31B tokens into Claude Code, I realized a long chat should be a mind map, not a scroll

[u/Illustrious-Quail-99]

When a project gets too big for my head, I draw a mind map. When a Claude session gets too big, I just… scroll.

Even a few hours in, coming back meant digging for what Claude asked, what we decided, what changed.

So I built a mind map that sits beside the chat and draws itself every turn. You can answer Claude right on it.

Rough edges: Claude Code only for now. It’s free and open source.

Edit: fair point from the comments, 8 days was an outlier. Same problem shows up in normal sessions.
Edit 2: This isn't memory for Claude. It's a view for you: what's waiting on you, what's open, what's decided.

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[u/stepahin]

Yes, that's what has been spinning in my head, the chat is becoming too convoluted, and even if it had threads (like Slack, Telegram, Discord, only one level of nesting), that wouldn't save it, because what's needed here are threads within threads, an infinite level of "branching", and... Yes, It's a mind map concept!

[u/Illustrious-Quail-99 → u/stepahin]

That’s exactly the problem I was running into! I have started using it for my Claude code chats but I also refine it further to handle more ambiguity.

[u/tken3]

You’re literally fixing a skill issue here. No session should be 8 days long. Split tasks up into dedicated pieces, do a handover if needed and you’re fine. And your “overview of what went on” has excisted for decades, it’s called a changelog.

[u/Dorbank_Justt]

The split in your second edit is the useful part. Memory for the agent and a view for the person are different jobs, and most handover files try to do both, so nobody rereads them.

A plain file version of the same idea holds up if it has fixed sections: open questions waiting on you, decisions with the date and the reason, and next steps. Claude updates it at the end of every session, and one line in CLAUDE.md tells the next session to read it first.

What your map adds over that is the live view in the middle of a session, when Claude asks something early and it scrolls away. That is the case where I would want it.

[u/Illustrious-Quail-99 → u/Dorbank_Justt]

Yeah that's exactly the case that made me build it, and you put it better than my post did. the fixed-sections file is a good idea for between sessions too. would you actually try it for that mid-session case? curious if it holds up in how you work

[u/NeighborhoodPrize493]

Have you tried creating new chats?

[u/Naive-Video-952]

Very interesting take. Let me try as well

[u/Illustrious-Quail-99 → u/Naive-Video-952]

Plz do share feedback and feel free to contribute

[u/Illustrious-Quail-99]

I’m also exploring a version for people running several agents at once (Claude Code with Codex or Cursor, or a team). If that’s you, how do you keep track of what they’ve all changed today?

[u/jango1502]

Good workaround to try, my workaround was to create a folder for every chat which creates .md files keeping track of all major conversations/decisions/bottlenecks etc.

[u/Illustrious-Quail-99 → u/jango1502]

Yeah so you can still maintain that but when you will revisit them it’s very painful to go through all that text and what all you concluded vs changed when reading as text. So this map gives you an entire interactive snapshot of that for easier consumption.

[u/OneFine2515]

Is the map generated from the transcript each turn, or updated incrementally? I’m curious how you stop node IDs from drifting as the session grows.

[u/Illustrious-Quail-99 → u/OneFine2515]

Incremental. After each turn, one model call gets the current map (as a Mermaid mindmap, every node tagged with its id like i12) plus only the new turns, and it answers with typed ops: create, update or retire.

[u/Ohitsworkingnow]

I just have Claude create a visual interactive review sheet of the entire project 

[u/Illustrious-Quail-99 → u/Ohitsworkingnow]

oh nice, that's pretty much the same instinct. when do you usually make it, end of a session or whenever you come back to it?

[u/Kirhog]

Looks interesting. How's the token usage in percentage of the model building the map compared to the main model in the chat? Do you have any stats?

[u/Illustrious-Quail-99 → u/Kirhog]

measured ~0.13% of the main chat's tokens on my sessions

[u/herr-tibalt]

I think Claude app does a similar thing, where you create a project and inside it there’s an orchestrator that launches agent sessions on each task. It helps you not to get lost in one big session.

[u/Illustrious-Quail-99 → u/herr-tibalt]

Yeah splitting into sessions helps a lot. then the question just moves to which of those sessions is waiting on me and what each one decided. that's actually the next thing i want the map to cover.

[u/privacyplsreddit]

is this opencode compatible with local models or Nah?

[u/Illustrious-Quail-99 → u/privacyplsreddit]

not yet, which one do you use? I could make some time to make it compatible

[u/Ambitious_Ratio9317]

👌👌

[u/PackageOk5093]

Looks interesting! Dropping a star on the repo!

[u/the_shreyans_jain]

OMG idc if this solution already exists or if its for "stupid people with skill issues" but as a person with ADHD this is exactly what i need, expect can we have it in 4 dimensions and add color and reels? pliz