Onboard-CLI

Onboard-CLI is an open-source, local-first command-line tool built by animesh-94 that parses codebases using Tree-sitter AST analysis and renders interactive architecture maps in a local React Flow canvas. It targets developers working on large, complex distributed systems — from C++ cores to Java schedulers — and aims to replace slow, manual code archaeology with instant visual topology graphs. The project is written in Go for the CLI engine and React 19 for the frontend, and is available on GitHub under an MIT license with 84 stars as of its latest activity.

What It Is

Onboard-CLI is a developer platform for code parsing, systems profiling, and canvas-based node visualization. It sits in the code intelligence category: rather than a static linter or a heavyweight profiler, it generates structural topology graphs from AST data and presents them through an interactive local web UI. The core job is helping engineers understand unfamiliar or legacy codebases faster — mapping dependencies, tracing data flows, and enforcing architectural boundaries — without sending source code to any external service.

Core Architecture and Tech Stack

The tool is split into two layers:

• CLI Engine (Go): Uses Cobra for command structure, Go-Tree-Sitter for multi-language AST parsing (Go, TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Java), and YAML for configuration. All parsing and SQLite dependency graph compilation happens locally.
• Web UI (React 19): Spins up a local Vite dev server at http://localhost:3000/app by default, rendering the interactive canvas via @xyflow/react (React Flow), Tailwind CSS, and Framer Motion. No cloud endpoints are involved.

Key Commands and Workflow

Onboard-CLI exposes a focused set of commands:

• onboard init — generates .onboard config; supports templates like clean-architecture, modular-monolith, mvc, and serverless
• onboard map --target <path> --radius <n> — triggers AST context engine and launches the visual canvas
• onboard drift --rules architecture.yml — detects unauthorized cross-file imports and boundary violations against defined rules
• onboard routes — maps backend API routes to exact file/line handler locations across Express, Gin, FastAPI, and Spring
• onboard impact — generates a reverse-dependency tree (blast radius) for a proposed change
• onboard owners — tracks code ownership and maintainers
• onboard pulse — summarizes codebase health and recent activity
• onboard export — exports AST/graph data to standard JSON formats

Local-First and CI/CD Design

A stated design priority is zero telemetry: source code never leaves the machine, and all graph compilation uses a local SQLite store. The tool also supports headless CI/CD integration — onboard drift and onboard impact can be embedded in GitHub Actions or GitLab CI workflows to block architectural violations on pull requests before merge. A template workflow file is included at docs/onboard-action.yml.

Update: v1.3.0

The latest release is v1.3.0, published on July 1, 2026, with the repository last pushed on July 11, 2026. The project was created in late June 2026 and has accumulated 84 stars and 5 forks in its early weeks. The README references an AI Usage Policy (AI_USAGE.md), signaling active community contribution guidelines. The primary language in the repository is listed as TypeScript (the React frontend), with Go powering the CLI core.