---
name: mindmap
description: Create, manage, visualize, and persist brainstorming mindmaps using the mindmap terminal module.
tags: [mindmap, brainstorming, planning, organization, visualization]
category: productivity
---

## Core Workflow

1. **Create a new mindmap**
   - `mindmap new "<topic>" -t tag1,tag2` — creates a root node
   - Tags are optional (e.g. planning, research, dev)
   - Root gets auto-assigned a color from 7-color palette

2. **Add child nodes**
   - `mindmap add <parent-id> "<idea>" -t tag` — add a child
   - Get parent-id from `mindmap show` — IDs are 4-char random strings

3. **View**
   - `mindmap show` — full tree with Unicode box-drawing
   - `mindmap show <id>` — subtree starting at that node
   - `mindmap svg [name]` — render as inline SVG with colored rects + bezier curves. Optional name saves to /mindmaps/<name>.svg for `preview`

4. **Visualize with Mermaid**
   - Export your mindmap data and render in `webx11_mindmap.html` for a full Mermaid flowchart
   - The mermaid library is at `mermaid.min.js` in the newOS4 directory

5. **Edit nodes**
   - `mindmap rename <id> "<new text>"` — change text
   - `mindmap color <id> <color>` — set color (red/green/yellow/blue/cyan/magenta/white)
   - `mindmap tag <id> <tag>` — assign/update tag

6. **Persistence**
   - `mindmap save <name>` — save to VFS (stores in /mindmaps/ as JSON)
   - `mindmap load <name>` — restore
   - `mindmap list` — show saved mindmaps
   - `mindmap delete <name>` — remove saved mindmap file

7. **Export**
   - `mindmap export [id]` — Markdown bullet list output, auto-copies to clipboard
   - `mindmap svg <name>` — saves SVG to /mindmaps/<name>.svg, viewable with `preview`

8. **Neural VFS integration**
   - After running `nvfs-index`, mindmap skill files are indexed as `concept://mindmap`
   - Saved mindmaps in /mindmaps/ are discoverable via concept search

## When to Use
- Brainstorming feature sets, project architecture, or ideas
- Decomposing complex tasks into manageable subtrees
- User says "brainstorm", "diagram", "organize thoughts", "plan", "map out"