KRKronisLV·Aug 18, 2022
Sourcetrail actually tried to do that for a select few languages https://github.com/CoatiSoftware/Sourcetrail
Sadly, they retired the entire project a while back.
In Programming breakthroughs we needCoatiSoftware
Sourcetrail
C++2019–2025
CoatiSoftware / Sourcetrail · Archived
Sourcetrail
Sourcetrail - free and open-source interactive source explorer
18Distinct people
25Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
16.5KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Sourcetrail - free and open-source interactive source explorer
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
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Also in these discussions
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 4:00:59 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year25 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2019-11-18 20:55:11 UTC to 2025-10-12 09:32:29 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
What Hacker News says
6 sourcessee: https://github.com/CoatiSoftware/Sourcetrail , even tho the project is marked archived, it's pretty solid, i personally still use a 2019 release.
i also have a self hosted instance of this : https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/latest/source
what you asked, comes across with code auditing as well, i wasn't surprised to know security researchers use sourcetrail as well.
hope your favourite language is supported.
In Ask HN: Is there a tool you use just for reading code?> So, is it a good idea to try documenting the code design through some sort of visualization?
Yes, if it helps you understand how it works and how the pieces fit together.
No, if the previous is not all that useful for you (different types of learners), or you need to spend significant amounts of time doing it manually, especially given that code could change.
If you can, look into any tool that might allow you to get visualizations in an automated manner.
For example, JetBrains IDEs have a few different graph visualizations for dependencies and inheritance etc.: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/2022.1/tests-in-ide.html...
There also used to be SourceTrail, though sadly the project is now retired: https://github.com/CoatiSoftware/Sourcetrail
For databases, you can also use external tools like DbVis: https://www.dbvis.com/features/
The
Read the rest
re are also a few tools here and there for visualizing networks or how container deployments look, but those are pretty situational/specific for each platform/setup.
Sourcetrail (Google) had been my primary go-to for large multi-MLOC C-code and C++ project like Mozilla Firefox recently for me. I can now insert instrumentation testpoints deep inside Firefox JavaScript JIT engine within two days from zero-knowledge, quicker there on.
- Sourcetrail (GUI/Linux/Windows, closed-net-capable, archived) - https://github.com/CoatiSoftware/Sourcetrail
- SourceInsight (repo/web-server/closed-net) https://www.sourceinsight.com/
- OpenGrok (web server plug-in/Java/closed-net) https://oracle.github.io/opengrok/
- CLion (GUI-based IDE) - By IntelliJ/JetBrains - https://www.jetbrains.com/clion/
- SourceGraph (Web-based) https://about.sourcegraph.com (thanks, gravypod)
- Codesee.io (GitHub/web-based) - https://www.codesee.io/privacy-and-security
For free as in beer, I prefer OpenGrok so I can get more than JetBrains
In Ask HN: How do you search large codebases before adding a feature or fixing bug?The now retired SourceTrail is still a pretty good tool, it supports C++, Java and Python
https://github.com/CoatiSoftware/Sourcetrail
In Ask HN: How to visualize the dependency graphs of my codebase?https://github.com/CoatiSoftware/Sourcetrail
Helped me improve my understanding of last codebase and their design
In Ask HN: Favorite product that got shut down?