 100 ideasCoding
#30 of 100 · Coding
See a codebase as a map
A tool that reads a codebase and draws its call chains, class hierarchies and internal dependencies, to explore large or legacy code.
Asks per year
What the askers want
- Would pay0%
- Want it local or private8%
- Object to subscriptions8%
- Want it open source or self-hosted8%
- Want AI to do it0%
Share of the 13 asks that say so, as judged by Jev.
What exists on Show HN
Built, still asked for54 Show HN launches do this job, and 16 more do part of it. People still ask, so the launches are missed, unknown, or not what they want. Ask what they’re missing before you build.
- Instantly visualize any codebase as an interactive diagram2024 · 222 pts
- Davia – Open source visual, editable wiki from your codebase2025 · 47 pts
- Arcaide – Explore code with multi-level call graphs2026 · 25 pts
- CodeBoarding – interactive map of your codebase for onboarding2025 · 24 pts
- Auto Wiki v2 – Turn your codebase into a Wiki now with diagrams2024 · 21 pts
- Noodles – Explore AI-generated codebases through interactive diagrams2026 · 10 pts
- Diagramming tool that helped me understand codebases much faster2024 · 10 pts
- An interactive JS/TS dependency graph generator2017 · 9 pts
The idea, as matched
A tool that reads a codebase and generates interactive diagrams of its structure, such as call graphs, class diagrams, module dependencies or flowcharts, kept in sync as the code changes, for exploring large or legacy code.
Jev first matched 17 requests to this idea; a second reader kept 13 of 17.
Every ask, newest first
Each line is an AI paraphrase of what the writer wanted. The link goes to their own words on Hacker News.
- Nov 2025Wants open-source, affordable static analysis tools producing code flowcharts and diagrams for Python, Java and JavaScript. Read it: a comment in “Codemaps: Understand Code, Before You Vibe It”
- Jan 2025Wants a tool that reads code to produce Mermaid class diagrams, and perhaps the reverse. Read it: a comment in “Show HN: GUI for editing Mermaid class diagrams”
- Nov 2024Wants a tool drawing call-chain diagrams of functions in big Python projects. Read it: a comment in “Lush: My favorite small programming language”
- Feb 2024Wants a tool that converts a whole codebase into a mind map, similar to JetBrains class diagrams. Read it: a comment in “Ask HN: Anyone use a code to mindmap/flowchart tool?”
- Apr 2023Wants an in-editor map linking files, modules and functions with jump navigation, kept current through language server support. Read it: a post: “Ask HN: In-editor visual mind map/graph tool for code?”
- Jul 2022Wants a tool graphing dependencies between code inside a codebase, to explore large legacy projects. Read it: a post: “Ask HN: Tool to graph dependencies between code?”
- May 2022Wants a visualizer showing a visual map of components in a PHP and JavaScript codebase without executing it. Read it: a comment in “Ask HN: What developer tools would you like to see?”
- Feb 2022Wants a maintained way to visualize React component hierarchy, since known tools are deprecated. Read it: a comment in “Visualising React Component Hierarchy”
- May 2019Wants an auto-generated reference of inherited code, like the Django class-based views site, for all inherited code. Read it: a comment in “Inheritance versus Composition”
- Mar 2016Wants software tools that visualize the mental model of a technology, like React's components and data flow. Read it: a post: “The next major leap in software development needs mental model visualisation”
- Jun 2015Wants a Java class dependency graph generator with good layout, printable to put on office walls. Read it: a comment in “Ask HN: How do you familiarize yourself with a new codebase?”
- Jun 2014Wants a library visualizing possible code execution paths as a control-flow graph showing cyclomatic complexity. Read it: a comment in “See your code in action with a visualization engine”
- Jun 2013Wants better ways to graphically track and document large codebases, or to generate UML diagrams from code. Read it: a comment in “UML in Practice”
Building this?
Read ten of the asks above first, because they say what the existing launches miss. If you ship it, post it as a Show HN so the next run of this list finds it.
Ship it like Vercel, on a server you own
This site runs on ShipTiffin. A push to GitHub deploys it, the way it would on Vercel, but the server is a Hetzner box in your own account. Postgres, sign-in, email, jobs and analytics are already on it, every project gets a hard limit, and nothing is billed by usage.
$19 a month per box, plus about $10 for the server at Hetzner. Open source, so you can also run it yourself for free.