Expand Systems
Add depth to existing maps with context-aware AI expansion.
How It Works
The Expand feature analyses your existing map and adds new related elements, helping you explore dimensions you might not have considered.
Go to the Modify Map tab
Select elements on your board
Optionally enter a prompt to guide the expansion
Click Expand System
Selection Tips
The quality of expansion depends on what you select:
Select Your Entire Map
For best results, select all elements in your map before expanding, including summary cards and citation cards. Your selection is the context the AI works with:
Gives the AI full context of your system
Helps avoid duplicate nodes
Creates more coherent expansions
Summary and citation cards provide additional context that improves expansion quality
Use the Select All button in the app panel, or press Cmd/Ctrl + A on your board. If your board has other content besides your map, select your map elements manually instead.
Minimum Selection
5+ elements recommended for good context
Fewer elements may result in less relevant expansions
Guiding the Expansion
The optional prompt helps focus the expansion on specific areas:
Example Guidance Prompts
"What are the hidden dynamics?"
Explores less obvious relationships
"Explore the economic factors"
Focuses on financial and economic elements
"Add environmental impacts"
Expands into environmental dimensions
"What feedback loops exist?"
Identifies reinforcing and balancing loops
"Consider the human factors"
Adds psychological and social elements
Without a Prompt
If you don't provide guidance, the AI will:
Analyse the existing structure
Identify gaps and unexplored areas
Add elements that complement the current map
Preview, Accept, and Undo
New elements appear as a preview near your selected items. Nothing is committed until you decide:
Accept — Commits the new elements to your board
Reject — Removes all preview elements cleanly (including any citations in Pro mode)
Undo — Available for 10 minutes after accepting, removes the expansion if you change your mind
After Accepting
Once you've accepted an expansion, you may want to:
Review the new elements for relevance
Auto-format if elements overlap
Manually adjust positions if needed
Delete any elements that don't fit
Pro Mode Expansion
In Pro mode, expansions include the same enrichments as Pro map generation:
Citations: New nodes include source references
Upload sources: Provide your own URLs and PDFs to guide the expansion with your own material
Live web research: The AI searches the web for current sources to inform the expansion
Both Quick and Pro expansions include differentiated connections (colour-coded by polarity, thickness by strength) and AI reasoning.
Citations card updates: If your selection includes the existing Citations Card, it will be updated with any new citations from the expansion after you accept. This keeps all your sources in one place as the map grows.
If you reject a Pro expansion, all added elements, including citations, are removed cleanly.
See Free vs Pro for full details on Pro features.
Iterative Expansion
Build complex maps through multiple expansions:
Generate an initial map
Expand with a specific focus (e.g., "economic factors")
Auto-format to clean up
Expand again with another focus (e.g., "social impacts")
Repeat until your map captures the full system
Processing Time
Processing time depends on the size and complexity of your selection. Pro mode takes longer than Quick mode because it searches the web for sources. Expansion generally takes slightly longer than initial generation because the AI analyses your existing map, identifies relationships with current elements, and avoids duplicates.
Last updated