Visualizer

A Claude Code plugin that pushes interactive HTML visualizations to a browser window. Claude generates diagrams, mockups, comparisons, and dashboards — you see them live in your browser while continuing to work in the terminal.

How It Works

┌──────────────┐    stdio/JSON-RPC    ┌──────────────┐    HTTP + WebSocket    ┌──────────────┐
│  Claude Code  │◄──────────────────►│  MCP Server   │◄────────────────────►│   Browser     │
│  (terminal)   │                    │  (Node.js)    │                      │  (localhost)  │
└──────────────┘                    └──────────────┘                      └──────────────┘
       │                                   │                                      │
  You ask Claude                  Serves HTML, relays                    You see & interact
  to visualize                    user events back                      with visualizations

Claude calls MCP tools to push HTML screens to the browser and read your interactions (clicks, selections) back. No filesystem intermediary — content flows directly through WebSocket.

Install

From the marketplace

claude plugin install visualizer@visualizer

Or add the marketplace first, then install

claude plugin marketplace add stemado/visualizer-plugin
claude plugin install visualizer

Dependencies are installed automatically on first session start.

Quick Start

Just ask Claude to visualize something:

"Visualize the architecture of this project"

"Show me a side-by-side comparison of these two API designs"

"Mock up a dashboard for our deployment metrics"

Claude will:

1. Launch a session and give you a URL (e.g., http://localhost:54321)
2. Open it in your browser
3. Push interactive HTML content
4. Read your clicks and selections
5. Iterate based on your feedback

What You Can Do With It

Architecture & System Design

• "Visualize the architecture of this project" — SVG diagrams with clickable service nodes, showing data flow between layers
• "Show me how the auth middleware connects to the session store" — Trace a specific execution path visually
• "Diagram the database schema for the users module" — Entity-relationship diagrams with relationships
• "Map out the microservices and their communication patterns" — Service mesh visualization with protocol labels

Decision-Making & Comparisons

• "Compare Redux vs Zustand for our state management" — Side-by-side mockups with pros/cons cards you can click to vote on
• "Show me 3 approaches for the caching layer" — Interactive option cards where you click your preference, then Claude drills deeper
• "Help me choose between Postgres and DynamoDB for this use case" — Comparison dashboard with trade-off matrices

UI Mockups & Prototyping

• "Mock up what the settings page could look like" — HTML/CSS mockups with nav bars, sidebars, form elements
• "Show me 2-3 layout options for the dashboard" — Push multiple screens, iterate based on your clicks
• "Prototype the onboarding flow" — Multi-screen walkthrough where each click advances to the next step

Flowcharts & Process Diagrams

• "Diagram the CI/CD pipeline" — SVG flowcharts with decision nodes, color-coded stages
• "Map the user signup flow including error states" — State machines with branching paths
• "Show the deployment process step by step" — Sequential flow with decision diamonds

Concept Maps & Knowledge Graphs

• "Map out how the modules in this codebase relate to each other" — Canvas-based draggable node graphs with force-directed layout
• "Create a concept map of our API endpoints and their dependencies" — Interactive knowledge graph you can rearrange
• "Visualize the dependency tree for this package" — Hierarchical node layout

Dashboards & Data Visualization

• "Build a dashboard showing our test coverage by module" — KPI tiles with sparkline charts and status indicators
• "Visualize the performance metrics from these benchmark results" — Bar/line charts with change indicators
• "Show a health dashboard for the services" — Real-time-style tiles with green/yellow/red status

Data Exploration

• "Help me explore this JSON schema interactively" — Schema browsers with expandable nodes
• "Build a query builder UI for the API" — Interactive filter/query interfaces
• "Visualize the data pipeline stages" — Pipeline designers with syntax-highlighted previews

Code Review & Refactoring

• "Show me the before/after of this refactoring visually" — Split-view comparison of code structure
• "Visualize the call graph for this function" — Trace which functions call what
• "Diagram the class hierarchy" — Inheritance/composition trees

Project Planning

• "Visualize the feature roadmap" — Timeline/Gantt-style layouts
• "Map out the migration plan phases" — Sequential phase diagrams with dependencies
• "Show the sprint breakdown visually" — Kanban or phase-based layouts

Interactive Exploration & Learning

• "Walk me through how WebSockets work with a diagram" — Educational multi-screen sequences
• "Explain the event loop visually" — Animated or step-by-step concept breakdowns
• "Show me how this algorithm works step by step" — Interactive stepping through logic

The Key Differentiator: Interactivity

The killer feature is the feedback loop — you don't just look at static diagrams. You click choices in the browser (via data-choice attributes), and Claude reads those events to push refined screens. This makes it great for:

• Iterative design — "Show me 3 options" → click one → "Now show me variations of that"
• Decision trees — Each click branches into deeper detail
• Guided exploration — Click through a codebase visualization node by node

MCP Tools

The plugin exposes 6 tools via the Model Context Protocol:

Features

Auto-theming

HTML fragments are automatically wrapped in a themed frame with light/dark mode support (follows system preference), a header bar, and an indicator showing selection state.

Built-in CSS classes

The frame template includes ready-to-use classes for common UI patterns:

• Options — A/B/C choice cards with selection highlighting
• Cards — responsive grid with hover effects
• Mockups — browser-chrome-style containers
• Split view — side-by-side comparison (responsive)
• Pros/Cons — color-coded tradeoff lists
• Mock elements — nav bars, sidebars, buttons, inputs, placeholders

Click capture

Any element with data-choice="value" and onclick="toggleSelect(this)" becomes interactive. Clicks are captured and returned to Claude via get_events, enabling multi-turn visual conversations.

Full document support

Need complete page control for canvas or complex SVG? Push a full <!DOCTYPE html> document — the WebSocket helper is still auto-injected.

Screen archive & gallery

Every screen pushed during a session is saved to .visualizer/archive/<session_id>/. A timeline sidebar in the browser lets you navigate back to any previous screen. When the session closes, a static HTML gallery is generated with timeline and grid views plus a lightbox — works offline without the MCP server.

Session management

• Sessions auto-close after 30 minutes of inactivity
• Up to 5 concurrent sessions
• Automatic WebSocket reconnection in the browser

Architecture

src/
├── index.js              # Entry point — wires MCP server to stdio transport
├── mcp-server.js         # 6 MCP tool handlers (launch, push, get_events, list, close, gallery)
├── http-server.js        # Express + WebSocket server factory
├── session-manager.js    # Session state: events, screens, timeouts
├── archive-manager.js    # Screen persistence, manifest tracking, static gallery generation
├── renderer.js           # Fragment → full document wrapping
├── helper.js             # Browser-side JS: WebSocket, click capture, window.visualizer API
├── sidebar.js            # Browser-side timeline sidebar for navigating screen history
├── frame-template.html   # Themed HTML frame with CSS variables and utility classes
└── gallery-template.html # Static gallery template with timeline/grid views and lightbox

Development

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/stemado/visualizer-plugin.git
cd visualizer-plugin

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run tests (7 suites)
npm test

# Test MCP server startup
echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"test","version":"1.0"},"protocolVersion":"2025-03-26"}}' | node src/index.js

Test coverage

Tech Stack

• Node.js — runtime (no build step, plain JS with JSDoc types)
• @modelcontextprotocol/sdk — MCP stdio server
• Express — HTTP server
• ws — WebSocket server
• Zod — parameter validation for MCP tools

License

MIT