PDB Browser

A Windows desktop application for browsing and inspecting Windows debug symbol files (.pdb). Built with C++ and Dear ImGui.

Warning

This was developed (almost) solely by Claude Code

Features

• Symbol Browser — View compilands, types, and globals with live filtering
• Inspector — Detailed view of functions (RVA, size, source location), structs (member layout with offsets), enums, and typedefs
• Type Graph — Visual type hierarchy and call graph using imgui-node-editor
• Search — Global fuzzy search with filters (symbol kind, source file, size range)
• Export — Export dialog (Ctrl+E) with symbol kind selection, nested data toggles, optional bulk detail loading, and JSON/CSV output
• Name Prettification — Simplifies C++ and Rust mangled names for readability

Requirements

• Windows 10/11
• Visual Studio 2022 (for MSVC compiler and DIA SDK)
• CMake 3.25+
• Git

vcpkg is bootstrapped automatically during the first configure if not already present.

Build

cmake -B build -S .

# vcpkg location can be configured directly using -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=
cmake -B build -S . -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=<vcpkg>/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake

cmake --build build --config Release

The build will:

1. Clone and bootstrap vcpkg if needed
2. Install dependencies (SDL3, Dear ImGui, imgui-node-editor, nlohmann/json)
3. Locate the DIA SDK from your Visual Studio installation
4. Copy msdia140.dll next to the output executable

The resulting binary is at build/Release/pdb-browser.exe.

DIA SDK

The DIA SDK is auto-detected from your Visual Studio installation. If detection fails, set the DIA_SDK_DIR environment variable to point to the DIA SDK root (e.g. C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\DIA SDK).

Usage

Run pdb-browser.exe and open a .pdb file via File > Open (Ctrl+O). The PDB is parsed on a background thread; once loaded, browse symbols in the top panel, inspect details on the bottom, and explore type relationships in the graph view.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+O	Open PDB file
Ctrl+F	Toggle search dialog
Ctrl+E	Open export dialog
Alt+Left / Mouse 4	Navigate back
Alt+Right / Mouse 5	Navigate forward