Annotate
Code walkthrough builder for devrels, educators, and engineers
Open-Source Projects
Discover top open-source software, updated regularly with real-world adoption signals.
Discover top open-source software, updated regularly with real-world adoption signals.
Record and replay guided walkthroughs of your codebase
Visual Studio Code extension that lets you create interactive, step-by-step tours through code. Perfect for onboarding, bug reports, and code reviews.
CodeTour is a Visual Studio Code extension that transforms how teams share knowledge about their codebases. Instead of static documentation or lengthy README files, you can record interactive walkthroughs that guide developers through specific features, bug fixes, or architectural patterns step-by-step.
Each tour consists of a series of steps anchored to specific files, directories, or lines of code. As developers navigate through a tour, they see contextual descriptions (with full Markdown support) that explain what the code does and why it matters. Tours can highlight specific code selections, span multiple files, and even work across multi-root workspaces.
Tours can be checked directly into your repository as .tour files, making them available to every contributor who clones the project. Alternatively, export tours as standalone files that anyone can replay without needing to clone the entire codebase—ideal for code reviews, PR walkthroughs, or remote collaboration. Whether you're onboarding new team members, documenting complex features, or providing context for bug reports, CodeTour makes tribal knowledge accessible and actionable.
When teams consider CodeTour, these hosted platforms usually appear on the same shortlist.
Looking for a hosted option? These are the services engineering teams benchmark against before choosing open source.
New Developer Onboarding
Junior engineers navigate a primary tour on day one, understanding project structure and key patterns without waiting for senior developer availability.
Bug Report Documentation
QA team creates a tour showing exact reproduction steps through the codebase, enabling developers to quickly locate and fix the issue.
Pull Request Context
Author exports a tour explaining their PR changes across multiple files, helping reviewers understand the rationale and implementation approach.
Feature Area Deep Dive
Tech lead records a linked series of tours covering authentication flow, allowing team members to self-serve when working on related features.
Yes, anyone playing back a tour needs the CodeTour extension installed in Visual Studio Code. However, exported tour files can be shared and replayed without cloning the repository.
Absolutely. Right-click any tour in the CodeTour tree view and select 'Edit Tour' to add, delete, reorder, or modify steps. You can also change the tour title, description, or git reference.
Tours are stored as JSON files in your repository. Treat them like documentation—review and update them during code reviews or when refactoring areas they cover. The extension provides editing tools to quickly adjust steps.
Yes. Tours can include steps across any files in your workspace, including multi-root workspaces. You can also create directory steps or content steps for introductory explanations not tied to specific code.
Checked-in tours are committed to your repository as .tour files, making them available to all contributors. Exported tours are standalone files you can share via email or chat for one-off walkthroughs without repository access.
Project at a glance
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