How we work

Method

Idea Atlas is for curious people who want the shape of an idea in about six minutes — with pictures — without being lied to.

What every stop must carry

• 60–110 words. If it needs more, it is two stops.
• At least one real source. No source, no publish.
• A confidence grade you can see.
• Meaningful alt text for every plate.

Confidence grades

Established

Mainstream scholarly consensus.

Historians disagree

Active debate — the stop says so in the body.

Told as legend

A traditional story without a reliable evidentiary basis, presented as a story.

Illustrations

Plates follow a locked lithographic art direction: limited palette, paper grain, no photorealism. Every image gets the same CSS plate treatment so the gallery feels like one collection.

AI at authoring time

Journeys may be drafted by AI into our schema. Citations must still be real. The production site never calls a model.