BKPT ViewAlyzer - Embedded Trace

Help make ViewAlyzer better.

Found a bug, a capture that will not start, or a view that shows the wrong thing? Open an issue at github.com/BKPT-Labs/BKPT-Issues. Run ViewAlyzer: Check Setup Health, click Copy report and paste it in, together with your RTOS, board and probe and what you expected to see. Feature requests and questions are welcome there too.

Record and view RTOS and embedded traces without leaving VS Code. ViewAlyzer captures scheduler activity, events, and variable traces from a live target over a J-Link or ST-LINK probe, then renders them in fast, interactive panels:

• Timeline: per-task execution slices, context switches, and anomalies, zoomable from a whole capture down to microseconds.
• Event table: every recorded event, searchable and filterable, with priority-inversion highlighting.
• Trace graphs: plotted firmware-emitted variable traces, with zoom, pan, and cursor readouts synchronized across all open panels.

Works with FreeRTOS, Zephyr, and baremetal firmware.

Made by BKPT Labs. The extension is free and works out of the box. The panels here are a focused subset of the full ViewAlyzer desktop app - and any recording opens there in one click (Open in Full App on a recording's row, or Open latest in full app under the Record button). Licenses and the desktop app are at bkptlabs.com.

Getting started

1. Open ViewAlyzer in the Activity Bar. The home view shows license status and the most common setup and recording actions.
2. Expand Record Setup to configure a capture, then connect your board through a J-Link or ST-LINK probe and record. You can also use the ViewAlyzer status-bar item or Command Palette.
3. The trace panel opens automatically. Expand Recordings to reopen an old capture at any time. With Update Traces while recording enabled, the Traces tile updates during capture and switches to decoded VADB data at the end.

Firmware not instrumented yet? The ViewAlyzer-Examples repo has ready-to-build projects (Zephyr, FreeRTOS, and baremetal) with the recorder already wired in, plus desktop UDP senders to try the panels with no hardware at all.

Quick setup

• ST-LINK and J-Link: the bundled Rust engine talks to supported probes directly. No OpenOCD or vendor GDB server is installed or launched. Not sure what is missing? Run ViewAlyzer: Check Setup Health - it checks the engine, recording directory, probe backends, and connected probes.

Recording a capture

ViewAlyzer: Record Trace Capture walks you through it:

• Pick how the target is connected. Detected probes are listed first (ST-LINK SWO or RAM buffer, J-Link RTT or RAM buffer), plus serial port and UDP transports. If you keep your setup in a .vacf file, pick Use config file... instead and skip the questions.
• Answer only what the transport needs: target device name, serial port and baud rate, or UDP port. The extension remembers your target device.
• Pick a duration and record. You can cancel mid-capture; whatever was captured so far is kept.

Recordings are saved under viewalyzer/captures/ in your workspace and open straight into the trace panels.

Checking your setup

Not sure why a capture will not start? Run ViewAlyzer: Check Setup Health from the Command Palette, or click Check setup at the bottom of the Record panel. The results show the active Rust engine, recordings directory, probe support, serial ports, and connected probes. Anything missing comes with an actionable hint, and Copy report puts a plain-text version on the clipboard for support emails.

AI assistants (MCP)

The extension ships an MCP server that lets AI assistants record captures and query trace data: timelines, events, user traces, priority inversions, and SQL over the recording.

• Copilot agent mode picks the server up automatically; no setup needed.
• For other clients, run ViewAlyzer: Connect AI Assistant (also the sparkle button on the Recordings view) and pick yours: a claude mcp add one-liner for Claude Code, a one-click install link for Cursor, or a JSON config block for Claude Desktop and anything else that speaks MCP. Clients outside VS Code need Node.js 20+ installed.

Free version

The bundled binary runs unactivated, which caps capture length and the number of user traces shown, with a short cooldown between captures; the extension always tells you the exact limits in effect. Viewing recordings is unlimited.

Trial keys unlock the complete app for their signed evaluation period. The sidebar and Record form show the fixed trial end date; after it passes, the same installation returns to these free limits instead of becoming a perpetual license.

Need longer captures, more traces, and the full desktop app? Upgrade at bkptlabs.com.

Already own ViewAlyzer?

Run ViewAlyzer: Install License File and select the signed .license file. The bundled app and CLI immediately share the installed license. You can still use ViewAlyzer: Use My Licensed ViewAlyzer to point the extension at a separately installed Rust/schema-2 app, or set viewalyzer.binaryPath directly.