For me it’s usually some context-specific, low-level DAG of functions/data flow. Maybe a higher level of C4 model depending on the scope of my work.
I’ve been studying this to build a VS code extension that visualizes my codebase as I work. Similar to Feynman’s point, there are many ways of visualizing the same task/section of code, but I’ve found some are more universally interpretable than others.
There seems to be a bug or comment depth limit, I can't reply to your comment below. I just published an update to extension description explaining that code moves through our servers. It may take a few minutes to appear. Since this post, we added a privacy policy to our website and the ability to input your own API key, circumventing our servers altogether. I will list this feature in the extension description once we have time to require manual triggering of architecture generation
Agreed this is a poor experience, we're making pricing very transparent now. Hope you give CodeViz another chance. Were you able to generate the top level architecture or interact with the call graph? If you couldn't use CodeViz, or saw the subscription modal immediately after opening the extension, this is a bug that I'll look into
Thanks for the report, following up now. We'll make some updates to our website asap. Preview of the call graph can be seen in our video demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgfDXUtWzRk. Happy to chat about reduced subscription price.
To generate second layer of architecture diagram, $19/mo subscription with a 7 day free trial. The call graph and top layer of the architecture diagram are free. We'll update our website and the extension with pricing info asap. The subscription didn't exist until a couple of days ago, since layered architecture is a feature that we made public specifically for HN to try.
We only use Anthropic at the moment, but we left OpenAI in the Data & Privacy in case we change models (not in the foreseeable future)
> The only way I found out was installing it, create a call graph, and the first click took me to a payment page
Yes, we need to be much more clear. It's not intentionally hard to find, we just been distracted with bugs and haven't had time to update the website. The subscription didn't exist until a couple of days ago. The layered architecture is a feature that we made public specifically for the HN community
> Having to fill out my payment details for a trial version is a a hard no for me
We'd love to embed a demo repo for people to play with, or let users generate nested architecture for one repo before having to subscribe
> The price is too steep. I get way more value out of Copilot than I get from CodeViz which is similarly priced.
Copilot is a great product and inexpensive, I do understand where you're coming from. Personally, I spend most of my time reading code and gathering context vs typing code. We hope to provide much more than $19/mo in value, so the subscription is a good signal for whether we're making something useful for you. We also have more features for team licenses that we haven't publicized.
The reduced subscription price for using your own API key does make sense though. If you send me an email or message me on discord I'd be happy to chat this over. This goes for anyone with a strong opinion on the matter
Appreciate the honest feedback! We're working hard to improve CodeViz, please let me know if there are any features you'd love to see.
I cloned pulumi and exported both layers of the CodeViz diagrams into mermaid format: https://github.com/EdisonLabs-Inc/Pulumi-Diagrams/tree/main. I'm not familiar with the repo so let me know if anything looks off. Hope you find these useful!
We'd love to have CodeViz run with local LLMs so you can untangle the spaghetti. The call graph is generated without LLMs or servers - any interest in a 'local only' mode so you can still use CodeViz while keeping your code on-device?
I get where you're coming from - Copilot is very cheap and useful! We want the free version of CodeViz to be as useful as possible for you. Some features, like the second architecture layer, are just expensive for us.
Personally, I spend a small fraction of my time actually typing code and much more time gathering context & building a mental map. CodeViz speeds up the mental map part, so we hope to deliver much more value than $19/mo
Let me know if there's anything missing from CodeViz that would change your mind!
Yes, we'd like to introduce more standard rules and visual notations as provided by UML. Did you get a chance to try the call graph? It contains functions and classes in one view. We're going to give the user control over the call graph's scope (whether to show functions, classes, files, etc), which would be closer to simplified class diagrams/function call mapping.
The info in sequence diagrams is useful - maybe we can show this using a hierarchical layout & edge labels
That's correct, our server just routes calls directly to Anthropic. Some users requested an option to input their own API key and talk to Anthropic directly. I'll add this by the end of the week, maybe today if time.
I’ve been studying this to build a VS code extension that visualizes my codebase as I work. Similar to Feynman’s point, there are many ways of visualizing the same task/section of code, but I’ve found some are more universally interpretable than others.