explore

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

1 scriptsChecked / no sensitive code detected

Map a topic as an interactive mind map so the user finds what they did not know to ask, then grow it branch by branch on request. Writes a map file and renders it to one HTML page with a script, no hand-written HTML. Use when the user wants to explore, map, or get oriented in a topic, asks "what am I missing", "what don't I know about X", "give me the landscape of X", "map this out", or says "go deeper on" a node of an existing map, and when another skill needs a tree drawn as a page.

1installs

Sourcedan86de/skills

Added on2026-10-22

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add dan86de/skills explore

SKILL.md Content

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You write the map as JSON;

scripts/map.mjs

(next to this file, Node 18+) checks and renders it:

node <this skill's folder>/scripts/map.mjs check|outline|render <map.json> [--out <file.html>]

Read references/map-format.md before your first map in a session. Read maps back with

outline

. Maps live at

.scratch/maps/<slug>/map.json

, one folder per topic, unless the user names a place.

1. Lens

The lens is who the map is for and what it feeds: a decision, a build, a talk, a hire. If the conversation lacks the topic or lens, ask one question for both. Note what the user already knows: never suggest it.

2. First map

One centre, four to six branches of three to six nodes, 20 to 35 nodes in all. Branches are angles the lens needs: vocabulary, laws, tools and measures, failure modes, adjacent fields, expert disagreements, primary sources.

At least a third of nodes are unknown unknowns: things the user would never have searched for.
Every node gets a one-sentence plain
```
summary
```
.
Three to five highest-leverage nodes, across branches, are
```
suggested
```
.
Suggested and non-obvious nodes add a
```
body
```
(definition, then a concrete example from the user's world, with numbers) and an
```
ask
```
(one question for their situation).
Three to eight cross-branch
```
links
```
, only where one node changes how you read the other.
Check laws, numbers, names and attributions against a real source and list it in
```
sources
```
. Generalise or cut what you cannot check.

3. Hand over

Run

check

, fix all errors and warnings you have no reason to keep, then

render

and open the page or give its path. Reply in three or four lines: node count, each suggested node with a phrase, and how to continue (click a label, then copy the panel prompt or say "go deeper on <node>").

4. Grow

"Go deeper on X":
```
outline
```
, add three to six unknown-unknown children under X, suggest one or two, link across branches.
"What am I missing?":
```
outline
```
, add nodes or a branch for uncovered angles, say what in one line.
How two nodes relate: answer in chat, add the link if it holds.
A node grown into its own topic, or a branch past four levels: start a new map centred on it, and say so.

After every change:

check

,

render

, one line on what changed. Ids are stable: keep every node the user has seen unless they ask.

Drawing a tree for another skill

Take the tree or map file as given, custom

states

included, adding nothing of your own. Run

check

and

render

, then return the page's path and the exact

render

command for the caller to re-run.