Map

Maps are made of Topics

Every point on the Map is a Topic: one idea, one question, one concept, anything that should be kept as one spot in the Workspace, holding the information around it. A Topic can be as wide or as narrow as you need, so the same subject can be one Topic or twenty, depending on the kind of Workspace you want.

You decide how fine the grain is. Your content is not stored inside a Topic, either. Items stay their own things, filed under the Topics they belong to, and one item can belong to several.

A Map takes whatever shape the work needs

Nothing about the tree is prescribed. Arrange it the way the work actually runs:

• A pathway. A class following a syllabus reads top to bottom, a Topic per week, and you work your way down it.
• A flat set. Separate subjects sit side by side with nothing nested at all.
• A deep tree. A broad Topic splits into parts, and those parts split again, as deep as the work earns.

A Map is a living structure, not a shape you pick once. Most Maps mix all three and change as the work does: start with one Home Topic, split something that grew too broad, flatten a branch that stopped earning its depth. You can rearrange it by hand at any time, or ask Mesh — Split Algebra into a Topic per unit — and it adds, renames, moves, and reorders Topics for you. Removing one stays yours, from the Map panel — it takes that Topic's Hub page with it, so Mesh will tell you a branch has outlived its use rather than delete it.

Ask what changed on the Map and Mesh reads the record back to you, its edits and yours alike. History & outcomes covers what it keeps.

Home, and the Active Topic

Every Map begins with Home, a protected first Topic that cannot be renamed, moved, or deleted. Home is the catch-all: the place for work that belongs to the Workspace as a whole, and where you sit when nothing narrower fits. (This Home is the Map's own first Topic, not the The Home screen where your Workspace cards live.)

There is always exactly one Active Topic — the one you chose, or Home. Work that is not filed to a more specific Topic lives in Home. It is where you are working right now, and it is what the rest of the Workspace lines up behind. Mesh most of all: it starts where you are working instead of guessing, and the Active Topic steers it without fencing it in — it can still reach anything else in the Workspace when the answer needs it. When you are not sure where you belong, Home is always a correct answer.

The panel, at a glance

Open the Map from the left rail and the whole tree is in front of you. This one is live — try it:

Search above the tree to filter Topics by name — clear it and the Map returns to how you left it.

• Every row is a Topic. An arrow means more Topics are nested inside it: tap the arrow to show or hide them, and tap the row itself to open that Topic's page. Nest as deep as the work needs.
• Set the Active Topic from any row. Tap the quiet :crosshair: target on any row to work there; the green Active chip marks where you already are.
• The green chip above the tree names your Active Topic. Tap it to see that Topic's position on the Map or jump to its page.
• Edit Map turns the whole tree into a draft: rename by tapping a title, add from a row's menu, delete from its menu, and drag rows up, down, or deeper. Save keeps the draft; Cancel throws it away.
• Expand all in the Map header opens every branch at once; the same button becomes Collapse all when they are open.
• Context holds your standing instructions for this Map. Map Context, just below, covers what belongs there.

Map Context

Map Context is a short note attached to the Map itself: what the work is for, constraints and deadlines, sources to prefer, how you like to be helped, or where the structure should go. Open it with Context in the panel header. Write it yourself, or ask Mesh to fill it in as you work. It saves when you tap away.

The Map follows your work

Two settings keep the Map in step with you. Both are toggle switches in Workspace settings, and both are on by default.

Auto-switch Active Topic

When you start actually working somewhere else — editing a Topic's page or adding to it, not just looking around — the Active Topic moves with you. A Stay in ... button appears each time, so putting it back is one tap.

Auto-file new content

Anything you or Mesh make — a Note, a Library source, an Image, a Video, or a Board flag — is filed under the Active Topic as it arrives. Turn it off and new work stays unfiled until you file it yourself.

Those five kinds are exactly the ones a Reference can point at, minus Topics themselves. Filing and Referencing stay separate jobs; Filing covers the difference.

One timing rule: if you move the Active Topic while Mesh is mid-response, the switch waits until that response finishes, so the answer stays where it started. A notice tells you what is about to happen, with Stay in ... if you would rather it didn't.