Walkthroughs

BitVanes walkthroughs are read-only: they highlight and explain, but never edit your files. Two flows are supported.

Diff walkthroughs

• BitVanes: Walkthrough Working Tree Changes — traces git diff of unstaged edits, including brand-new untracked files (whole-file walkthroughs — the core "my AI just wrote this" flow).
• BitVanes: Walkthrough Staged Changes — traces what's staged (git diff --cached). Both are also one click away in the Source Control title menu.

Hunks are parsed with --unified=0, padded with context lines, enriched with AST symbols around each change, and handed to the model as line-numbered context — the model returns steps that reference the new file content, so ranges always match what you see in the editor. Large diffs are prioritized by change size (largest files first) and the completion toast reports exactly how many of your changed files the tour covers.

Code-path walkthroughs

Put your cursor anywhere inside a function (no selection needed — BitVanes expands to the enclosing block, using the AST when the language is supported) and run BitVanes: Walkthrough Code Path at Cursor. This is the flow for questions like "how does this contract's transfer actually execute?" — the plan follows data from entry to persistence/return.

The step UI

Every step gives you:

• Spotlight — amber border and subtle fill on the exact statement; hover it for the narrative, variable: before → after, and any security callout.
• Dimming — code outside the active scope drops to 30% opacity so the relevant lines carry the eye.
• Scope border — a dotted outline around the enclosing function or block.
• Sidebar — the step list with variable/action badges; click any step to jump.
• Status bar — BitVanes 3/7 with prev/next controls and autoplay.
• Browser — BitVanes: Browse Steps & Explanations opens a QuickPick with every step's full explanation; search across them with fuzzy match.

Autoplay

BitVanes: Toggle Autoplay advances the plan on an interval (default 4s, configurable via bitvanes.autoplay.intervalMs) without stealing your focus, and stops automatically at the last step — good for hands-free review or recording a demo.

What the model returns

Every plan conforms to one JSON schema (see src/types/protocol.ts). Validation is strict and self-healing: 0-based lines get normalized (columns are repaired independently so a half-0-based answer never shifts your steps), invalid steps are dropped rather than failing the plan, steps may only reference the files the walkthrough was generated from, and ranges that land slightly off a real syntax node are snapped to the nearest matching AST node before playback starts.