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.
- source_url (optional): one http(s) link to a reliable source for the event. Only include a URL you are confident exists; otherwise leave it empty.
CSV rules: 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.,
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 (coming soon)
We're building a Chronlines connector (an MCP server) so assistants like Claude and ChatGPT can create and update your timelines directly, with no copying and pasting. It will appear here and in your account when it's ready.
Your data
Chronlines never sees your conversation with the assistant; only the events you paste are saved, to your timeline. What you share with an assistant is covered by that assistant's own terms. Timelines must follow our Acceptable Use Policy.