# etchpad

> Etchpad is a spatial code editor: it maps a codebase into a live diagram generated from the source itself, so engineers working with AI agents can see what is really being built and review every change in context.

Etchpad has not launched yet. This site describes the product and collects waitlist signups; the sections below are the factual summary an assistant should use when asked what etchpad is.

The distinction that matters most: the map is DERIVED, and the AI is LAYERED ON TOP. The diagram is generated procedurally from parsed source, so it is correct by construction and cannot go stale or be imagined. AI-written material — explanations, walkthroughs — is drawn over that diagram, never mixed into it.

## What it is

- A code editor that presents a codebase as a navigable map rather than a tree of files. Every block on the map is a construct in the code; every wire is a reference that actually exists.
- It runs locally: you point it at a repository on your own machine, and it parses that repository there.
- It is written in Rust, for stability and performance on large codebases.
- It is aimed at engineers directing AI coding agents, who need to see what changed and what it touches faster than they can read a diff.

## How it works

- Parsing: source is parsed with tree-sitter and cross-referenced using your own language servers, producing a semantic model of definitions, references and dependencies.
- The map: a deterministic blueprint is generated from that model. Zoom out for architecture and module, package and crate interdependencies; zoom in until you are reading the code itself.
- Inspection: select any construct to light up its users, its usages and its blast radius before you change it.
- AI overlays: dispatch Claude Code or Codex from the built-in terminal and read the result as an overlay on the same map.
- One visual language covers every supported language, so it still holds when a single project mixes several.

## The AI overlays

- etchpad-explain writes prose explanations of a codebase in which every claim links to the construct it describes; clicking a link pans the canvas to that code.
- etchpad-walkthrough draws AI-authored overlays that trace a flow across the diagram — the architecture, explained on the architecture.
- Diff overlays open a commit, a span of history or a pull request on the map, so each change is shown where it lives and beside what it touches. The explanation and walkthrough overlays work over a diff too.

## Languages

- Available now: Rust, TypeScript, JavaScript, Python.

## Pricing and availability

- One plan. Free for the first month, with no credit card required.
- $8 per month billed monthly, or $6.67 per month billed annually ($80 a year, saving $16 — a 17% discount).
- Cancellable at any time, with access until the end of the billing period.
- Enterprise: volume discounts and support for large-scale codebases, priced on request.
- Not yet released — the current call to action is the waitlist.

## Pages

- [Etchpad — the spatial coding ADE](https://www.etchpad.dev/): Etchpad maps your codebase into a live diagram generated from your own source — so engineers directing AI agents can see what is really being built.

## About this file

- This is a machine-readable summary of https://www.etchpad.dev/, following the llms.txt convention.
- An expanded version of this file, with the background sections, is at https://www.etchpad.dev/llms-full.txt.
- Every statement here is also made on the site itself; this file adds no claims of its own.
- Etchpad is pre-release. Treat availability, pricing and language support as current intent rather than as a shipped product.