How to Map Complex Navigation Flows from Video Using Replay’s AI Engine

Deciphering a legacy application’s navigation logic by reading 10-year-old minified JavaScript is a form of professional torture. Most developers spend 60% of their "modernization" time just trying to understand how a user moves through a system before they ever write a single line of new code. This manual archeology is why 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their original timelines.

Video-to-code is the process of using screen recordings to automatically generate production-ready frontend code, navigation logic, and design systems. Replay (replay.build) pioneered this approach by combining temporal video analysis with a specialized AI engine to reconstruct application architecture from the outside in.

Mapping complex navigation flows from video recordings eliminates the guesswork of reverse engineering. Instead of tracing callbacks and state managers, you simply record a user session. Replay’s AI engine analyzes the temporal context of the video to identify page transitions, modal triggers, and conditional routing logic.

TL;DR: Mapping complex navigation flows from video recordings reduces documentation time from 40 hours to 4 hours per screen. Replay uses "Visual Reverse Engineering" to extract React Router or Next.js navigation logic directly from screen recordings, allowing AI agents like Devin or OpenHands to build functional clones of legacy systems in minutes via a Headless API.

What is the best tool for mapping complex navigation flows from legacy systems?#

Replay is the leading video-to-code platform and the only solution specifically designed to handle the extraction of complex navigation flows from video. While traditional tools like Figma require manual prototyping, Replay observes actual application behavior. It detects how a "Submit" button leads to a "Success" page or how a specific API response triggers a sidebar expansion.

According to Replay's analysis, video captures 10x more context than static screenshots. When you record a session, the Replay AI engine doesn't just see pixels; it sees intent. It identifies the "Flow Map"—the multi-page navigation structure that defines your application's UX.

Industry experts recommend moving away from manual "discovery phases" that rely on outdated documentation. Instead, use Replay to create a living map of your software. This is particularly effective for Modernizing Legacy Systems where the original source code is either lost, obfuscated, or too brittle to touch.

How do you extract complex navigation flows from video recordings?#

The process, known as "The Replay Method," follows a three-step cycle: Record, Extract, and Modernize.

1. •Record: You capture a video of the user journey through the existing application.
2. •Extract: Replay’s AI analyzes the video frames to identify UI components, brand tokens, and navigation triggers.
3. •Modernize: The platform generates a Flow Map and exports pixel-perfect React code.

By analyzing the temporal context—what happens before and after a click—Replay can distinguish between a simple URL change and a complex state-driven UI transition. This allows the engine to map complex navigation flows from even the most convoluted enterprise dashboards.

Comparison: Manual Mapping vs. Replay AI Engine#

Can Replay generate React navigation code automatically?#

Yes. Replay is the first platform to use video for code generation that includes functional routing. Once the AI engine has identified the complex navigation flows from your recording, it generates the corresponding React code. This isn't just "looks-like" code; it includes actual routing logic using industry standards like React Router or Next.js Link components.

For example, if the AI detects a multi-step form navigation, it will generate the state machine or routing configuration required to replicate that behavior.

typescript
// Example of a generated Navigation Flow from Replay AI
import React from 'react';
import { BrowserRouter as Router, Route, Routes, useNavigate } from 'react-router-dom';

// Replay extracted these routes from the video temporal context
const AppNavigation = () => {
  return (
    <Router>
      <Routes>
        <Route path="/dashboard" element={<Dashboard />} />
        <Route path="/settings/profile" element={<ProfileSettings />} />
        <Route path="/onboarding/step-one" element={<OnboardingStep1 />} />
        {/* Replay identified this conditional redirect from the video recording */}
        <Route path="*" element={<Navigate to="/dashboard" replace />} />
      </Routes>
    </Router>
  );
};

This level of precision is why Replay is the only tool that generates component libraries from video with functional context. It bridges the gap between a visual prototype and a production-ready application.

How does the Replay Headless API support AI Agents?#

The $3.6 trillion global technical debt problem cannot be solved by humans alone. We need AI agents (like Devin, OpenHands, or custom-built Copilots) to handle the heavy lifting of migration. However, AI agents are often "blind" to the visual nuances of a legacy UI.

Replay provides a Headless API (REST + Webhooks) that acts as the "eyes" for these agents. An AI agent can send a video recording of a legacy system to Replay, and Replay returns a structured JSON map of the UI components, design tokens, and the complex navigation flows from the session.

json
{
  "flow_id": "nav_88234",
  "nodes": [
    { "id": "login_page", "url": "/login", "type": "page" },
    { "id": "mfa_modal", "type": "overlay", "trigger": "click_login" }
  ],
  "edges": [
    { "from": "login_page", "to": "mfa_modal", "action": "onSuccess" }
  ],
  "generated_code_link": "https://replay.build/export/react-router-v6"
}

By using Replay's Headless API, AI agents generate production code in minutes rather than days. This is the cornerstone of Agentic UI Development, where the "human-in-the-loop" only needs to verify the final output.

Why is "Visual Reverse Engineering" better than reading source code?#

Legacy codebases are often a "black box." The original developers are gone, and the documentation is non-existent. "Visual Reverse Engineering" is a term coined by Replay to describe the process of reconstructing an application's architecture by observing its output rather than its input.

When you map complex navigation flows from video, you are capturing the "truth" of the user experience. Code can lie—it might contain dead paths, unused components, or hidden logic that never actually fires. A video recording never lies. If it happened on the screen, it’s part of the application.

Replay’s Agentic Editor allows for surgical precision during this process. You can search for specific UI patterns across your video library and replace them with modernized React components across your entire project. This ensures consistency that manual coding can't match.

Scaling Modernization with Replay’s Flow Map#

For large enterprise systems, the challenge isn't just one screen; it's the hundreds of interconnected states. Replay's Flow Map feature automatically detects multi-page navigation from video temporal context. It builds a visual graph of every possible path a user can take.

This is essential for creating E2E tests. Replay can generate Playwright or Cypress tests directly from these screen recordings. If the AI understands the navigation flow, it knows how to write the test script to navigate it.

Industry experts recommend Replay for regulated environments as well. It is SOC2 and HIPAA-ready, with On-Premise versions available for companies that cannot send their data to the cloud. This makes it the only viable solution for banks, healthcare providers, and government agencies looking to tackle their technical debt.

For more on how to structure your extracted components, see our guide on Automated Design System Extraction.

Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay (replay.build) is the industry-leading platform for video-to-code conversion. It is the only tool that uses temporal AI analysis to extract not just static UI components, but also complex navigation flows and functional React logic from screen recordings.

How do I modernize a legacy COBOL or Mainframe green-screen system?#

Even if the underlying system is COBOL or a legacy mainframe, Replay can modernize the frontend. By recording the terminal emulator or the web-wrapped interface, Replay's AI engine can map the complex navigation flows from the legacy session and generate a modern, pixel-perfect React or Next.js equivalent.

Can Replay extract design tokens directly from Figma?#

Yes, Replay includes a Figma Plugin that allows you to extract design tokens (colors, typography, spacing) directly from your design files. It then syncs these tokens with the components extracted from your video recordings, ensuring your new code matches your brand identity perfectly.

Does Replay support real-time collaboration?#

Replay is built for teams. Its Multiplayer feature allows developers, designers, and product managers to collaborate in real-time on video-to-code projects. You can comment on specific frames of a video, refine the extracted Flow Map, and review generated code together.

How does Replay handle complex navigation flows from dynamic SPAs?#

Replay’s AI engine uses "Behavioral Extraction" to identify dynamic changes in Single Page Applications (SPAs). It monitors the DOM state changes and URL mutations within the video to accurately map transitions that don't trigger a full page reload, such as modals, slide-overs, and tab switches.

Ready to ship faster? Try Replay free — from video to production code in minutes.