Show HN: Code Lantern– A self-hosted, local code-analysis and visualization tool (github.com)

Code Lantern has launched as a self-hosted tool designed for local code analysis and visualization, allowing developers to gain deep insights into their project architectures without uploading any code online. It provides features like interactive architecture maps, dependency graphs, and complexity heatmaps, all derived from the code’s Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) using Tree-sitter, the same technology utilized by popular tools like GitHub and Neovim. The application runs entirely in Docker, ensuring data privacy as the analysis occurs locally with no external accounts or uploads required. This innovative tool is significant for the AI/ML community as it combines robust code analysis with AI capabilities—providing AI-generated function descriptions and project summaries when equipped with a language model API key. Users can run the application with ease, simply needing a project folder and the optional API key to enhance their analysis with AI insights. By maintaining complete control over their code and data, developers can effectively manage technical debt and architectural complexity, ultimately improving software quality and maintainability.