Explorer Mode

Baboon's interactive explorer provides a REPL-style shell for browsing and debugging domain models. It's useful for understanding type structures, testing UEBA encoding/decoding, and exploring evolution history.

Launching Explorer Mode

baboon --model-dir ./src/models :explore

You can specify multiple model directories or individual files:

baboon --model-dir ./schemas --model ./extra/types.baboon :explore

Quick Start

Run explorer on the test models:

# Build the compiler first
mdl :build

# Launch explorer
baboon --model-dir baboon-compiler/src/test/resources/baboon :explore

On startup, the explorer:

1. Displays the number of loaded domains
2. Auto-selects the domain if only one exists
3. Shows a list of available domains if multiple exist

The prompt shows current context:

baboon acme.checkout v:2.0.0 #

Commands Reference

Navigation

Command	Description
domains	List all loaded domain packages
versions	List versions in the current domain
switch <domain> [version]	Switch to a domain and optionally a specific version

Example:

baboon (no domain) # domains
  acme.checkout (3 version(s))
  acme.billing (2 version(s))

baboon (no domain) # switch acme.checkout 2.0.0
Switched to acme.checkout v:2.0.0

baboon acme.checkout v:2.0.0 #

Type Exploration

Command	Description
types [-a] [-r] [filter]	List types. -a searches all domains/versions, -r enables regex filtering
show <type>	Print type structure in baboon syntax

Example:

baboon acme.checkout v:2.0.0 # types Order
Types matching 'Order':
  data Order
  data OrderLine
  adt OrderEvent

baboon acme.checkout v:2.0.0 # types -r .*Event$
Types matching '.*Event$':
  adt OrderEvent
  adt PaymentEvent

baboon acme.checkout v:2.0.0 # show Order
root data Order: derived[json], derived[ueba] {
  id: uid
  lines: lst[OrderLine]
  total: f64
}

Codec Testing

Command	Description
example <type>	Generate a random instance with JSON and UEBA hex output
decode <type> <ueba-hex>	Decode UEBA hex back to JSON with byte offset map

Example:

baboon acme.checkout v:2.0.0 # example OrderLine
JSON:
{
  "sku": "abc123",
  "qty": 42
}

UEBA (hex):
0a06616263313233002a

baboon acme.checkout v:2.0.0 # decode OrderLine 0a06616263313233002a
Decoded JSON:
{
  "sku": "abc123",
  "qty": 42
}

Byte offset map:
[0x00-0x07] sku: "abc123"
[0x08-0x09] qty: 42

Dependency Analysis

Command	Description
deps <type>	Show types that depend on this type (reverse dependencies)
depsof <type>	Show types this type depends on (forward dependencies)
deptree <type>	Show full dependency tree

Example:

baboon acme.checkout v:2.0.0 # depsof Order
Types that Order depends on:
  OrderLine
  uid (builtin)

baboon acme.checkout v:2.0.0 # deps OrderLine
Types that depend on OrderLine:
  Order
  OrderDraft

Evolution Analysis

Command	Description
evo [-v] <type>	Show evolution history for a type. -v enables verbose output

Example:

baboon acme.checkout v:2.0.0 # evo PaymentMethod
Evolution history for PaymentMethod:
  1.0.0 → 2.0.0: Added branch BankTransfer (auto-convertible)

baboon acme.checkout v:2.0.0 # evo -v Order
Evolution history for Order:
  1.0.0:
    data Order { id: uid, items: lst[Item] }

  2.0.0:
    data Order { id: uid, lines: lst[OrderLine], total: f64 }

  Changes 1.0.0 → 2.0.0:
    - Renamed field: items → lines
    - Renamed type: Item → OrderLine
    - Added field: total (requires manual conversion)

Other Commands

Command	Description
help	Show available commands
exit / quit	Exit the explorer

Tab Completion

The explorer supports tab completion for:

• Command names
• Type names (based on current domain/version context)
• Command flags (-a, -r, -v)

Press Tab to auto-complete or display available options.

Use Cases

Debugging UEBA Codecs

When debugging serialization issues, use example to generate test data and decode to verify round-trip encoding:

baboon acme v:1.0.0 # example ComplexType
# Copy the UEBA hex from output

baboon acme v:1.0.0 # decode ComplexType <paste-hex-here>
# Verify the decoded JSON matches

Understanding Type Dependencies

Before refactoring a type, check what depends on it:

baboon acme v:1.0.0 # deps UserId
# Shows all types that would be affected by changes to UserId

Planning Schema Evolution

Use evo to understand how types changed across versions and what conversions are needed:

baboon acme v:3.0.0 # evo -v Customer
# Shows full evolution history with detailed changes