Pathfinding, made visible

I built this demo because I wanted to watch search algorithms make decisions instead of learning them from another static diagram. The editable grid exposes the order in which each algorithm explores, the path it ultimately chooses, and the cost of that choice.

Try the live demo

The demo supports a static grid for step-by-step exploration and a continuously scrolling, multi-exit mode for comparing repeated replanning strategies. Its Rust engine compiles to WebAssembly; the React interface handles editing, playback, and metrics.

Crates and attribution

This repository is the visualization client. It uses two related Rust crates:

• pathfinding is the original general-purpose library by Samuel Tardieu and its contributors. The algorithms and coverage from which the indexed work descends are theirs.
• pathfinding-indexed is my separate, index-specialized derivative. It narrows the model to dense usize node indices and graph-owned methods; it is not the original pathfinding library. See its published documentation for the API and its own attribution.

Both crates are loaded as published dependencies by crates/engine. The frontend does not present the original pathfinding library as my work.

Project structure

• crates/engine — Rust/WASM adapters and trace generation
• web — React, Vite, shadcn/ui, Vitest, and Playwright
• openspec — archived feature decisions and requirements
• docs/demo.mp4 — short interaction recording

Run locally

Prerequisites

• A stable Rust toolchain with the wasm32-unknown-unknown target
• wasm-pack
• Node.js 22 and npm

rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown
cd web
npm ci
npm run build:wasm
npm run dev

Vite prints the local URL. The committed WebAssembly declaration is supplemented by generated JavaScript and .wasm files during npm run build:wasm.

Verify

cargo fmt --all -- --check
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo test --workspace

cd web
npm ci
npm run build:wasm
npm test
npm run lint
npx playwright install chromium
npm run test:e2e
npm run build

GitHub Actions runs the Rust, frontend, WASM, and critical browser checks from a clean checkout.

Deployment

vercel.json and scripts/vercel-build.sh install the Rust/WASM prerequisites, compile the engine, and build the Vite frontend for Vercel. The public deployment is https://pathfinding-client.vercel.app/.

License

The visualization client is available under the MIT License. Third-party dependencies, including pathfinding and pathfinding-indexed, retain their own licenses and copyright notices.