BTView — Behavior Tree Editor

Visual graph editor for BehaviorTree.CPP v3.8 and v4 XML files. Works in VS Code and Cursor.
Features
- Interactive behavior tree graph (zoom, pan, node inspector)
- Bidirectional XML sync — edits in the graph update the XML file
- Dual format support: auto-detect v3.8 vs v4 (
BTCPP_format="4")
- Include resolution: relative paths, absolute paths, ROS
ros_pkg
- Optional v3 → v4 migration with diff preview
- Version-faithful round-trip serialization
Requirements
- VS Code ≥ 1.85 or Cursor (Marketplace / VSIX from GitHub Releases)
- Node.js 20+ (development only)
- ROS 2 workspace (optional, for
ros_pkg includes)
Install
| IDE |
How |
| VS Code |
Extensions → search BTView or ext install rangonomics.btview |
| Cursor |
Extensions → search BTView (Open VSX) |
| Any |
Download .vsix from GitHub Releases → Extensions: Install from VSIX... |
Cursor uses Open VSX, not the Microsoft Marketplace. See Distribution guide.
Quick start
- Open a
.xml file containing a BehaviorTree.CPP tree
- Click Open BT Graph in the editor title bar, or run BTView: Open BT Graph from the Command Palette
- Use BTView: Open BT Graph to the Side for split XML + graph view
- Click nodes to inspect and edit attributes; use the toolbar to add nodes
Documentation
Development
Contributors: branch from devel and open PRs to devel. See CONTRIBUTING.md and docs/BRANCHING.md.
git checkout devel
npm ci
pip install pre-commit # or: uv tool install pre-commit
pre-commit install -t pre-commit -t commit-msg
npm run watch # dev mode
# Press F5 to launch Extension Development Host
npm test # unit + integration tests
npm run package # production build
npm run vsix # create .vsix installer
License
Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE.
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