Build timelines with AI
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or any other assistant.
How it works
- Open a timeline. Sign in (it's free), then create a timeline or open one of yours.
- Choose Build with AI in the toolbar. Describe the topic, then select Copy prompt or Open in Claude / Open in ChatGPT.
- Let your assistant do the research. It replies with the events in the Chronlines format.
- Paste the whole reply back into Build with AI and select Add to timeline. Every event is checked exactly like one you type in, and events already on the timeline are skipped.
- Want more? Ask the assistant for more events, a different period or more detail, and paste again.
Assistants can be wrong. Skim the result and fix or delete anything that doesn't look right; every event can be edited.
The prompt
Build with AI fills in your topic for you. You can also copy this prompt into any assistant yourself; replace the topic line first.
Please build a timeline for Chronlines (https://chronlines.com), an app that draws events as a zoomable timeline.
Topic: (describe your timeline here)
Number of events: about 40
Reply with only the timeline as CSV in a single ```csv code block, in the format below, so I can paste it straight into Chronlines. No other text before or after the code block.
## Chronlines import format (CSV)
The first line is this header, exactly:
title,date,end_date,tier,tags,description,source_url
One event per line after that. Columns:
- title (required): short event name, at most 200 characters.
- date (required): when it happened or began. See "Dates" below.
- end_date (optional): when it ended, for events that span time (a war, a reign, a life). Leave empty for single moments.
- tier (optional, default 1): importance. 1 = always shown (the key events, roughly 1 in 5); 2 = shown when the reader zooms in; 3 = fine detail shown when zoomed in further.
- tags (optional): up to 20 short labels separated by semicolons, e.g. war;politics. Reuse a small set of tags across the timeline so readers can filter by them.
- description (optional): one or two plain sentences, at most 2000 characters. No Markdown. Always wrap it in double quotes, even without a comma, so a comma can never spill it into the next column.
- source_url (optional): one full web address to a reliable source, starting with https:// (or http://), e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11. Write the bare address only: not www.example.com without https://, not a Markdown link like [NASA](https://...), no angle brackets, no trailing period, no second URL. Never write a source name ("Wikipedia", "NASA") or a citation instead of a URL. If you don't have a specific URL you are confident exists, leave the field empty.
CSV rules: every line has exactly 7 fields (6 commas outside quotes), even when the last ones are empty. Separate fields with commas. Wrap a field in double quotes if it contains a comma, a double quote or a line break, and write a double quote inside a quoted field as "". Leave optional fields empty rather than writing "none" or "n/a". At most 5,000 events per import.
### Dates
Prefer ISO forms, as precise as the facts allow and no more:
- Day: 1969-07-20 Month: 1969-07 Year: 1969
- Before the common era: 44 BCE, 500 BCE, 66000000 BCE (never a bare negative number like -500)
- Approximate: c. 1450 Uncertain: 1450?
- Decade: 1960s Century: 20th century, 5th century BCE Season: spring 1969
- Ongoing or open-ended: leave end_date empty.
Times of day are not supported. A bare year means the whole year, not January 1, so don't invent a month or day you don't know.
## Quality
- Be accurate. Use well-established dates; if historians disagree, use "c." and say so in the description.
- Cover the whole span of the topic, not just the famous moments, and put events in chronological order.
- Use end_date for things that last (lives, reigns, wars, eras) so they draw as spans.
- Don't repeat an event, and don't add filler events to reach a number.
- Write neutral, factual descriptions in your own words.
## Example
```csv
title,date,end_date,tier,tags,description,source_url
Apollo program,1961-05-25,1972-12-19,1,program,"NASA's crewed Moon program, from Kennedy's address to Congress to Apollo 17.",https://www.nasa.gov/the-apollo-program/
Apollo 11 Moon landing,1969-07-20,,1,mission;landing,"Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first people to walk on the Moon.",https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11
Apollo 13,1970-04-11,1970-04-17,2,mission,"An oxygen tank explodes on the way to the Moon; the crew returns safely.",
Plans for a crewed Mars mission,2030s,,3,future,"NASA's long-range goal, still tentative (""Moon to Mars"").",
```
Prefer a file? Save the assistant's answer as a .csv file and use Import instead.
Connect your assistant directly (MCP)
Assistants that support MCP servers, such as Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code, can create and update your timelines directly, with no copying and pasting.
Claude, ChatGPT and other apps with connectors
- Add a custom connector with the URL
https://chronlines.com/mcp. In Claude it's under Settings > Connectors. In ChatGPT, custom servers need a Business, Enterprise or Edu workspace: an admin adds it under Plugins, then + > Add custom MCP server (ChatGPT Free, Plus and Pro can't add custom servers yet). - Sign in to Chronlines when the app sends you to us, and choose Allow. Pick Read only if the assistant should only look.
- Ask for a timeline. For example: "Make me a Chronlines timeline of the Apollo program", or "Add the Gemini missions to my space timeline".
Claude Code, Cursor and other tools
- Create an access token. Open Your account and, under Connect your AI, create a token. Pick Read only if the assistant should only look.
- Add Chronlines to your assistant. Your account shows the exact setup when you create the token. In Claude Code it's one command:
claude mcp add --transport http chronlines https://chronlines.com/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR-TOKEN"
Other assistants need the server URLhttps://chronlines.com/mcpand the headerAuthorization: Bearer YOUR-TOKEN. Tools that support MCP sign-in can skip the token: add just the URL and sign in when asked.
Treat a token like a password. You can revoke a token or disconnect an app at any time in Your account > Connect your AI. Deleted events can't be restored; a deleted timeline goes to the Trash for 30 days.
Your data
Chronlines never sees your conversation with the assistant: only the events you paste are saved, or, with a direct connection, the changes the assistant makes to your timelines. What you share with an assistant is covered by that assistant's own terms. Timelines must follow our Acceptable Use Policy.