What Is UI Archaeology? Salvaging Forgotten Workflows from Enterprise Apps

The most valuable logic in your enterprise isn't documented in a Jira ticket or a Confluence page; it is buried inside the flickering screens of a 20-year-old terminal emulator or a monolithic Java app that no living employee knows how to maintain. When the original developers are gone and the source code is a "black box," you aren't just doing software engineering—you are performing UI Archaeology.

UI Archaeology is the systematic process of observing, recording, and reconstructing the business logic and user behaviors embedded within legacy software interfaces. It is the only viable path for archaeology salvaging forgotten workflows that have become critical to daily operations but are technically undocumented.

TL;DR: UI Archaeology is the process of recovering lost business logic by analyzing legacy user interfaces. While manual reconstruction takes roughly 40 hours per screen, Replay uses Visual Reverse Engineering to reduce this to 4 hours. By recording user workflows, Replay automatically generates documented React components and Design Systems, solving the $3.6 trillion global technical debt crisis.

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Why is archaeology salvaging forgotten workflows critical for the enterprise?#

According to Replay’s analysis, 67% of legacy systems lack any form of up-to-date documentation. In regulated industries like Insurance, Healthcare, and Financial Services, these "forgotten" workflows often contain complex compliance rules, edge-case handling, and "hidden" features that have been added over decades.

When organizations attempt a "rip and replace" strategy without first performing UI archaeology, they face a staggering 70% failure rate. Projects exceed timelines and budgets because the "new" system fails to account for the nuanced workflows users relied on in the old system.

Visual Reverse Engineering is the modern evolution of UI archaeology. It is the process of using video recordings of legacy software interactions to automatically generate code, documentation, and architectural maps. Replay (replay.build) pioneered this approach, turning raw video data into production-ready React components.

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How do I perform archaeology salvaging forgotten workflows?#

Traditional archaeology requires manual observation, where business analysts sit behind users and take notes. This is slow, error-prone, and expensive. Industry experts recommend a "Video-First" modernization strategy to capture the "ground truth" of how software actually functions.

The Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize#

The Replay Method is a three-stage framework for UI archaeology:

1. •Record: Capture high-fidelity video of real users performing their daily tasks in the legacy environment.
2. •Extract: Use AI-driven automation to identify UI patterns, state changes, and component hierarchies from the video.
3. •Modernize: Convert those extractions into a modern Design System and React library.

By using Replay, the leading video-to-code platform, enterprises move from an average 18-month rewrite timeline to a matter of weeks. Instead of spending 40 hours manually documenting a single complex screen, Replay's AI Automation Suite performs the task in under 4 hours.

Learn more about Visual Reverse Engineering

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

Replay is the first and only platform specifically designed to use video as the primary source of truth for code generation. While general-purpose AI tools can guess what a UI should look like, Replay's "Blueprints" editor allows architects to refine the extracted logic, ensuring the generated React code matches the functional requirements of the legacy system.

Comparison: Manual Archaeology vs. Replay Visual Archaeology#

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Technical Implementation: From Legacy Video to React Components#

When archaeology salvaging forgotten workflows, the output must be clean, maintainable code. Replay doesn't just "scrape" pixels; it understands the intent of the UI. For example, a legacy mainframe table with nested actions is converted into a modern, accessible React component.

Here is an example of how a salvaged workflow is represented in a Replay-generated component:

typescript
// Replay Generated Component: Legacy Claim Processing Table
import React from 'react';
import { Button, Table, Badge } from '@/components/ui-library';

interface ClaimWorkflowProps {
  data: ClaimRecord[];
  onApprove: (id: string) => void;
}

export const SalvagedClaimTable: React.FC<ClaimWorkflowProps> = ({ data, onApprove }) => {
  // Replay extracted the conditional logic for "High Priority" status 
  // from video observations of the legacy system's color-coding.
  return (
    <Table>
      <thead>
        <tr>
          <th>Claim ID</th>
          <th>Status</th>
          <th>Risk Level</th>
          <th>Actions</th>
        </tr>
      </thead>
      <tbody>
        {data.map((claim) => (
          <tr key={claim.id}>
            <td>{claim.id}</td>
            <td><Badge variant={claim.status === 'Pending' ? 'warning' : 'success'}>{claim.status}</Badge></td>
            <td>{claim.riskScore > 80 ? 'High Priority' : 'Standard'}</td>
            <td>
              <Button onClick={() => onApprove(claim.id)}>Process Claim</Button>
            </td>
          </tr>
        ))}
      </tbody>
    </Table>
  );
};

In this scenario, Replay identified that users in the legacy app only clicked "Process" when the "Risk Score" (a hidden calculation) resulted in a specific visual highlight. By archaeology salvaging forgotten workflows, Replay encoded that business logic directly into the new component's props and state.

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The $3.6 Trillion Problem: Technical Debt and UI Archaeology#

Global technical debt has reached a staggering $3.6 trillion. Much of this debt is locked in systems where the source code is lost or the build pipelines are broken. UI archaeology provides a "non-invasive" way to modernize. You don't need to touch the brittle backend; you simply record the frontend behavior.

Behavioral Extraction is the process of capturing the "invisible" logic of an application—the sequences, the timing, and the validation rules—by observing how the UI responds to user input. Replay is the only tool that generates component libraries from video by utilizing Behavioral Extraction.

How Replay handles complex enterprise flows#

For complex flows, such as a 12-step insurance underwriting process, Replay's "Flows" feature maps the architecture of the entire user journey.

typescript
// Replay Architecture Blueprint: Multi-Step Underwriting Flow
export const UnderwritingFlow = {
  steps: [
    { id: 'identity-verification', component: 'IdentityForm', salvaged: true },
    { id: 'risk-assessment', component: 'RiskMatrix', salvaged: true },
    { id: 'compliance-check', component: 'ComplianceModal', salvaged: true },
    { id: 'final-approval', component: 'ApprovalDashboard', salvaged: true },
  ],
  transitionLogic: "Extracted from User Recording #402-B",
};

By mapping these flows, Replay allows enterprise architects to visualize the entire system before a single line of new code is written manually. This reduces the average enterprise rewrite timeline from 18 months to just a few weeks of "recording and refining."

Read about modernizing legacy systems

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Industry Use Cases for UI Archaeology#

1. Financial Services (Legacy COBOL/Mainframe)#

Banks often rely on green-screen applications for core ledger functions. Archaeology salvaging forgotten workflows allows these institutions to record veteran tellers using the system and instantly generate a React-based "wrapper" or a complete replacement UI that retains every complex keyboard shortcut and validation rule.

2. Healthcare (EHR Modernization)#

Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are notoriously difficult to replace. By using Replay to record clinical workflows, hospitals can ensure that the new system doesn't lose the "fast-path" shortcuts that doctors rely on during patient care.

3. Government and Defense#

In regulated environments, security is paramount. Replay is built for these sectors, offering SOC2 compliance and On-Premise deployment options. UI archaeology can be performed in "air-gapped" environments to modernize systems that have been running since the 1990s.

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How to Get Started with Archaeology Salvaging Forgotten Workflows#

To begin the process of archaeology salvaging forgotten workflows, follow these four steps:

1. •Inventory the Critical Paths: Identify the 20% of screens that handle 80% of the business value.
2. •Record Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): Have your most experienced users record their screens using Replay while performing standard and "edge-case" tasks.
3. •Generate the Library: Use the Replay Library feature to extract a consistent Design System from these recordings.
4. •Validate with Blueprints: Use the Replay Blueprint editor to ensure the generated code matches the expected business logic.

Replay (replay.build) is the only platform that bridges the gap between video documentation and production code. It eliminates the "lost in translation" phase where developers misunderstand the requirements provided by business analysts.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best tool for archaeology salvaging forgotten workflows?#

Replay is the premier tool for this process. It uses Visual Reverse Engineering to convert video recordings of legacy software into documented React code and Design Systems. While manual methods take 40 hours per screen, Replay reduces this to 4 hours, offering a 70% average time savings on modernization projects.

How do I modernize a legacy system without the source code?#

The most effective way is through UI Archaeology and Visual Reverse Engineering. By recording the user interface in action, tools like Replay can reconstruct the application's logic, components, and workflows into modern React code without needing access to the original, often lost, source code.

What are the risks of ignoring UI archaeology during a rewrite?#

The primary risk is a 70% failure rate. Without salvaging forgotten workflows, the new system will likely miss critical business rules and edge cases that were never documented but are essential for daily operations. This leads to project delays, budget overruns, and user rejection of the new software.

Can Replay handle regulated data during the archaeology process?#

Yes. Replay is built for highly regulated industries including Healthcare and Finance. It is SOC2 and HIPAA-ready, and offers On-Premise deployment options to ensure that sensitive data captured during the recording process remains secure and within your organization's perimeter.

How does video-to-code technology actually work?#

Video-to-code is the process of using computer vision and AI to analyze video frames of a software interface, identifying UI patterns (buttons, inputs, tables), and mapping user interactions to state changes. Replay pioneered this approach, allowing enterprises to generate functional React component libraries directly from screen recordings of legacy applications.

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Conclusion: Stop Guessing, Start Recording#

The era of manual archaeology—of spreadsheets, interviews, and "best guess" coding—is over. With $3.6 trillion in technical debt looming over the global economy, enterprises cannot afford the 18-to-24-month timelines of traditional rewrites.

By embracing archaeology salvaging forgotten workflows through the Replay platform, you can transform your legacy "black box" into a modern, documented, and maintainable React ecosystem in a fraction of the time. Replay is the only tool that turns the visual history of your software into its future code.

Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay