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Let an AI see a relationship map

Last updated September 10, 2026 · 5 min read

In one line: how view_relationship_map lets an outside AI tool actually see your relationship map instead of reading a pile of node ids.

What this solves

A .map file is a canvas. Its raw contents are node ids, pixel coordinates and group membership lists — hard for a person to read, and no easier for an AI to use. Open a relationship map with read_file and the AI gets a blob of JSON, then has to reconstruct "who is drawn next to whom" from coordinates.

view_relationship_map takes the other route: the server draws the map and returns a PNG, plus a readable summary.

view_relationship_map({
  "book_token": "bk_...",
  "path": "Worldbuilding/Relationship Map.map"
})

The PNG the server draws, with no app chrome anywhere on it: eight nodes with Shen Yan at the centre, nine lines each carrying the relationship in words, and four dashed group boxes — You'an Scriptorium, the Word Bureau, Hanlin Academy and the Tide Gang

The summary always comes before the picture, on purpose

The reply leads with text and puts the image after it, for a practical reason: some MCP clients drop image blocks. Some remote connectors currently do. A picture-only reply would be an empty turn there.

The summary carries three things:

  • Every node — characters, places, factions, everything on the map
  • Every relationship, one per line (Shen Yan —mentor→ Gu Sui)
  • Every group box, and who is inside it

So even where the image never arrives, the AI still knows what the map says. And in a client that does render images, it gets both: the layout by looking, the detail by reading.

Four replies you will run into

Reply What it means What to do
Summary + a PNG Normal —
Summary + a line saying the server could not render the image The picture failed; the summary is unaffected Carry on from the summary
A line saying the file is a confidential team skill withheld from this connection Your team's settings block it deliberately Do not look for another route to it — those routes are closed and audited
A line saying today's read budget for that team skill is used up A limit, not an empty file Try again later

.map files are editable now

If your AI tool shows a line in this tool's own description saying .map files are read-only to AI, that line is out of date. Since slima-mcp 0.3.0, relationship maps are editable through update_relationship_map — add nodes, add relationships, move things, edit groups. The authority is the table get_capabilities returns, not the wording in a tool description.

In practice it works in a pair with update_relationship_map: view_relationship_map to understand the current shape and collect node ids, then update_relationship_map to change it. See Structured editing tools.

When not to use it

  • Backing the map up, or moving it somewhere else. That is an export, and it happens in the app — see Export and share a relationship map.
  • Just listing the characters. get_book_structure on the Characters/ folder is faster and renders nothing.
  • .geomap world maps. This tool only takes .map. For a world map use read_file, which hands it back with the three terrain grids replaced by a note.

Related

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