Your map
"My life" sits in the middle. The topics around it, like Home or Work, are your branches.
To add a branch, tap the dashed Add bubble next to the middle.
Drag to move around the map. Pinch, or hold Ctrl and scroll, to zoom. You can also use the + and − buttons.
Keep zooming out and you will see the whole map at once, with a dot for each topic. Tap a branch name to zoom back in.
Use Search at the top to find a topic or a to-do.
Topics
Tap a topic to open it. You can add to-dos, a note, a link, a chart and topics inside it. Tap anything to change it.
Notes can be up to 100 words. The counter under the note shows how many words you have left.
Tap Move to put the topic somewhere else on your map. Tap the back arrow to go up to the topic above.
The Add bar
The Add bar at the bottom of the map is the quickest way to add something.
Start with a topic name and a colon to add a to-do straight to that topic. "Work: Check emails" adds "Check emails" to Work. You can undo it straight away.
Anything else goes to your Inbox, with a guess at which topic it belongs to.
If a topic has a chart, you can add a row by typing the topic name, a label and a number, like "Savings Oct 120". This goes to your Inbox too.
Focus for five minutes
Tap Focus at the top. Chizu suggests three to-dos for the next five minutes. To pick your own, tap Choose from map.
Tap Start. When the five minutes are up you will hear a soft chime.
Then tap Keep going, Done or Continue later. Done ticks off the to-do.
You can write one line about how it went. It is saved on the topic. Tap Skip if you would rather not.
Your Inbox
Your Inbox holds things waiting for you to decide on: text from the Add bar, and suggestions from AI assistants.
Each suggestion says who made it and why, and lists every change it would make. Untick any change you do not want.
Tap Approve to make the changes, or Dismiss to throw the suggestion away. For text from the Add bar, tap Choose to pick where it goes.
Connect an AI assistant
You can connect Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or another AI assistant that lets you add a custom connector.
In Chizu, open Settings, then Connected apps, and tap Copy link. In your assistant, add a custom connector and paste the link. Sign in to Chizu when asked and allow access.
Your assistant can then read your map and suggest changes. It cannot change anything itself. Its suggestions wait in your Inbox.
If your assistant can also read your email, calendar or meeting notes, you can ask it to suggest updates to your map from them.
To disconnect, open Connected apps, tap Connected next to the assistant, then tap Disconnect.
What your assistant can do
Once connected, your assistant can look at your map without changing it. It can read the whole map (get_map), open one topic with its note, link, to-dos and chart (get_node), search for topics and to-dos (search), see what is waiting in your Inbox (list_inbox), see what you are focusing on and the three to-dos Chizu suggests next (get_focus_context), and see recent changes to a topic (get_history).
It can also suggest changes. It can suggest new topics (suggest_add_node), edits to a topic’s name, note, link or status (suggest_edit_node), to-dos (suggest_add_todo), moving a topic (suggest_move_node), a one-line log of what was done (suggest_log) and a chart (suggest_chart). Each suggestion goes to your Inbox with a reason. Nothing changes until you approve it.
There are two ready-made prompts. Draft my Chizu map suggests areas, people and projects for a new map from your other connected sources. Update Chizu from my sources checks recent email and meeting notes for to-dos and updates.
Things to try: "Look at my Chizu map and tell me what I have been neglecting." "Go through my email from this week and suggest to-dos for my Chizu map." "Suggest three to-dos for my Work topic."
Ask AI
Ask AI suggests up to three to-dos for a topic, and sometimes a better note. You will find it on a topic and in Focus.
Ask AI runs on Claude Opus 5.5, made by Anthropic, so it needs your own Anthropic API key. Other AI providers are not supported for Ask AI yet. Anthropic charges you for what you use.
Add your key in Settings, under AI key. It is stored encrypted and never shown again. With a key, the Add bar also gets better at guessing where things belong.
This is separate from connecting an assistant. A connected assistant, like ChatGPT, works through your own subscription with that provider and does not need a key.
Its suggestions go to your Inbox like any other.
Undo and archive
The Undo and Redo arrows are at the top of the map. Undo works on any device, and it includes changes you approved from an assistant.
Archive hides a topic and everything inside it. Open the topic, tap Archive, then tap again to confirm.
To bring an archived topic back, use Undo. Archived topics are still in your data export.
If your connection drops
You need the internet to sign in. After that, Chizu keeps a copy of your map on your device.
If your connection drops, you can keep using your map, Focus and the Add bar. Your changes are sent when you are back online.
Using Ask AI, approving or dismissing suggestions, and connecting an assistant need a connection.
In a browser, keep the Chizu tab open. If you reload the page while offline, it will not load.
If you change the same thing on two devices while one is offline, the change you made last is kept. Everything else you changed on either device is kept too.
Settings
Tap the Settings button at the top right of the map.
Plan shows your trial or plan, and is where you pay or cancel. Colour and Appearance change how Chizu looks.
Export data downloads everything in your account as a file.
Delete account removes your account and everything in it. Tap it twice to confirm. This cannot be undone.