Open the bundled Cortex visualization in the user's default browser — a force-directed neural graph combining methodology profiles, memory nodes, and the knowledge graph, plus the Wiki, Atlas, Emotion, Board, Pipeline, and Knowledge views. Starts the local HTTP server on 127.0.0.1:3458 if not already running and auto-shuts-down after 10 minutes of idle. Use this for visual exploration, screenshots, or presenting Cortex state. Distinct from get_methodology_graph (returns JSON for a CUSTOM client, no browser launched, no auxiliary views) and list_domains (text overview, no graph). Side effects: spawns an HTTP server process and opens a browser tab. The CALL itself returns in ~200 ms (server warmup + browser launch); the GRAPH build is lazy — kicked when the page polls /api/graph/progress (i.e. when the user opens the Graph view). First paint of the skeleton lands in ~1 s; the full graph fills in behind it and depends on the DB size (seconds for typical, ~1-3 min on a 100k+ memory store). Works WITHOUT Cortex too: when its PostgreSQL is unreachable (or CORTEX_VIZ_NO_DB=1 / --no-db is set) the server starts in no-DB mode — the Trace view is fully live from ~/.claude session logs + git, and the five DB-backed views (Graph, Brain, Knowledge, Wiki, Board) appear greyed out with an install pointer instead of erroring. Returns {url, message, dev_source, bootstrap, layout}.

Build the methodology map as JSON graph data {nodes, edges, meta} suitable for force-directed visualization. Nodes: domains, concepts, memories, entities. Edges: cross-domain bridges, co-activation strengths, semantic relationships. Output is capped (200 nodes / 500 edges, highest-quality first) so the payload stays embeddable in a single MCP response. Use this to feed a CUSTOM client visualizer. Distinct from open_visualization (launches the bundled browser UI on 127.0.0.1:3458, no JSON returned), list_domains (text-only domain overview), and get_causal_chain (entity-graph BFS, not the unified methodology map). Read-only on profiles.json + memories. Latency <100ms. Returns {nodes, edges, meta, truncated_nodes?, truncated_edges?}.