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🗺️ py-code-visualizer

PyPI Downloads CI Python 3.8+ License: MIT architecture: verified

Deterministic, AST-verified architecture ground truth for Python. LLMs guess your architecture. py-code-visualizer proves it — every edge is traceable to a file:line.

py-code-visualizer: pip install, then visualize your project into a self-contained interactive map

⚡ Try it live in your browser →  ·  drop a .py file, see the graph, nothing uploaded

py-code-visualizer reads your Python source with static analysis (no code is ever imported or executed) and produces a call graph you can trust: self-healing README diagrams, PR architecture-change reports, CI gates that block circular dependencies, and a fully offline interactive map. Because the output is deterministic, it lives in your pipelines and never drifts.

pip install py-code-visualizer && py-code-visualizer visualize .

Why this exists (and why an LLM can't do it)

An LLM asked to diagram your repo produces the architecture it expects a repo like yours to have — plausible, confident, and subtly wrong. It invents links between modules that never call each other, silently drops what didn't fit the context window, and gives a different answer every run, so you can never diff it or put it in CI.

PyVisualizer is the opposite by construction:

LLM diagram PyVisualizer
Correctness Inferred, often hallucinated Parsed from the AST
Provenance None Every edge → file:line
Determinism Different every run Byte-identical
Ambiguity Hidden behind confidence Flagged, with candidates kept
CI-able No Yes — gates, diffs, drift checks
Code leaves the machine Usually Never

When a call genuinely can't be resolved to one target, we don't pick one and pretend — we tag the edge ambiguous and keep the full candidate list. That honesty is the whole product.


Install

pip install py-code-visualizer

60-second start

# Interactive, fully self-contained HTML map (opens offline, zero network)
py-code-visualizer visualize ./your_project -o architecture.html

# Keep a live diagram inside your README forever
py-code-visualizer readme ./your_project

# Fail CI on new circular dependencies
py-code-visualizer check ./your_project --fail-on-cycles

# What breaks if I touch this function?
py-code-visualizer impact your_pkg.core.save ./your_project

For a scrappy startup 🚀

You will never schedule a "docs sprint." So don't. Add one line to CI and your README always carries a current architecture diagram — investor- and due-diligence-ready for free — while every PR gets a comment showing exactly what changed structurally.

# .github/workflows/architecture.yml
- uses: haider1998/PyVisualizer@v2
  with: { mode: readme }

A new contractor onboards from the interactive map instead of a three-day Slack Q&A. Pivots stop being archaeology.

For a Fortune 500 enterprise 🏛️

  • Code never leaves the machine. Pure AST, no execution, no API calls — the anti-LLM tool for security review. Generated HTML is a single file with zero network requests (air-gap safe).
  • Architecture-as-code gates. Declare layers and forbidden dependencies; the build fails on violations — at the call-graph level, stricter than import linters.
  • Audit trail. Deterministic diagrams committed by CI make git history your dated, attributable architecture change-log (SOC 2 / review boards).
  • Monorepo scale. Hierarchical rollup (module → class → function), never silent sampling.
# pyproject.toml
[tool.pyvisualizer.rules]
layers = ["api", "domain", "infra"]
forbid = ["domain -> api", "domain -> infra"]

Commands

Command What it does
review <path> --base <ref> PR review report: changed functions, blast radius, risk flags, focused subgraph — clickable file:line on every reference
context <path> --focus <fn> Verified context pack for AI agents: task-scoped, budget-bounded, zero guessed edges
visualize Render html · mermaid · json · c4 · svg/png
readme Inject/update a Mermaid diagram in any Markdown file (idempotent) + jump-to-source index
json Emit the canonical, diffable graph JSON
diff base.json head.json PR-ready architecture-change report (+ new-cycle gate)
check Enforce layering rules & cycles — CI gate (--dead-code too)
impact <fn> Blast-radius: transitive callers/callees + risk line (--format markdown)
health Architecture health score (A–F) with an SVG badge
export ARCHITECTURE.json + ARCHITECTURE.md + AGENTS.md wiring (--check freshness gate)
init Opt-in setup — generate only the automation you choose (review/readme/context/gates)

Two jobs, one engine. review makes code review on a large repo a focused few-minute pass; context gives an AI agent a verified, ~96%-smaller slice of the architecture instead of the whole repo. See VISION.md and the use-case walkthroughs.

Use cases (real commands, real output)

Three end-to-end walkthroughs, each backed by a runnable fixture in examples/scenarios/ — every command and every line of output is reproducible, nothing is staged:

  • 🗺️ The orphan monolith — onboard onto an undocumented codebase with visualize + health + check --dead-code.
  • 🛡️ The audit deadline — enforce layering rules at the call-graph level and produce dated SOC 2 evidence.
  • 🧨 The fearless refactorimpact blast radius, then a diff gate that fails a PR on a new cycle.

See the full use-case index + a recipe for every command.

Measured (reproduce with python benchmarks/bench.pydocs/benchmarks.json): a 98,669-line project maps to a full call graph in ~4.9 s (26,658 functions), 100% of edges carry file:line, output is byte-identical across runs, and the generated HTML makes 0 network requests. (macOS arm64, Python 3.14; speed is hardware-dependent — provenance, determinism, and zero-network are structural.)

The interactive map

A single self-contained HTML file (no CDN, works offline):

  • Layered abstraction — toggle module → class → function views
  • Click any node — signature, file:line, callers & callees (all clickable)
  • ⌘K command palette, live search, module filter
  • Deep links — the URL encodes the selected node; paste it in Slack and your teammate lands on the exact function
  • Tour mode — auto-generated walkthrough from detected entry points
  • Overlays — cycles (red), ambiguity (dashed), and --churn git-heatmap
  • Minimap, pan/zoom/drag, light/dark, SVG export

Feed the graph to your AI tools

py-code-visualizer export --for-ai ./your_project

Point Cursor / Claude at the verified ARCHITECTURE.json instead of asking a model to re-derive structure from raw source. Point your agent at the graph, not the repo.


Accuracy guarantees

  • Nested classes, methods, and closures are collected with correct qualified names (pkg.Outer.Inner.method, mod.func.<locals>.inner).
  • Chained calls (get_client().fetch()), comprehensions, and lambdas are captured.
  • super()/inherited calls resolved through the computed MRO (tagged inherited).
  • Parameter and variable type annotations drive method resolution.
  • Calls to stdlib/third-party code produce no edge — we never invent one.
  • Ambiguous calls are tagged and kept as candidates; --strict drops them.

See docs/integrations.md for GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and pre-commit setup.

Configuration

[tool.pyvisualizer]
exclude = ["tests", "migrations"]
max_nodes = 120
target = "README.md"
detail = "module"          # module | class | function

Roadmap

  • Time-travel — scrub your architecture's evolution across releases
  • 🔁 Watch mode — live-reloading map while you refactor
  • 🔌 MCP serverwho_calls, what_breaks_if_i_change as agent tools

Architecture

The diagram below is generated by PyVisualizer itself and kept in sync by CI.

120 functions · 175 calls · health C (74/100) — detail: module

flowchart LR
    g0["bench"]
    g1["genproject"]
    g2["main"]
    g3["cli"]
    g4["pipeline"]
    g5["core"]
    g6["service"]
    g7["core"]
    g8["billing"]
    g9["db"]
    g10["api"]
    g11["changes"]
    g12["cli"]
    g13["config"]
    g14["context"]
    g15["analyzer"]
    g16["graph"]
    g17["diff"]
    g18["export"]
    g19["gates"]
    g20["impact"]
    g21["inject"]
    g22["metrics"]
    g23["overlays"]
    g24["review"]
    g25["c4"]
    g26["json_graph"]
    g27["setup_init"]
    g28["file_discovery"]
    g29["d3"]
    g30["html"]
    g31["mermaid"]
    g0 --> g1
    g0 --> g10
    g0 --> g26
    g0 --> g30
    g3 --> g4
    g5 --> g6
    g6 --> g5
    g8 --> g9
    g10 --> g16
    g10 --> g28
    g11 --> g23
    g12 --> g4
    g12 --> g10
    g12 --> g13
    g12 --> g14
    g12 --> g17
    g12 --> g18
    g12 --> g19
    g12 --> g20
    g12 --> g21
    g12 --> g22
    g12 --> g23
    g12 --> g24
    g12 --> g25
    g12 --> g26
    g12 --> g29
    g12 --> g31
    g14 --> g11
    g14 --> g19
    g14 --> g20
    g14 --> g22
    g14 --> g23
    g17 --> g22
    g18 --> g19
    g18 --> g21
    g18 --> g22
    g18 --> g26
    g20 --> g11
    g24 --> g11
    g24 --> g19
    g24 --> g22
    g24 --> g31
    g25 --> g31
    g26 --> g11
    g27 --> g10
    g27 --> g13
    g27 --> g18
    g27 --> g21
    g27 --> g22
    g27 --> g31
    g29 --> g30
    g30 --> g26

🔒 Deterministic, AST-verified — no code executed. Generated by py-code-visualizer.

📍 Jump to source (120 functions)

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. PyVisualizer is MIT-licensed.

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