ascii-mindmap

Generate and display ASCII tree diagrams from indented text outlines to visualize ideas and hierarchies in the terminal.

mindmap

Text Mind Map Generator — Transform plain outlines and bullet lists into beautiful ASCII tree diagrams. Visualize your ideas, document structures, and hierarchies directly in the terminal.

Commands

Command	Description	Example
create	Generate ASCII mind map from text input	create "Project\n Frontend\n React\n Backend\n Node"
view	Read a text file and render as mind map	view outline.txt
export	Render and output as Markdown code block	export outline.txt

Usage

# From a string (use \n for newlines)
bash script.sh create "Root\n  Branch A\n    Leaf 1\n    Leaf 2\n  Branch B"

# From a file
bash script.sh view my-outline.txt

# Export as Markdown
bash script.sh export my-outline.txt > mindmap.md

# Pipe from stdin
cat outline.txt | bash script.sh view -

Input Format

Use indentation (spaces or tabs) to define hierarchy. The first non-empty line is the root node.

My Project
  Frontend
    React
      Components
      Hooks
    CSS
      Tailwind
  Backend
    Node.js
    PostgreSQL
  DevOps
    Docker
    CI/CD

Requirements

• bash >= 4.0
• python3 >= 3.7
• No external packages required (uses only stdlib)

Examples

$ bash script.sh create "Learning Python\n  Basics\n    Variables\n    Functions\n  OOP\n    Classes\n    Inheritance\n  Libraries\n    NumPy\n    Pandas"

Learning Python
├── Basics
│   ├── Variables
│   └── Functions
├── OOP
│   ├── Classes
│   └── Inheritance
└── Libraries
    ├── NumPy
    └── Pandas

$ bash script.sh export outline.txt

```mindmap
My Project
├── Frontend
│   ├── React
│   └── CSS
└── Backend
    └── Node.js