Properties

A property is something each node (or each connection) of a type knows about itself. Node types and relationship types both have them. Every type also has a built-in id, which can’t be added again.

Kinds

Changing a kind

Click the kind on a row’s right (it reads “Text”, “Number”…) to open the property options popover; the kind picker is at the top. Once the graph holds values for the property, its kind is fixed, with one exception: Text and Enum are stored alike, so one can become the other whatever the graph holds. The popover says which: “Fixed now that your graph holds values for it” or “Your graph holds values for it, so it can only switch between text and enum.”

When Text becomes Enum, the words it already holds become the enum’s options to start with, the most used first.

Add, rename, reorder, delete

• Add property at the foot of the card or the inspector’s list. A node type’s first property is named name and becomes the title; later ones are called property, property 2…, ready to rename.
• Click a name to rename it. Property names must be unique within the type (by identifier: Year published and year_published are the same).
• Drag the grip at a row’s left edge to reorder. The order is the order in the inspector, the hover card, the table and the forms.
• Hover a row for the ×, or use Delete property in the options popover or the right-click menu. If any node or connection has a value, a sheet asks: “Its values on 12 nodes are deleted from your graph too. This can’t be undone.”

The property options popover

Everything about one property, opened from its kind button:

• Kind: the five kinds as tiles, with the lock note when the graph holds values.
• Options (Enum only): see below.
• Title switch: each node is called by this value on the graph. One per type; ticking one unticks the other. Unticking leaves the type with no title, and its nodes are then called by the type’s name. Booleans can’t be titles.
• Vector search switch (Text only): embedded on this Mac, so Ask finds this text by meaning, not just its words. See Vector search.
• Show on graph switch (Boolean only): a tick for yes or a cross for no on each node or connection. One boolean per type.
• Default value: see below.
• Delete property.

The right-click menu on a row offers the same: Property Options…, Use as Title, Show on Graph, Embed for Vector Search, Clear Default, Delete Property. Small marks on the kind button show what’s on: a text glyph for the title, a sparkle for embedded, an eye for shown on graph; its tooltip spells it out (“Text, title, embedded for vector search, defaults to Paper. Click for options.”).

The title

The title names the nodes of a type: it’s the label under the bead, the heading in the inspector and hover card, the name column in the table, what the AI is told is “the node’s title”, and what Raw Text ranks first. Relationships can have a title too; a titled connection shows its title on the line in italics instead of the relationship’s name.

A title can be any kind but Boolean. A Number or Link title must read as one when a node is named: the composers won’t add a node whose name isn’t a valid number or link. An Enum title is picked from its options.

Enum options

In the popover, under Options: type an option and press Return to add it (the field stays focused for the next), click one to rename it in place, hover for the × to remove it, drag the grip to change the order they’re offered in.

• Renaming an option renames it wherever it’s set: nodes holding the old word take the new one, as one change.
• Removing an option leaves values already set to it, marked as “not an option” where they show.
• The options’ order is the order in pickers, in Arrange lanes, and in sorting (“in the shape’s order”).
• Options are kept while the kind is changed, so changing it back brings them back.

Default value

Optional. A default is given to new nodes or connections left blank, to existing ones that have no value when the default is set (“The 12 nodes without a value get it”), and to a value that’s later cleared. Change the default and everything still holding the old default follows. Clear it and values it already gave stay.

Type it in the field (a number must be a number, a link a link; the field goes red otherwise), flip the switch for a Boolean, or pick a chip for an Enum. The note under the field says what will happen.

Which properties are searched

• Raw Text searches every Text and Enum property (tick them in the search bar’s “Search in” list).
• Vector searches every embedded Text property.
• Arrange can sort by any property but Link, and split by Enum and Boolean.
• The table shows every property as a column.