Chart file format

Every chart on this site can be downloaded as a file and imported again. The format is meant to be written by hand, generated by a language model, or produced by a script moving charts between sites — so it carries no internal identifiers and nothing a person would not type.

Signed in, you can import a chart, and download any chart you own from My charts or its editor.

A complete example

format: iceberg-chart
version: 1
title: Video Game Iceberg
description: Box art everyone knows, down to a leaked build.
topics: [games, internet]
layout: poster-classic
licence: cc-by-sa-4.0
nsfw: false
attribution:
  name: u/someone
  url: https://example.com/the-original
tags: [Speedrun, Myth]
tiers:
  - label: Surface
    items:
      - Mario is a plumber
      - title: Sonic goes fast
        tags: [Speedrun]
  - label: The Abyss
    items:
      - title: The Polybius cabinet
        url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybius
        tags: [Myth]

Items can be written two ways

An item is either plain text — which is its title — or a mapping with title and optionally url and tags. Most items are just text, which is what lets a chart read like the list it is.

Fields

`format` required	Always `iceberg-chart`.
`version` required	Always `1`. This is here so the format can change later without breaking files and scripts written against it today.
`title` required	The chart’s title, up to 200 characters.
`description`	A sentence or two about the chart, up to 2000 characters.
`topics`	Up to 5 ids from the fixed list below. Topics describe the whole chart and link it to others.
`layout`	How the chart is drawn. One of the ids below.
`licence`	The reuse terms you are offering. One of the ids below.
`attribution`	A mapping with `name` (up to 120 characters) and an optional `url`, naming whoever made the work this chart was adapted from. Leave it out for an original chart.
`nsfw`	`true` to keep the chart out of the browse grid, search and topic listings for readers who have not asked to see adult content. It stays readable by direct link.
`tags`	This chart’s own labels for its items — up to 8 of them, each up to 40 characters. Readers use them to filter the chart while reading it. Optional. Leave it out and the list is built from the order tags first appear on the items below; include it and that order is yours to set.
`tiers` required	At least one, and at most 8. Each is a mapping with a `label` (up to 100 characters) and `items` (up to 200). Order is the order you write them in — surface first, deepest last.
`tiers[].items[].title` required	The item, up to 200 characters. Write the item as plain text and this is what it means.
`tiers[].items[].url`	An optional `http://` or `https://` link to more about the item.
`tiers[].items[].tags`	Up to 4 tag labels, matching the chart’s `tags`. Written as labels, not identifiers, and matched regardless of capitalisation.

What the file does not carry

There are no identifiers in the file — tiers, items and tags get them when the file is imported, derived from their own labels. Nothing outside a chart refers to them, so a round trip changes every one and nothing notices.

Nor is a chart’s published state part of the format. An imported chart is always created private, so publishing stays something you do deliberately in the editor rather than something a file can do to you. A file that names visibility is refused rather than quietly ignored — as is any field this page does not list, because a typo that is silently dropped looks exactly like a successful import.

Likes, view counts, timestamps and the chart’s owner are the site’s to keep and are never read from a file. Importing over an existing chart leaves all of them, and its address, alone.

Topics

A fixed list. Use the id on the left, not the label.

film Film
tv TV
music Music
games Video Games
anime Anime & Manga
books Books
comics Comics
art Art & Design
internet Internet Culture
technology Technology
science Science
space Space
nature Nature & Animals
history History
mythology Myth & Folklore
conspiracy Conspiracies
unsolved Unsolved & True Crime
lost-media Lost Media
horror Horror
food Food & Drink
sport Sport
places Places
language Language

Layouts

classic-svg Classic iceberg — The illustrated berg. Every tier and every item, top to bottom.
compact-list Compact list — A dense list with no artwork. Shows the first 5 tiers, 10 items each.
poster-classic Classic poster — One illustrated iceberg, sized to the screen. Shows the first 6 tiers, and as many items in each as its band holds.
poster-abyss Abyssal poster — The same iceberg drawn as a nightmare. Shows the first 6 tiers, and as many items in each as its band holds.

Licences

unspecified
cc-by-4.0 CC BY 4.0
cc-by-sa-4.0 CC BY-SA 4.0

Writing a chart with a language model

Paste this in front of whatever you want a chart about. It is the format above, cut down to the parts a model needs.

Write me an iceberg chart as a YAML file in this exact format.
An iceberg chart is a set of ordered tiers, from things everyone
knows at the surface down to the obscure at the bottom.

format: iceberg-chart
version: 1
title: <the chart's title>
description: <a sentence about it>
topics: [<up to 5 of these ids>]
tiers:
  - label: <the tier's name>
    items:
      - <an item, as plain text>
      - title: <an item that needs more>
        url: <an optional http(s) link>

The topic ids are:
  film, tv, music, games, anime, books, comics, art,
  internet, technology, science, space, nature, history,
  mythology, conspiracy, unsolved, lost-media, horror, food,
  sport, places, language

Rules: at most 8 tiers; at most 200 items in a tier;
a title is at most 200 characters. Output the YAML and nothing else.

Check what comes back before you publish it. A model will invent plausible-sounding entries, and the chart goes out under your name.