cviz

A CLI tool to visualize WebAssembly component composition structure.

cviz parses composed WebAssembly components and generates diagrams showing how component instances are wired together. It's particularly useful for understanding middleware chains in WASI HTTP components.

Curious what this tool does? Clone the repo and run the demo! cargo run --example demo

Installation

# From source
cargo install --path .

# Or from git
cargo install --git https://github.com/cosmonic-labs/cviz

Usage

cviz [OPTIONS] <FILE>

Arguments:
  <FILE>  Path to the .wasm component file

Options:
  -f, --format <FORMAT>        Output format [default: ascii] [values: ascii, mermaid]
  -d, --direction <DIRECTION>  Diagram direction (mermaid only) [default: lr] [values: lr, td]
  -l, --detail <DETAIL>        Detail level [default: handler-chain]
  -o, --output <OUTPUT>        Output file (stdout if not specified)
  -h, --help                   Print help
  -V, --version                Print version

Output Formats

ASCII (default)

Clean terminal-friendly box diagrams:

cviz composed.wasm

┌────────────────────────────────────┐
│          Middleware Chain          │
├────────────────────────────────────┤
│srv ── handler ──> mdl-c            │
│mdl-c ── handler ──> mdl-b          │
│mdl-b ── handler ──> mdl-a          │
│mdl-a ──> [Export: handler]         │
└────────────────────────────────────┘

Mermaid

Generate Mermaid diagrams for documentation or visualization tools:

cviz composed.wasm -f mermaid

graph LR
    subgraph composition["Middleware Chain"]
        srv["srv"]
        mdl_c["mdl-c"]
        mdl_b["mdl-b"]
        mdl_a["mdl-a"]
    end

    srv -->|"handler"| mdl_c
    mdl_c -->|"handler"| mdl_b
    mdl_b -->|"handler"| mdl_a
    mdl_a --> export(["Export: handler"])

Detail Levels

handler-chain (default)

Shows only the HTTP handler middleware chain - the path from the entry point through all middleware to the final handler export.

cviz composed.wasm -l handler-chain

all-interfaces

Shows all interface connections between components, including host imports (WASI interfaces like filesystem, environment, etc.):

cviz composed.wasm -l all-interfaces

┌───────────────────┐
│   Host Imports    │
├───────────────────┤
│  {environment}    │
│  {exit}           │
│  {stderr}         │
│  {stdin}          │
│  {stdout}         │
│  {streams}        │
│  ...              │
└───────────────────┘

┌─────────────────────────┐
│   Component Instances   │
├─────────────────────────┤
│  [mdl-a]                │
│  [mdl-b]                │
│  [mdl-c]                │
│  [srv]                  │
└─────────────────────────┘

┌───────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                Connections                │
├───────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  [srv] ── handler ──> [mdl-c]             │
│  [mdl-c] ── handler ──> [mdl-b]           │
│  [mdl-b] ── handler ──> [mdl-a]           │
│  {environment} --- environment --- [srv]  │
│  ...                                      │
└───────────────────────────────────────────┘

full

Shows all instances (including synthetic ones) with full interface names and component indices:

cviz composed.wasm -l full

How It Works

cviz uses wasmparser to parse the WebAssembly component model structure. It extracts:

1. Component instances - The instantiated components within the composition
2. Interface connections - How instances are wired together via their imports/exports
3. Export chain - What the composed component exports to the outside world

For WASI HTTP middleware compositions, it specifically traces the wasi:http/handler interface chain to show the request flow through middleware layers.