For many years, I was using FreeMind to create mind maps with a knowledge base of a project I was currently working on at work. Such mind maps included all possible project information, from links to Jira tickets to code snippets, and so on.
When I was getting on a project with a large codebase, I was researching it by copying and pasting pieces of code into mind map nodes creating a mental map of the codebase.
I’ve always loved this way of organizing project knowledge and analyzing code, but there was no way to navigate to pieces of code from FreeMind to Visual Studio. I had to copy the code from the mind map node and then search for it in Visual Studio.
Well, not anymore.
I’ve built an extension for Visual Studio and VS Code that allows you to create powerful mind maps with nodes linked to code.
You can select a piece of code in the editor, press Ctrl+2, Ctrl+2, and the selected code will appear as a child node in the mind map.
Then, you can Ctrl+Click on the node and you’ll immediately jump to the linked code.
Simple, efficient, flawless.
You can use it for analyzing a code base, as a way of having hierarchically organized bookmarks. It also has all the classic mind-mapping capabilities. You can use it to organize and have your project knowledge in a single graph in one place.
The auto-save feature will keep your mind map saved.
Feel free to get it right here: <a href="https://codemindmap.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">https://codemindmap.com/</a>
Visual Studio extension screenshot:
<img src="https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--CJBTxW56--/f_auto/v1750823900/ugc/content_e8716e2b-2163-4410-8b39-fc377307626d?_a=BAMClqZW0" alt="Screenshot_Solution">
VS Code extension screenshot:
<img src="https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--NDyZqZxn--/f_auto/v1750823678/ugc/content_99523846-7d8a-49ae-8ffa-9b5b84648dc5?_a=BAMClqZW0" alt="vs_code_screenshot_1">
Please install the extension and let me know what you think!

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A developer created Code Mind Map, an extension for Visual Studio and VS Code that connects mind map nodes directly to code snippets. Users can select code, press Ctrl+2 twice to add it as a mind map node, then Ctrl+Click to navigate back to the original code location. The tool addresses the common challenge of organizing project knowledge and analyzing large codebases by providing a visual, hierarchical way to bookmark and navigate code sections.

I built Code Mind Map, an extension for Visual Studio and VS Code that links mind map nodes to code.