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Analysis Tab Reference

The Hexana custom editor shows up to 11 built-in tabs in its analysis panel, surfaced based on the loaded binary's kind (core Wasm, Component Model, or generic), plus any number of scriptable tabs you add with "+" (see features.md). All tables on every tab are sortable (click a header) and searchable (type in the built-in search field — unified across all tabs since 0.6.0). Protocol Buffers descriptor sets open with their own five-tab set, documented at the end of this page.

This page documents each tab in the order Hexana renders them.

Summary

Available for: all binary kinds.

Shows the high-level shape of the module:

  • Section table — every section in the binary with id, byte offset, byte size, and a percentage of total file size. Custom sections (including name, DWARF, and producer-tool sections) appear in this list.
  • Statistics — total file size, magic bytes, binary format version, detected kind, function count, import count, export count, type count, memory count, global count, table count, and data-segment count where applicable.

Use this tab as the first stop on any new binary — it tells you whether you are looking at a core module, a component, or something unrecognised.

Exports

Available for: core Wasm and Component Model.

Lists everything the module exposes:

Column Description
Kind func, table, memory, global, tag, or component-model interface kind.
Name Export name, verbatim from the binary.
Index Numeric index in the appropriate index space (function index for func, etc.).
Signature Resolved type signature for function exports.

For Component Model files, exports include interface and resource exports as well as plain functions.

Imports

Available for: core Wasm and Component Model.

Lists everything the module requires from its host:

Column Description
Kind func, table, memory, global, tag, or component-model interface kind.
Module Import module name. For core Wasm this is the first half of the import descriptor (env, wasi_snapshot_preview1, etc.).
Name Import item name.
Signature Resolved type for function imports.

Functions

Available for: core Wasm only.

One row per defined function:

Column Description
Index Function index (zero-based across imports + defined functions).
Name Function name from the name custom section if present, otherwise blank.
Signature Parameters and results.

Imports are excluded from this tab — they appear under Imports.

Data

Available for: core Wasm only.

Lists data segments:

Column Description
Index Data segment index.
Kind Passive or active.
Memory Memory index for active segments.
Offset Init expression for active segments.
Size Byte size of the segment payload.

Used to understand how much of the binary is static data versus code, and where the static data lands at runtime.

Custom

Available for: core Wasm only.

Lists custom sections by name:

Column Description
Name Custom section name (e.g. name, .debug_info, producers).
Size Byte size.
Offset Byte offset in the file.

Helps diagnose DWARF presence, producer-tool fingerprints, and the relative cost of debug information.

Top

Available for: core Wasm and Component Model.

Hexana's size profiler. Lists the largest contributors to binary size:

Column Description
Kind Function, data segment, custom section, etc.
Index / Name Identifier of the contributor.
Size Byte size.
% of file Share of the total file.

Sorted by size descending by default. Use this tab to answer "why is my .wasm 8 MB?" — usually the answer is a small number of giant functions or a debug section, not death by a thousand cuts.

Monos

Available for: core Wasm only.

Monomorphisation analysis. Looks for clusters of functions that share a signature prefix or naming pattern and may represent the same generic function instantiated for different type arguments. Useful for Rust / C++ codebases where template / generics expansion bloats the binary.

Column Description
Group Inferred base name of the monomorphisation cluster.
Count Number of instantiations in the cluster.
Total size Combined byte size of all instantiations.
Per-instance avg Average size of one instantiation.

Sorted by total size descending — the costliest clusters surface first.

Garbage

Available for: core Wasm only.

Unreferenced-code detection. Functions that appear unreachable from any export or from the start function. Likely candidates for dead-code elimination if your build pipeline missed them.

Column Description
Index Function index.
Name Function name if available.
Size Byte size.

Note: detection is conservative. Tail-called functions through complex indirect-call patterns may show up as garbage when they are actually live. Treat as a candidates list, not a delete-without-thinking list.

Modules

Available for: Component Model only.

Lists the nested modules inside a component binary:

Column Description
Path Hierarchical path to the nested module within the component.
Kind Core module or sub-component.
Size Byte size.

Each row is clickable — clicking opens the nested module in a separate VS Code editor tab via Hexana's virtual filesystem provider. The nested editor itself has the same 11-tab analysis panel and can drill further if the nested module is also a component. See component-model.md for the nested-module URL scheme and back-navigation.

WAT

Available for: core Wasm and Component Model.

Generates the WebAssembly Text representation of the loaded binary and opens it in a native VS Code editor tab (not inside the Hexana webview). This gives you:

  • VS Code's syntax highlighting via the wat language association.
  • Find / replace and Go-to-Line working through VS Code's own machinery.
  • Coexistence with any other VS Code WAT extension you have installed.

The conversion runs in the webview via a WASM-based wat printer (WasmPrinterJs), so there is no external dependency.

Since 0.5.0 the WAT view uses virtual scrolling — only the visible portion of the text is rendered at any given time. For large modules with thousands of functions (e.g. a multi-MB Emscripten or Kotlin/Wasm binary), this keeps initial render and section navigation fast.

The WAT view is read-only and is regenerated on each open. Inline WAT editing — present in the JetBrains plugin — is not yet in the VS Code extension.

Protocol Buffers descriptor set tabs (0.6.0+)

Available for: .desc and .protoset files (compiled Protocol Buffers descriptor sets).

When a descriptor set is open, the analysis panel shows five tabs instead of the Wasm set:

  • Files — one row per embedded .proto file: name, package, syntax, top-level message / enum / service counts, and dependencies.
  • Messages — one row per message type: defining file, dotted qualified name (Outer.Inner), and field / nested-type / enum counts.
  • Fields — one row per field across all messages: file, message, field name, number, label, type, and any message or enum type reference.
  • Enums — one row per enum value: file, qualified enum name, value name, and number.
  • Services — one row per RPC method: file, service, method name, input and output types, and client / server streaming flags.

See also