XPPLORE: Import, Visualize, and Analyze XPPAUT Data in MATLAB

The analysis of Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) dynamical systems, particularly in applied disciplines such as mathematical biology and neuroscience, often requires flexible computational workflows tailored to model-specific questions. XPPAUT is a widely used tool combining numerical integration and continuation methods. Various XPPAUT toolboxes have emerged to customize analyses; however, they typically rely on summary ‘.dat’ files and cannot parse the more informative ‘.auto’ files, which contain detailed continuation data, e.g. periodic orbits and boundary-value problem solutions. We present XPPLORE, a user-friendly and structured MATLAB toolbox overcoming this limitation through the handling of ‘.auto’ files. This free software enables post-processing of continuation results, facilitates analyses such as manifold reconstruction and averaging, and it supports the creation of high-quality visualizations suitable for scientific publications. This paper introduces the core data structures of XPPLORE and demonstrates the software’s exploration capabilities, highlighting its value as a customizable and accessible extension for researchers working with ODE-based dynamical systems.