YMind - Mind Map Editor

简体中文 | English

A simple desktop mind map editor built with C++ and Qt6.

Screenshots

Features

• Tabbed Editing - Work on multiple mind maps simultaneously with drag-to-reorder tabs
• Multiple Layouts - Bilateral (balanced left/right), Top-Down (org chart), and Right-Tree (project plan) layouts
• Auto Layout - Automatically arrange nodes with Ctrl+L
• Undo/Redo - Full command-based undo/redo for add, remove, edit, and move operations
• Drag & Drop - Reposition nodes and subtrees by dragging
• File I/O - Save and load mind maps in .ymind (JSON) format
• Export - Export to PNG (2x scaling), SVG, PDF, plain text, or Markdown
• Import - Import mind maps from indented text files
• Templates - Start from built-in templates (Mind Map, Org Chart, Project Plan), load custom templates from JSON, or start with a blank canvas
• Themes - Light and Dark mode with system theme detection
• Auto-Save - Configurable automatic saving with 1-5 minute intervals
• Outline Sidebar - Tree-based outline view for quick navigation
• Settings - Configurable theme, fonts, auto-save, and editor preferences
• Zoom & Pan - Scroll wheel zoom, fit-to-view, and middle/right-click panning
• Keyboard-Driven - Comprehensive keyboard shortcuts for efficient editing
• AI / MCP - Ships with ymind-cli, a headless binary that doubles as a Model Context Protocol server. Lets Claude / Cursor / any MCP-compatible AI turn Markdown into a beautiful auto-laid-out mindmap. See the setup guide.

Headless rendering (CLI + MCP server)

Alongside the GUI, the build produces ymind-cli — a small companion binary for scripting and AI integration:

# Render Markdown to SVG/PNG
./build/ymind-cli render -i notes.md -o map.svg
./build/ymind-cli render -i notes.md -o map.png -f png --layout righttree --theme builtin.nord

# Stdin → stdout
cat notes.md | ./build/ymind-cli render -i - -o - -f svg > map.svg

# Run as a Model Context Protocol server (stdio)
./build/ymind-cli mcp

Install as a Claude Code plugin (recommended)

YMind ships as a Claude Code plugin — two commands and you're done:

/plugin marketplace add broccoli-97/xmind
/plugin install ymind

Then ensure ymind-cli is on your PATH (one-time):

# After cmake --build build
sudo ln -s "$PWD/build/ymind-cli" /usr/local/bin/ymind-cli
# or, for a temporary session
export PATH="$PWD/build:$PATH"

Ask Claude: "summarise this article as a mindmap, use the nord theme, save it to ~/Desktop" — and it will. Full configuration steps for Claude Desktop and Cursor are on the docs site.

Building

Prerequisites

• C++17 compiler (GCC, Clang, or MSVC)
• CMake 3.16+
• Qt6 (Widgets, Svg, PrintSupport, Network, LinguistTools)

Build Instructions

mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make
./ymind

macOS

Release packages target macOS 11 (Big Sur) or later, using Qt 6.7.3. Choose macos-arm64 for Apple Silicon or macos-x64 for Intel. Open the DMG and drag YMind.app into Applications, or extract the .tar.gz and move the complete application bundle there. Finder can open .ymind documents directly.

Build and package on macOS with the matching Qt kit on your PATH:

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=11.0
cmake --build build --parallel
open build/YMind.app
bash packaging/macos/package.sh build dist
python3 packaging/macos/smoke_test.py dist/YMind.app

The package script deploys Qt, CLI/MCP, plugins and translations, signs the bundle, and checks every bundled binary's deployment target and dependencies. Newer Qt versions may require newer macOS; the check rejects bundles that advertise a lower minimum than their dependencies actually support.

The default signature is ad-hoc. For a release that passes Gatekeeper without a first-launch exception, set MACOS_CODESIGN_IDENTITY to your Developer ID Application identity and MACOS_NOTARY_PROFILE to a notarytool Keychain profile before packaging. See macOS packaging details.

The installed CLI is inside the bundle:

/Applications/YMind.app/Contents/MacOS/ymind-cli mcp
sudo ln -s /Applications/YMind.app/Contents/MacOS/ymind-cli /usr/local/bin/ymind-cli

For desktop MCP clients, use the absolute bundle path as command if their environment does not include /usr/local/bin. User templates and themes on macOS live in ~/Library/Application Support/YMind/templates/ and ~/Library/Application Support/YMind/themes/.

Build Options

# Build with unit tests
cmake .. -DBUILD_TESTING=ON

# Build with clang-tidy static analysis
cmake .. -DENABLE_CLANG_TIDY=ON

# Run tests
ctest --output-on-failure

Keyboard Shortcuts

On macOS, use Command (⌘) for shortcuts shown with Ctrl. Redo also uses ⌘+Shift+Z; deleting a node with the Mac's Backspace key uses ⌘+Backspace.

Shortcut	Action
Enter	Add child node
Ctrl+Enter	Add sibling node
Del	Delete selected node
F2 / Double-click	Edit node text
Ctrl+L	Auto layout
Ctrl+T	New tab
Ctrl+W	Close tab
Ctrl+N	New file
Ctrl+O	Open file
Ctrl+S	Save
Ctrl+Shift+S	Save as
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y	Redo
Ctrl++	Zoom in
Ctrl+-	Zoom out
Ctrl+0	Fit to view
Ctrl+,	Settings
Scroll wheel	Zoom
Middle/Right-drag	Pan

Project Structure

ymind/
├── CMakeLists.txt
├── .clang-tidy             # clang-tidy configuration
├── LICENSE
├── README.md
├── resources/
│   ├── resources.qrc
│   └── theme.qss           # QSS stylesheet template
├── tests/                   # Qt Test unit tests
│   ├── CMakeLists.txt
│   ├── tst_TemplateDescriptor.cpp
│   ├── tst_LayoutStyle.cpp
│   ├── tst_TemplateRegistry.cpp
│   ├── tst_LayoutAlgorithmRegistry.cpp
│   ├── tst_AppSettings.cpp
│   └── tst_MindMapSceneSerialization.cpp
└── src/
    ├── main.cpp
    ├── core/                # Application infrastructure
    │   ├── MainWindow       # Main window, menus, toolbar, auto-save
    │   ├── FileManager      # File I/O, export, and import
    │   ├── Commands         # Undo/redo commands (add, remove, edit, move)
    │   ├── AppSettings      # Settings singleton (theme, auto-save, fonts)
    │   ├── SettingsDialog   # Settings dialog UI
    │   ├── TemplateDescriptor  # Template data structures and JSON serialization
    │   └── TemplateRegistry    # Template registration and lookup
    ├── scene/               # Graphics scene items
    │   ├── MindMapScene     # Scene managing nodes, edges, serialization
    │   ├── MindMapView      # View with zoom, pan, and grid background
    │   ├── NodeItem         # Node graphics item with floating shadow
    │   └── EdgeItem         # Curved bezier edge connector
    ├── layout/              # Auto-layout algorithms
    │   ├── ILayoutAlgorithm       # Abstract algorithm interface
    │   ├── LayoutAlgorithmBase    # Shared measure/place/refine phases
    │   ├── BilateralLayout        # Left/right balanced tree
    │   ├── TopDownLayout          # Top-down org chart
    │   ├── RightTreeLayout        # Right-expanding tree
    │   ├── LayoutAlgorithmRegistry  # Algorithm registry singleton
    │   ├── LayoutEngine           # Static layout facade
    │   └── LayoutStyle            # Enum and name conversions
    └── ui/                  # Widgets and theming
        ├── ThemeManager     # Theme color palette singleton
        ├── StyleSheetGenerator  # CSS stylesheet generation
        ├── TabManager       # Tab bar and content stack management
        ├── StartPage        # Template gallery start page
        ├── OutlineWidget    # Tree-based outline sidebar
        └── IconFactory      # SVG icon and preview generation

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE for details.