Pathfinder shows you how two nodes are connected. Pick them and the shortest chain of connectors between them lights up, while everything else on the canvas dims back.
Why you'd use it
In a big structure it's easy to know that two things are related and hard to see how. Pathfinder answers that directly, which is handy for checking that an argument holds together, following how a decision reaches a team, or showing someone why one thing affects another.
Finding a route
- Select the two nodes (Shift or Ctrl+click the second one).
- Press R, or click the Pathfinder button in the bottom bar, next to Connect.
- The route lights up, and a strip along the top of the canvas names each stop, and the connector between each pair, in order.
There are three other ways in:
- With one node selected, press R and search for the node you want the route to.
- Right-click a node and choose Find path to…, then search for the other end.
- With nothing selected, press R, then click the first node and the second. Escape cancels.
Clearing it
Click the × on the strip, or press R again with nothing selected. Starting a presentation clears it too, so your audience sees the whole structure.
Tips
- The route stays up while you work. Add or remove a connection and it updates itself, and if the route breaks, the strip says there isn't one any more.
- It works alongside a highlight from the left panel, so you can light a classification and a route at the same time (see Highlighting and Focused Layout).
- A route you light in the Space Studio carries over into the Publisher.
- A screenshot of the canvas includes the lit route, which makes a decent slide.
- Your AI can do the same thing. Ask Filamental AI, or an AI connected through MCP, how two nodes are connected and it reads the route back hop by hop (see AI Connections & Prompting).
What it doesn't do
- It ignores arrow direction. A route is about being connected, so it'll happily run against an arrow.
- It counts steps, not strength. The shortest route is the one with the fewest connectors, whatever their type or however strongly they pull. When two routes are the same length, it shows one of them.
- It doesn't move anything. The camera stays where it is, nothing is rearranged or hidden, and nothing is saved, so the route is gone when you close the project.
- It isn't carried into share links or downloaded HTML files.
