ChronoGraph

A desktop application for visualizing how a codebase's dependency graph evolves over time. Point it at a Git repository, and ChronoGraph walks through its commit history — sampling commits at a configurable rate — analyzing file-level dependencies at each point in time and rendering the results as an interactive graph.

What it does

• Clones a GitHub repository or opens a local one
• Iterates through the commit history (configurable sampling rate and commit limit)
• Analyzes file-level dependencies at each sampled commit using Lakos tool
• Caches analysis results in SQLite so re-running is fast
• Visualizes the dependency graph interactively with timeline navigation, statistics, and a tree-based file explorer

Currently targets Flutter/Dart projects via the Lakos analyzer.

Tech stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 19 + TypeScript + Vite
Desktop shell	Tauri 2 (Rust)
Graph rendering	Cytoscape.js (dagre + fcose layouts)
Git access	libgit2 via git2 crate
Cache	SQLite via rusqlite
Unit tests	Vitest
E2E tests	Playwright

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• Rust 1.70+ with cargo
• On Windows: MSVC build tools

Getting started

# Install frontend dependencies
npm install

# Run the desktop app (starts Vite dev server + Tauri)
npm run tauri:dev

# Run the web-only dev server (shows sample data, no Tauri backend)
npm run dev

Building

npm run tauri:build

Testing

# Unit tests (Vitest)
npm test

# Unit tests with UI
npm run test:ui

# Unit test coverage
npm run test:coverage

# E2E tests (Playwright)
npm run test:e2e

# Rust backend tests
cd src-tauri && cargo test

Project structure

src/
  components/
    AnalysisResults.tsx       # Tab container for graph, timeline, stats, deps
    GraphTab.tsx              # Cytoscape graph tab
    TimelineTab.tsx           # Commit timeline view
    StatisticsTab.tsx         # Dependency metrics over time
    DependenciesTab.tsx       # Flat dependency list
    TreeBasedCytoscapeGraph.tsx  # Tree-aware graph renderer
    NodeDetailsPanel.tsx      # Sidebar panel for selected node details
    GraphSettings.tsx         # Layout and display settings panel
    RepositoryManager.tsx     # Cache management UI
    RepositorySelectionModal.tsx  # Repository open dialog
    AnalysisProgress.tsx      # Progress display during analysis
  utils/
    treeStructure.ts          # Builds file tree from dependency data
    treeBasedGraphTransforms.ts  # Converts tree to Cytoscape elements

src-tauri/src/
  chronograph_engine.rs       # Core orchestration: clone → iterate commits → analyze
  git_navigator.rs            # Git repository traversal via libgit2
  lakos_analyzer.rs           # Lakos dependency analysis for Dart/Flutter
  analysis_cache.rs           # SQLite-backed result cache
  commands.rs                 # Tauri command handlers (IPC bridge)
  models.rs                   # Shared data types

Recommended IDE setup

• VS Code with the Tauri extension and rust-analyzer