BC Atlas for VS Code

See the architecture of your Business Central AL apps, find every dependency that stands in its way, and keep it clean as the code changes. Dependencies in 3D, clean-architecture checks with concrete fixes, health findings in the Problems panel, diagrams, and documentation: one panel, right next to your code.

Open a folder with an app.json, and BC Atlas analyzes it. There is nothing else to install: the extension brings its engine along and runs it on the editor's own Node.js runtime. Everything stays on your machine.

Find an architecture, then keep it

The Architecture page: 28 components in 12 layers, 658 wrong-way dependencies, and 232 work items for the Shopify Connector

BC Atlas proposes a layered architecture from today's dependencies, or checks the one you define in .bca.json. Every dependency that points the wrong way becomes a work item that says what to do in AL terms: move a subscriber, move a field into a table extension, extract an interface. One click on Adopt this architecture writes it down; Accept current violations records a baseline, so from then on only new violations fail, and the baseline can only shrink.

It answers the question behind splitting a large app: which parts could become apps of their own today, and what is in the way for the rest?

Dependencies in 3D, and in 4D

Components of the Shopify Connector in 3D: allowed dependencies in green, wrong-way dependencies in red

Fly through objects, modules, apps, and architecture components. Green links follow the architecture, red ones break it. Filter, search, and click any node for its links. Replay how the dependencies grew commit by commit, per pull request, or per release on the timeline.

Every object of the Shopify Connector in 3D, with the largest architecture work items next to the graph

Right where you code

An AL table in the editor with the BC Atlas CodeLens above it and architecture violations in the Problems panel

CodeLens above every object: how often it is used, what it uses, its component, and its dependencies against the architecture.
Problems panel: health and architecture findings at their file and line, with the fix in the message.
Right-click in an AL file: Show This Object, Show This Object in 3D, Diagram of This Object.
Status bar: health at a glance; click it for the overview.

Every object, one click away

The page of the Shpfy Shop table: what it uses, what uses it, its component, and how to resolve its 14 wrong-way dependencies

Search all objects. Each one gets a page with what it uses and what uses it, across apps, its fields, procedures, and actions, and every one of its architecture violations with the steps to resolve it. Open source jumps to the line.

Health at a glance

The Overview page of the Shopify Connector: 514 objects, health, components, wrong-way dependencies, and cycles

The same rules as bca check in your pipeline: dependency cycles, forbidden dependencies, architecture violations, hot spots with too many incoming or outgoing dependencies, and parser diagnostics.

All pages

Page	What it shows
Overview	Objects, apps, health, the architecture at a glance, the most connected objects, and next steps.
Health	Every finding of `bca check`: cycles, forbidden dependencies, architecture violations, hot spots, diagnostics.
Architecture	The configured architecture or a proposal: components in layers, wrong-way dependencies as work items, metrics per component.
Dependencies	The 3D explorer: objects, modules, apps, and components; inside one app vs. across apps; replayed by commit, pull request, or release.
Diagrams	Ten diagram views (project, module, object, data, call, boundary, contracts, events, ui, workflow) with zoom and pan; save as SVG or D2.
Objects	Every AL object, searchable, with a page per object.
Docs	User guides from your AL UI tests, when the project has them.

The panel follows your color theme and updates when AL files, app.json, .bca.json, or the baseline change.

For AI agents

The extension registers the BC Atlas MCP server, so agents in VS Code, for example GitHub Copilot in agent mode, can check the architecture, propose one, pick a work item, apply it, and check again. Work items come with stable strategy IDs, made for exactly that loop.

Get started

Install BC Atlas and open a folder with an app.json (or a folder above several apps).
Click the BC Atlas icon in the activity bar, or run BC Atlas: Open.
On the Architecture page, review the proposal and choose Adopt this architecture. From now on, the Problems panel and bca check keep it.

Commands

All commands are in the Command Palette under BC Atlas: ....

Command	Does
Open, Open Page…	Shows the panel.
Run Health Check	Analyzes again and fills the Problems panel; the same rules as `bca check` in CI.
Propose an Architecture, Accept Current Violations in the Baseline	Find and enforce a target architecture.
Export…	Writes the BC Atlas pages as one offline HTML file to share, the Markdown report, the 3D explorer, the object catalog, or a diagram.
Generate Documentation from UI Tests…	Markdown, HTML, DITA, Azure DevOps CSV, or BPMN from AL UI tests.
Set Up Automation	`.bca.json`, Git hooks, a GitHub or Azure DevOps pipeline, and a schedule, in a guided terminal session.
Run Tasks of a Trigger…	Runs what a hook, the pipeline, or the schedule runs.
Select Project…	Chooses the app, or a folder above several apps, to analyze.
Analyze Again, Show Output

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
`bcAtlas.project`	empty	Folder to analyze, relative to the workspace. Empty: the first app, or the workspace folder when it holds several apps.
`bcAtlas.paths`	`[]`	Only analyze these folders or globs (like `--paths`); speeds up large repositories such as BCApps.
`bcAtlas.problems`	`true`	Findings in the Problems panel.
`bcAtlas.codeLens`	`true`	CodeLens above AL objects.
`bcAtlas.nodePath`	empty	Node.js 22 or later for the engine; empty uses the runtime built into VS Code.

CI, pipelines, and the command line

The same engine is the bc-atlas npm package: bca check gates pull requests, bca export writes reports and the offline pages, and bca run runs from Git hooks and pipelines. Set Up Automation configures all of it. See the documentation.

Privacy

The analysis runs locally, inside VS Code. BC Atlas sends no telemetry and makes no network requests.

Requirements

VS Code 1.101 or later. No AL symbols needed; with .alpackages, references into Microsoft's apps resolve too. Large projects take a while on the first analysis (the Base Application with the System Application and Business Foundation: about two minutes); afterwards every page opens in under a second.

The screenshots show Microsoft's open-source Shopify Connector from BCApps, with an architecture proposed by folder.

License

MIT. BC Atlas bundles tree-sitter-al and web-tree-sitter (MIT), D2 (MPL-2.0), and 3d-force-graph with three.js (MIT).

BC Atlas: AL Architecture & Dependencies

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