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Chat

A person can chat about the knowledge base with an AI that isn't Roadmap's own. The explorer's Chat button (about the whole knowledge base), or the chat icon on a selected node (chat about this), opens a chat window in a new tab. Roadmap doesn't answer. Instead, the window's MCP button copies an instruction to paste into an AI console connected to Roadmap's MCP server, such as a Claude Code terminal:

Use roadmap MCP to host knowledge-base chat kbc-x7k2qa in workspace "my-team":
kb_chat("join", id="kbc-x7k2qa", workspace="my-team") and follow what it says,
then loop kb_chat("wait") / kb_chat("say") until the person is done.

sequenceDiagram
  participant P as Person (chat window)
  participant R as Roadmap
  participant A as AI console (MCP)
  A->>R: kb_chat join
  R-->>A: subject, history, hosting rules
  P->>R: "How does sign-in work?"
  A->>R: kb_chat wait
  R-->>A: the new message
  A->>R: kb_read find / get
  A->>R: kb_chat say (text + pieces to show)
  R-->>P: reply, with topic sections shown live

How the AI hosts it

join gives the AI the hosting rules:

  • the person drives; replies are short and end with where to go next;
  • for someone new, a very short overview first, then let them explore;
  • show, don't paste: put small pieces in the window (a section of a topic, a diagram or a screen sketch), at most four per reply;
  • say so when the knowledge base doesn't hold the answer.

A piece shown in the window is read live from the knowledge base, with a link that opens it in the explorer.

Robust by design

Nothing is long-lived. The window polls for new messages every 1.5 seconds and the AI's wait returns after a few seconds, so reloading either side breaks nothing. The window shows whether an AI is connected and a typing indicator while it works. A closed chat can be reopened, and the AI joins again.

On a branch

A chat can be on a branch. The window shows a branch badge that opens the explorer in that branch, the AI is told to read in it, and every piece it shows remembers the branch it came from. A chat opened from the explorer while it shows a branch starts on that branch.