Welcome to the Binary Ninja API documentation. Much like the [User Manual](/guide/), some larger sections have been split off into their own sections on the left, while the table of contents for this documentation is on the right.

The most heavily documented of all of the APIs, the Python API serves as a useful documentation for the other APIs. Here's a list of the most important Python API documentation resources:

- [Python API](https://api.binary.ninja/)

Welcome to Binary Ninja. This introduction document is meant to quickly guide you over some of the most common uses of Binary Ninja. If you're interested in more detailed information, check out the [User Manual](/guide/).


While there are [more ways than shown here](/guide/#loading-files), the most common ways to open a file are:

But you can also change how analysis happens using [open with options](/guide/#loading-files).


1. Symbol List (one of many [sidebars](guide/#the-sidebar))

1. [Cross References](guide/#cross-references-pane)

1. Main View (defaults to High Level IL and can have many [panes](guide/#tiling-panes))

1. [Feature Map](guide/#feature-map)

Not enabled by default but can be made visible is the global area which includes the [scripting console](guide/#script-python-console) and log window.

Make sure to check out the many view options available in the various ☰ ("hamburger") menus. However, most configuration settings are available in the [settings](guide/#settings) menu. (`[CMD/CTRL] ,` is the hotkey for settings)


One of the most useful features of Binary Ninja is that everything can be quickly and easily accessed through a [command-palette](/guide/#command-palette) (`[CMD/CTRL] p`). You'll be surprised how often it saves you from looking through menus to find out just what you need. Also, any action in the command-palette can be changed to a [custom hotkey](/guide/#custom-hotkeys). That said, here are a few of the more useful default hotkeys:

For more hotkeys, see the [User Manual](/guide/).

Binary Ninja is one of the most advanced binary analysis platforms, and it has a unique stack of related intermediate languages. If that gets you excited, you'll surely want to check out the [developer guide](/dev/bnil-overview.md) for more information. If it doesn't mean anything to you, no worries, here's a few tips to make your life easier. The default view is "High Level IL". It looks and reads almost like pseudo code. There's a few extra notations (usually just around comparisons for whether they are signed or not, or between moves of data indicating the size of the operation) but it should otherwise be very understandable. If you prefer disassembly or even [Pseudo C](/guide/#pseudo-c) as your default view, no worries, just check out the `UI`/`view.graph` and `view.linear` settings.

Plugins can be installed by one of two methods. First, they can be manually installed by copying the plugin to the appropriate [folder](guide/#user-folder), or using the [Plugin Manager](guide/plugins.md#plugin-manager).

For more detailed information, see the [debugger guide](/guide/debugger.md).

While Binary Ninja automatically updates itself, by default you will only use the Stable Branch and you can check out features much faster on the development branch using the [update channel](guide/#updates) dialog.

- Consider writing your first [plugin](/dev/)

- Read the rest of the more detailed [User Manual](/guide/)