{% callout type="note" %}
Amplitude is merging this chart into the new Journeys experience. This article remains live as long as legacy Pathfinder charts remain accessible. [Learn about the new Journeys experience here](/docs/analytics/charts/journeys/journeys-understand-paths).
{% /callout %}

Amplitude's **Pathfinder** chart lets you explore aggregated user flows in your product.

Pathfinder shows all the events (also called **nodes**) users fire in your product, and the sequences of those events (also called **paths**) users take during a specified time, measured by event totals. You can view both outgoing and incoming paths to a specified event, and Pathfinder shows paths up to fifty steps deep.

Amplitude recommends using Pathfinder to find the top common paths users can take to conversion, then using this information to build out your funnel chart.

## Before you begin

Read the article on [building charts in Amplitude](/docs/get-started/helpful-definitions).

Read [session IDs and how Amplitude tracks sessions](/docs/data/sources/instrument-track-sessions).

Pathfinder tracks all paths in individual sessions. If you send Amplitude events through the [HTTP API](/docs/apis/analytics/http-v2) or another pipeline, you must send a `session_id` with the event. Otherwise, your product's path views aren't accurate.

## Set up your Pathfinder chart

To build your own Pathfinder chart, follow these steps:

1. In the Events Module, decide whether you want your path to start with a specific event or end with one:
   - To view the actions or events users take **after** a given event, select _starting with_ from the _Paths within sessions_ dropdown menu.
   - To view the events users take **before** a given event, select _ending with_ from the _Paths within sessions_ dropdown menu.
2. Select the starting (or ending) event. Unlike many other Amplitude charts, Pathfinder requires a specific event instrumented in Amplitude. Pathfinder doesn't support _Any Event_.
3. To add properties to your starting event, click _+ Filter by_, select the property name, and specify the property value you're interested in.
4. To narrow the focus of your Pathfinder chart results:
   - **Filter by sessions** that include a specific event, or a specific event/property pairing.
   - Break out your results by the **properties of a specific event**.
   - **Exclude** certain events by **specific property values** (for example, exclude `page viewed` where `page = [x], [y], or [z]`).

   With each option, Amplitude takes that event and applies a group-by condition based on the property values you selected. In this example, the Pathfinder chart displays results broken out by values for the `country` property of the `Search Song or Video` event.

5. In the Segment By Module, identify the user segment to include in this analysis. To import a previously saved segment, click _Saved_ and select the one you want from the list. Otherwise, Amplitude targets all users by default.
6. To build your own user segment instead, add properties. Click _+ Filter by_, choose the property to include, and specify the property value you're interested in.
7. To narrow the focus further to users who already performed certain actions, click _+ Performed_, then choose the event you're interested in.
8. In the chart module, set your preferred **Bucket below** threshold. This threshold sets a lower boundary for node visibility in your chart. If the percentage of users who took a particular path is lower than the threshold, Amplitude doesn't display that path. Amplitude collapses any nodes that fall below the threshold into a single node labeled _Other_.
9. To exclude specific active events from your Pathfinder chart, select _Hide Noisy Events_ from the _Filter Events_ dropdown. You can remove specific noisy events from the chart entirely, or collapse repeated, consecutive steps into a single node.

   You can also unhide inactive events (hidden by default) from _Hide Noisy Events_. To include specific events, select _Only Show Specific Events_ from the same dropdown menu.

10. To adjust the number of steps in your Pathfinder chart, click the **+** button next to _Steps_. Your chart can include from five to fifty steps.
11. Use the date picker to specify the timezone and set the timeframe of your analysis. Your analysis can span a maximum of 45 days.
12. To save the Pathfinder chart, click _Save_. The _Save_ modal opens. Fill in the necessary information and click _Save_.

## Interpret your Pathfinder chart

Pathfinder shows _how_ users use your product by showing all the paths that start with or end with a specific event during a time period. Pathfinder orders events by the [event_time](/docs/analytics/user-data-lookup) timestamp with millisecond resolution.

Your Pathfinder chart includes two separate visualizations: the sankey flow diagram toward the bottom, and the funnel toward the top.

### The flow diagram

After you select an event to begin or end your paths, Amplitude generates all event node paths (up to 15) that meet the following conditions:

1. Either the event node is an [[Amplitude] Start Session](/docs/data/sources/instrument-track-sessions), or
2. The percentage of users in the node is greater than or equal to the zoom threshold.

The sankey diagram (the flow diagram) shows all the paths starting or ending with a specific event. Each step has a label. The label shows the event fired at that step in the sequence, plus the frequency that event fired at that stage.

For example, in the sequence below (`Start Session --> Main Landing Screen --> Step 3`), 17.61% of events at Step 3 in the sequence were 'Edit Profile'.

Each step in the sequence has a unique color. The colored pathways show the flow of events between two nodes. To measure the total number of conversions through a selected sequence, use the funnel visualization at the top.

If you click a node, Pathfinder highlights paths leading into and out of that node. The black section of a node represents all paths where the next event was `[Amplitude] End Session`. The _Other_ node is the aggregate of nodes that fall below the threshold you set. To see more nodes, lower the threshold.

{% callout type="note" %}
Amplitude orders events by `client_event_time`.
{% /callout %}

### The funnel diagram

Above the flow diagram, a funnel measures the total number of times a selected sequence of events has completed. Unlike a traditional Funnels chart, this funnel measures total sequences rather than unique users.

To construct a sequence, select events from the flow diagram. As you do, Amplitude calculates the conversion rate for the funnel.

The conversion rate shows the percentage of all sequences mirroring that specific path. In the example above, 17.6% of all sequences were `Start Session → Main Landing Screen → Edit Profile`.

You can use the [Microscope](/docs/analytics/microscope) to create a behavioral cohort, or download the list of users as a `.CSV` file.

{% callout type="note" %}
Because the funnel query shows **total** conversion and doesn't count unique conversions like a typical Funnel chart, users can appear in both the converted and dropped-off segments. Since users can count as both converted and not converted, these cohorts are more useful for learning about specific users than for targeting them in product experiences.
{% /callout %}

### View custom events

You can view custom events in Pathfinder with the following caveats:

- By default, the _top 50 most queried_ custom events are available when you create a new Pathfinder, toggled to _off_. You can remove some of the default custom events and add more, but only 50 are available.
- Custom events aren't available in the _Hide Noisy Events_ and _Only Show Specific Events_ settings.
- You _can't_ collapse repeated events when custom events are enabled.
- To see the breakdown of events in a custom event, click the custom event in the visual.