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Protovision in five minutes.

Updated 14 November 2026 · version 0.17

Protovision records everything a Windows program does, once, while you use it. Then you go through that run as often as you like: forward and backward in a debugger, or by asking an AI agent what the program did. The recording stays on your machine. Everything you do yourself is free; an agent pays 0.25 credit per question it asks.

What do you want?

DEBUG
See exactly what happened
Record, then step forward and backward, with your sources and types. Steps 1 to 3.
ASK AN AGENT
Have it explained
Record, then let Claude (or any MCP client) work on the run. Steps 1, 2 and 4.
CHANGE IT
Make the program behave differently
A patch rule replaces an instruction as it runs. Patch rules.
1

Download

One zip with every program, for 64 and 32-bit Windows. No installer.

Right-click the zip, Extract all, and open the folder. ProtoTTD.exe is the program you start with.

2

Record a run

Start ProtoTTD, press Record, use the program, close it.

  1. 1
    Open ProtoTTD.exe. Its front page has three tabs: Record, Attach and Open.
  2. 2
    Pick the program with Browse…, add its arguments if it takes any, and press Record.
  3. 3
    Use the program as you normally would: the window shows what it prints and how much has been recorded.
  4. 4
    Close it. The recording is written and opens in the same window, ready to debug.
ProtoTTD's Record tab: the program, its arguments, Record and Advanced settings, the runs folder
The Record tab: the program, its arguments, then Record. Advanced settings is beside it.

The same without a window, from a terminal in the folder:

.\ProtoTTD.exe launch C:\path\to\app.exe arg1 arg2    # writes app.proto.cap
Where it goes
Every run is saved in Documents\Protovision\runs, named after the program (app.proto.cap, then app_2.proto.cap…). The Open tab lists them all. The folder can be changed on the Record tab; a big disk is a good idea, since a run grows by gigabytes a minute. Recording has the detail.
3

Debug it, forward and backward

The capture opens on the first instruction. Move with the keys you know, and Alt to go back.

ProtoTTD stopped on a source line: the file, the line lit, the typed locals, the stack
Stopped on a source line of the program: its locals typed on the right (item is an Item*, its fields read), the stack below. Click for the whole window.
F11  step into          Alt+F11  step back
F10  step over          Alt+F10  step over, backward
F5   run to a breakpoint Alt+F5  run backward
Shift+F11  step out     Ctrl+P   go to #5000, a mark, or the next run of a function

Right-click any address, register or value for what you can do with it: follow it in memory, find who wrote it, break on it. With the program's PDB beside it you get its source lines, parameters and locals, typed. The prompt version, WinDbg style:

.\ProtoTTD.exe app.proto.cap
0:0> bp kernel32!CreateFileW
0:0> g
0:0> calls app!parse_header max 20

All of it in Debugging.

4

Let an agent work on it

Sign the window in, give its link to Claude, and ask.

  1. 1
    Open the agent pane (the Agent button, top right) and type your e-mail: we send you a link, no password. A new account starts with 200 free credits.
  2. 2
    Open the link on any device: the window signs itself in.
  3. 3
    Add to Claude Code in the pane does it for you; for another client, copy the MCP link and add it as a remote (HTTP) MCP server.
  4. 4
    Ask, with the word protovision. The pane's Prompts tab has examples; here are two.
The agent pane, Setup tab: e-mail sign-in, Add to Claude Code, Copy the MCP link
The agent pane: sign in, then Add to Claude Code.
claude mcp add --transport http -s user protovision <your MCP link>
claude

With protovision, open my latest capture and summarise what the program does, thread by thread.

With protovision, record C:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe for 20 seconds, then list the files it opened.

The agent records, debugs and runs Python in your window; you see every step. For a long analysis by a fleet of agents, with a written report at the end, see Agents and prompts.

Where next

Which program?
ProtoTTD and ProtoInsight, every command, and which to use for what.
Recording
Attach to a running process, what is recorded, size and speed.
The config file
Record from a given call, stop after a time, leave a module out.
Troubleshooting
When the program does not start, or the run is slow.
Next
Which program?