Compact Format (Import/Export)

The Compact Format feature allows you to export your model structure (Terms and Relations) as a clean, text-based format. You can also Import this format back into Termboard, making it ideal for:

• Saving text backups
• Versioning in Git
• Sharing via snippets
• Interacting with LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) as context or output. This helps the AI understand your specific domain, terminology, and relationships, enabling it to answer questions or generate content based on your model.

How to Use

1. Go to File > Export > Compact Format.
2. The Copy Model Context dialog will appear.

Export Options

• Both / Terms / Relations: Choose what content to include in the export
• Visible only: When enabled, respects hidden Relations and properties (only exports visible elements)
• Include Extra Fields (xFields): When enabled, exports any custom properties defined for your Terms and Relations as additional columns.

Type Filtering

You can filter the export by specific types:

• Term Types: Filter by term types (term, concept, property). Leave empty to include all types.
• Relation Types: Filter by relation types (Generalization, Composition, etc.). Leave empty to include all types.

The Terms and Relations counts at the bottom update in real-time to show how many elements match your current filters.

Actions

• Copy to Clipboard: Copies the Markdown summary directly to your clipboard for pasting into AI chat windows.
• Download Markdown: Saves the summary as a .md file to your computer.

Using the Context with AI

Once you have the summary, you can paste it into an LLM prompt. For example:

"I am working on a software project. Here is the domain model context:

[PASTE YOUR MODEL CONTEXT HERE]

Based on this model, can you suggest some user stories for the 'Account' entity?"

The AI will now have specific knowledge of your Terms (like 'Account', 'User') and their Relations, leading to much more relevant and accurate responses.

AI Interaction Tips

• Provide the Full Context: Copy the entire Markdown output (File > Export > Compact Format) into the chat.
• Ask for Structured Output: If you want the AI to generate new terms or relations, ask it to "Output in the Termboard Compact Format (Markdown)".
• Keep it Clean: Avoid adding extra descriptive text inside the Terms or Relations sections when prompting the AI to generate data, as the Termboard parser works best with clean table structures.

The generated summary uses the bulk-add compatible format, which means:

• Model Header: The file starts with # Model: Project Name.
• Section Markers: Sections are designated by ## Terms and ## Relations.
• Header Comments: Column definitions are prefixed with #.
• Pipe-separated Values: Data rows use | as the column separator.

Technical Specification

Termboard uses a flexible parser that matches column names case-insensitively. The header row must start with # and be located within the first 10 lines of its section.

Terms Columns

Property	Aliases	Description
name	-	Required. The display name of the term.
description	-	Brief summary of the term.
parent	-	The name or ID of the parent group.
type	-	term, concept, property, or group.
additionalInformation	additional_info	Technical notes or extra details. Supports Quill.js HTML format.
synonyms	-	Comma-separated list of aliases.
url	-	Reference link.
weight	-	Numeric importance (default: 1).
x	xpos	Horizontal coordinate.
y	ypos	Vertical coordinate.

Relations Columns

Property	Aliases	Description
source	sourceId, sourceTerm	Required. Source term name or ID.
target	targetId, targetTerm	Required. Target term name or ID.
relationName	relation, name	Label of the relation.
description	-	Brief description of the connection.
additionalInformation	additional_info	Extra notes. Supports Quill.js HTML format.
cardinality	-	Target cardinality (e.g., 1, *).
cardinalitySource	-	Source cardinality.
weight	-	Numeric importance.

NOTE

Extra Fields: You can append custom fields using the xfield: prefix in the header, e.g., ... | xfield:Status. Values for dropdown/multi-value xFields will be automatically matched to their definitions.

Formatting Notes

1. Separators: While | is the standard separator, the parser is flexible and will attempt to detect common delimiters.
2. Cleanup: Termboard automatically escapes pipes and newlines when exporting to this format to maintain table integrity.
3. Hierarchy: If a parent name is provided that doesn't exist yet, Termboard will automatically create it as a group type node.

Example Output

# Model: My Domain Model

## Terms

# name | description | parent | type | xfield:status
# ------
Customer | A person who purchases goods | Person | concept | Active
Order | A request for products | | concept | Pending

## Relations

# source | relationName | target | description | cardinality | cardinalitySource | xfield:priority
# ------
Customer | places | Order | Customer places an order | * | 1 | High

Importing Compact Format

You can import this exact format back into Termboard:

1. Go to File > Import > Compact Format.
2. Paste the text into the box OR drop your .md or .txt file.
3. Choose your Duplicate Handling (Update/Skip/Add) and Graph Mode (Add to Graph/Replace Graph).
4. Click Import.

The importer automatically detects the ## Terms and ## Relations sections and rebuilds your graph, including all details and Extra Fields.

Re-importing Your Model

This enables:

• Model Transfer: Export from one model and import into another
• AI-Generated Content: Have an AI generate content in this format, then import it directly
• Backup & Restore: Keep text-based backups of your model structure

Simply copy the Terms or Relations section and paste it into the corresponding bulk add dialog.