Connections
A connection is a typed relationship between two nodes. Types matter: they change how the line is drawn, they are what the assistant reasons over when you ask "how is X linked to Y", and they are what a colleague reads when they open your board cold.
Drawing a connection
Hover a node to reveal its handles, drag from a handle to another node and release. The new connection is of type Related and one-way from the node you started on; click it to change that.
The assistant creates connections with the create_connection tool, always with a type and, when
it has one, a short reasoning note.
Types
Direction reads source → target: "source funds target", "source precedes target".
| Type | Meaning | Drawn as |
|---|---|---|
| Related | General association | Red dashed |
| Causes | Source directly causes or leads to target | Thick red, animated |
| Confirms | Source confirms or validates target | Green |
| Denies | Source denies or refutes target | Orange dashed |
| Precedes | Source happened before target | Purple, animated |
| Contradicts | Source contradicts target | Thick red, dotted |
| Funds | Source provides money to target | Yellow dashed, animated |
| Controls | Source has control over target | Heavy grey |
| Quotes | Source quotes or references target | Thin grey dotted |
| Employs | Source employs or hires target | Violet |
| Sources | Source is derived from target (evidence trail) | Rust dashed |
A few conventions that keep boards readable:
- Use Confirms / Denies / Contradicts between evidence (articles, posts, documents) and claims (events, predictions, notes), not between two people.
- Sources points from your analysis back to the material it rests on - a Note sources the three articles it was written from.
- Precedes is for sequence without causation. If you mean causation, say Causes.
- Funds / Controls / Employs are the money-and-power trio; they are what the assistant looks for when asked about influence.
Editing a connection
Click a line to open the connection editor in the context panel:
- Connection type - the eleven above, each with a one-line description.
- Custom label - optional text shown on the line, e.g. "board seat since 2019". Use it when a type alone loses nuance; the type still governs styling and AI semantics.
- Direction - None, One-way or Two-way. Two-way keeps the type but marks the relationship as mutual (two organizations that fund each other).
- Reasoning - why you believe this relationship exists. Sync carries it to collaborators and the assistant reads it.
- Delete - or select the line and press Delete.
Connections and layout
Auto-layout (Regions & layout) uses connections to decide placement: connected clusters are laid out hierarchically, disconnected nodes are grouped by type. Sparse connections give a flatter result; a well-connected board arranges itself into a readable graph.
Connections are not the only structure
Two other relationship systems exist alongside connections and are often a better fit:
- Narratives group any number of nodes into a storyline without lines between them, and can themselves be linked (supports, contradicts, parent/child…). See Narratives.
- Entity links attach Actors and Organizations to nodes that mention them (an actor appearing in three articles) and Actors to Organizations (membership). They are created by the entity editors and by the assistant, and appear in the context panel rather than as lines.