No-Code Track

Three Routes to VFB Data

Choose the right tool for your needs. Chat and the 3D Browser need nothing installed at all; MCP needs a one-time URL registered with your AI client — no code either way.

Route D: VFB Chat — Quick & Easy

chat.virtualflybrain.org is a guardrailed natural-language interface to VFB — nothing to install or configure. Perfect for quick answers on the go, or when you don’t have access to a more powerful AI.

Best for: Fast lookups, teaching demos, getting started without setup

Example:

“Where do I find DA1 lPN neurons in VFB, and which connectomes have them?”

Route E: 3D Circuit Browser — Visual Exploration

The Circuit Browser is VFB’s interactive 3D viewer — nothing to install, works in any modern browser (WebGL required). Point and click instead of asking a question: open a neuron’s term page and build up a scene from there.

Best for: Exploring morphology and connectivity visually, browsing a circuit hop by hop, sharing exactly what you’re looking at (the URL encodes the scene)

Example: Open a term page via a deep link — …/geppetto?id=FBbt_00067363 — then use its Query For menu to pull in connected neurons, images or subclasses without writing a query. See the 3D Browser setup notes for deep-link tips.

Route C: MCP Tool — Your LLM + VFB Data

The VFB MCP tool runs inside your own LLM (Claude, etc.) and lets you chain VFB queries with your own reasoning and all your connected data.

Best for: Deep analysis, combining VFB data with your own datasets, leveraging your LLM’s full capabilities

Setup: One URL to register with your AI client — see the MCP setup guide .

Example prompt:

“Search VFB for the neuron type ‘DA1 lPN’ and list every individual neuron across all datasets, with their dataset and VFB ID.”

Tips for Good Answers

Chat and MCP both take natural-language questions — these apply to either:

• Name the entity precisely — a neuron type, region, gene, or a VFB/FlyBase ID removes ambiguity
• Ask for the identifiers — end with “…and give me the VFB IDs” so you can carry results into vfb_connect later if you want to
• Say which dataset when it matters (“in FlyWire”, “in the male-CNS”, “in BANC”)
• One step at a time — search, then drill in, then compare

Work Through the Sessions

Use the route selector on each session page to see the Chat, MCP and 3D Browser walkthroughs for each session.