BehaviorLens

The Ultimate Visual Studio Code Extension for BehaviorTree.CPP

BehaviorTree.CPP is a fantastic library, and behavior trees are powerful. BehaviorLens brings that power directly into VS Code with a fully interactive, visual editor and debugger.

✨ Features

🌲 Visual Editor & Preview

Stop staring at raw XML. Visualize your Behavior Trees with a modern, interactive graph editor.

• Drag & Drop Reordering: Organize your trees intuitively.
• Node Management: Add, remove, and rename nodes easily with the context menu.
• Edit Attributes: Modify node parameters directly in the UI.
• Smart Connection: Connect nodes with validation to prevent cycles.

🤖 Live ROS 2 Integration

Debug your robot's logic in real-time. BehaviorLens bridges directly to your ROS 2 stack to visualize execution state.

• Live Status Visualization: See nodes transition (IDLE, RUNNING, SUCCESS, FAILURE) as your robot thinks.
• Inspection Mode: One-click subscription to /behavior_tree_log.
  • Configurable Topic: You can change the topic in settings if your robot publishes elsewhere.
  • Message Type: Expects nav2_msgs/msg/BehaviorTreeLog (Definition).
• Auto-Discovery: Automatically detects ROS 2 distributions (Humble, Jazzy) and sources them.

⚡ Seamless Synchronization

• Bi-directional Sync: Changes in the visual editor update the XML file instantly, and manual text edits update the visual tree.
• Side-by-Side View: Code on the left, visual tree on the right. Perfect for understanding complex files.

🎨 Beautiful Preview

• Node Icons: Distinct icons for Actions, Conditions, Controls, and Decorators types.
• Native Look & Feel: Matches your VS Code theme (Dark/Light).

🚀 Getting Started

1. Install the extension from the Marketplace.
2. Open any .xml file containing a Behavior Tree.
3. Click the Open Preview icon in the editor title bar, or run BehaviorLens: Open Preview.
4. Edit: Drag nodes, click to edit attributes, or use the context menu.
5. Debug: Use the "Inspect" toggle in the preview to listen to ROS 2 topics.

🔧 Requirements

• VS Code 1.75.0 or higher.
• ROS 2 (Humble, Jazzy, or Iron) is required for Live Integration features only.
  • Note: Standard visualization and editing works perfectly without ROS.
• Python 3 with rclpy (if using ROS bridge).

⌨️ Commands

🧩 Advanced Features

🔌 Port Visualization

BehaviorLens automatically visualizes input and output ports for your nodes.

• Blackboard Variables: Easily see which blackboard keys a node reads from or writes to.
• Data Flow: Understand the data dependencies in your behavior tree at a glance.

📚 Load Custom Node Libraries

Work with custom actions and conditions? No problem.

1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P).
2. Run BehaviorLens: Load Library.
3. Select your XML file containing the node definitions.
4. Your custom nodes will appear in the side panel, ready to be dragged into your tree.

🤝 Support

If you encounter issues or have feature requests, please open an issue.

Built for the Robotics Community.