Two Minute Cycle Diagram
create_cycleGenerate a slide-deck-quality cycle diagram: 3–8 stages evenly spaced around a loop, first stage at 12 o'clock running clockwise, joined by arrows that lead from the last stage back to the first, with an optional centre label and a short detail line beside each stage. Two looks: "nodes" (coloured circles on a ring with curved arrows) and "segments" (a ring cut into arrow-shaped segments). Choose it when the process repeats: improvement loops (plan-do-check-act), flywheels, product or customer lifecycles, feedback loops. Use a process diagram instead when steps run once from start to finish, a timeline when dates matter, and hub and spoke when the items surround a centre with no order. Limits: 3–8 stages, names of 1–3 words, details of about 12 words. Infer missing details rather than asking; the user can adjust the chart in the builder through the Edit link. ALWAYS give the user the image link: inline chat images usually cannot be saved, but the link renders the exact chart on demand and can be pasted into a slide or Markdown.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| style | No | "nodes" (default): coloured circles on a ring joined by curved arrows, stage names inside the circles. "segments": a thick ring cut into coloured arrow-shaped segments, stage names outside. | nodes |
| title | No | Heading shown top-left of the chart at 22px bold. Every chart has one title row; an empty string hides it. | Cycle |
| width | No | Chart width in pixels (640–2400). Omit it (recommended) and the chart sizes itself to its content with comfortable margins, between 880 and 1280px wide. PNG output renders at 2x. | |
| center | No | Optional label in the middle of the loop, e.g. the goal the cycle serves ("Customer value"). Bold, wrapped to up to 3 lines. Omit for none. | |
| credit | No | Shows a small "twominutetoolkit.com" credit under the chart, inside the card. Set false to leave it off (for example when the user asks for no branding). | |
| stages | Yes | The stages in order (3–8). The first sits at 12 o'clock and the loop runs clockwise, back from the last stage to the first. Fewer than 3 still render but are reported as a warning; more than 8 are dropped. | |
| palette | No | Hex colours applied in order to items that have no colour of their own. Pass the user's brand colours here when they name them. Default: indigo, sky, emerald, amber, red, gray. |