Mind map and concept map diagrams

Two takes on a central topic with branching sub-ideas. A mind map is the playful one — colourful, organic branches for a brainstorm. A concept map is the structured sibling — boxed concepts wired together by labeled relationships. They share one grammar; the keyword (mindmap vs conceptmap) picks the look.

Mind map

Best for brainstorms, personas, and shaping ideas — a central topic with colourful branches fanning out into rounded, branch-tinted chips.

mindmap
  root((Empathy Map))
    Think and feel
      Thoughts
      Emotions
    See
      Reactions
      Environment
    Say and do
      Actions
      Habits
    Hear
      Comments
      Opinions

The first keyword is mindmap. The first content line is the root — a centred pill. Indentation builds the hierarchy: a more-indented line is a child of the nearest shallower line above it. Top-level branches split left and right, each gets its own colour (inherited by its children) — the connecting curves and the rounded chips share the branch colour.

Mind maps lean on the tree. When relationships between concepts are the point, use a concept map instead.

Concept map

Best for domain models, design docs, and “how X fits together” — boxed concepts with labeled, dashed relationships between them, laid out radially.

conceptmap
  root((Authentication))
    Identity
      OAuth providers
      Passkeys
    Sessions
      Access token
      Refresh token
  OAuth providers --|issues|--> Access token
  Refresh token --|mints|--> Access token

The first keyword is conceptmap. The hierarchy works exactly like a mind map (root + nested branches), but it renders as a clean diagram: boxes with straight spokes instead of organic branches.

Link lines add labeled cross-links. A line containing a link operator is a relationship between two named nodes, drawn dashed and not part of the indentation. All of these work:

• A --> B
• A -->|relates to| B
• A -- relates to --> B
• A --|relates to|--> B

Cross-link endpoints reference existing nodes by id; an endpoint that names nothing known becomes a floating node on the outer ring.

Node shapes follow the flowchart vocabulary: the root is a ((circle)), and branches default to rounded — use (rounded) or [rect] to override.