Frequently Asked Questions

BranchPy is a toolkit that helps you create visual novels faster and with fewer bugs. It analyzes your game's script, shows you a flowchart of your story, finds errors before your players do, and helps you keep track of all your images and sounds.

Think of it as a quality control assistant that checks your work while you focus on writing great stories.

Yes! BranchPy was actually built by someone frustrated with making their first Ren'Py game. It's designed to help beginners catch mistakes they don't even know they're making.

You don't need to be a programmer. If you can write Ren'Py scripts, you can use BranchPy.

BranchPy does four main things:

• Finds bugs: Spots missing labels, broken jumps, and unreachable scenes
• Visualizes your story: Shows a flowchart of all your scenes and choices
• Tracks assets: Makes sure all your images and sounds are properly referenced
• Saves time: Instant analysis instead of manually testing every path

See real examples →

No. We analyse, visualize, and help you run tests — your code stays yours. Pro adds editable canvas to create new files on command, with confirmations.

Ren'Py first. Ports to other engines/editors will follow based on demand.

Auto-update for the VS Code add-on; CLI via pip. Release notes are public.

BranchPy is free for individual Ren'Py developers — no payment, no card, no time limit. If you find it useful, a contribution via Buy Me a Coffee is always welcome but never expected. A credit in your game would also mean a lot.

Ren'Py creators unlock all core features with a free account. A small contribution is asked for commercial games only — on a trust basis, we don't check.

For other engines, a free account gives full core features.

No. AI is 100% optional and disabled by default.

BranchPy's core analysis engine is fully deterministic and runs locally on your machine. It reads your Ren'Py script structure to build flowcharts, detect issues, and compute statistics — no AI involved in any of that.

Optional AI integrations can be manually enabled if you want AI-assisted checks, but they are never required for BranchPy to function. You bring your own API key; BranchPy never sends your scripts anywhere by default.

Not unless you explicitly allow it.

By default, no files leave your device.

You decide what is allowed, what is blocked, and what must be redacted.

Yes.

All local analysis, visualization, testing, and debugging are fully available offline.

Cloud AI = optional.

The analysis engine never phones home. All local features (lint, flowcharts, error detection, asset tracking) run offline, on your machine, with no telemetry.

When you use account features (pre-release access, cloud sync, community), we collect limited operational data: authentication events, session security signals, and basic feature usage metadata — which tools were run and whether they succeeded. We never see your scripts, story content, project files, or images.

This data is used exclusively for account security, product improvement, and pre-release support. It is never sold or shared.

Yes! Use the Community page to request features, report bugs, or ask questions.