Cast list text format

The paste box turns plain text into a chart: one character per line, plus a few marks for relationships, groups and notes. Open it at /edit/?paste=1, or with Edit as text in the editor’s menu. On an empty map it is called “Paste or type names”; when a map is already open it shows that map as text, ready to edit.

Nothing changes on the map until you tap Apply. The line under the box says what Apply will do, such as “Add 5 characters · Add 4 relationships”.

Example

# Ship of Fools
subtitle: Crew of the salvage ship Meridian
> A salvage crew far from home.

## Crew
- Kai | Captain #pov
  > Grew up on Mars.
- Mira | Pilot
- Élise - Engineer

## Ghosts
- Rook | The old captain #deceased

## Relationships
- Kai -> Mira : mentor
- Kai <-> Rook : brothers
- Mira <-> Élise : girlfriend
- Jun -> Kai : owes a debt to

This gives 5 characters, 4 relationships, 2 groups and 2 tags. Jun only appears in a relationship line, and that is enough to add him.

Lines

You write	What it does
Kai	A character. One per line; a plain list of names is enough. A leading -, *, • or 1. is fine.
Kai | Captain	Text after | is a short description. Kai - Captain, Kai — Captain and Kai: Captain work too, with a space after the dash or colon.
Kai -> Mira : mentor	A relationship, read as “Kai is Mira’s mentor”. The label after : is optional.
Kai <-> Mira : siblings	A relationship that goes both ways. Kai <- Mira points the other way. The arrows phones type, →, ↔ and ←, work too.
## Crew	A group. Everyone listed under it, up to the next ##, is in it. To put someone in a second group, write just their name again under that group.
## Relationships	Not a group, just a heading that keeps relationship lines together. ## Characters and ## Cast are plain headings too. Write ## Group: Relationships for a group with that name.
Kai | Captain #pov #best friend	Words after # at the end of a line are tags. A tag can have spaces; the next # starts a new one.
> Grew up on Mars.	A note for the nearest character or group above it. Notes right under the title are the map’s lore, the same lore as in World & lore.
# Ship of Fools	The first line, with one # and a space, is the map’s title.
subtitle: Crew of the Meridian	Right under the title: the map’s subtitle.

More details:

• A name with |, :, # or an arrow in it goes in backticks: `Kai | Jr.` | Captain.
• Names that only appear in relationship lines are added as characters.
• A line longer than 80 characters is not read as a name. Start it with > to keep it as a note.
• Lines the box can’t read are listed under it with a Show in the text button, and skipped on Apply after asking.
• Relationship labels pick the line color the same way as in JSON; see relationship colors.

Editing a map as text

On a map that already has characters, the box holds the whole map in this format. Edit a name in its own line to rename someone; their relationship lines can keep the old name. Delete a character’s line to remove them; you are asked about their relationship lines first. All of one Apply can be undone in one step.

Pasting JSON instead

If you paste RelationMap JSON (an object with a nodes list) into the box, it is not read as a cast list. The line under the box says “Chart data: …”, and Apply opens it as a chart, replacing the current one after asking. This is how charts drafted by ChatGPT or Claude get in; see Make a chart with an AI.

Dragging text onto the canvas

You can also select some lines of text anywhere, in a web page or a document, and drag them onto the editor’s canvas. Each line becomes a character where you drop it. This reads names only: no descriptions, groups or relationships, and names longer than 60 characters are cut short.