Make a chart with AI

How it works

Two authoring paths, by what your assistant can do:

A good prompt to start with: “Using gigcharts.app, write a ChordPro chart of [song] by [artist] — chords above the lyrics, with the sections marked.”

Path A · ChordPro text

Have your assistant write a plain-text song in ChordPro. Copy it, open the app, and paste — it imports automatically. This works with every assistant, including plain chat.

The body

Two chord notations are accepted, and they can be mixed. Chords above the lyric:

C            G          Am
Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away

…or inline in brackets (the importer splits them into two lines for you):

[C]Yesterday, [G]all my troubles seemed so [Am]far away

A blank line separates stanzas — that's the unit sections and cues attach to.

Metadata directives

Whole-line directives of the form {key: value} are lifted into song fields (keys are case-insensitive). Put them at the top. Recognized keys, with aliases in parentheses:

Structure (becomes annotations)

• Sections — wrap stanzas in {start_of_chorus} … {end_of_chorus} (also verse, bridge; short forms {soc}/{eoc}). An optional label is allowed: {start_of_chorus: Chorus 1}.
• Cues — a small labelled chip by the nearest stanza: {comment: Watch the tempo} (also {c: …}).
• Chorus recall — a “play the chorus again” marker: {chorus} on its own line.

Full example

{title: Yesterday}
{artist: The Beatles}
{key: F}
{capo: 0}
{tempo: 97}

{comment: Softly, rubato}
F      Em7    A7        Dm
Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away

{start_of_chorus}
Dm7   G       Bb      F
Now I need a place to hide away
{end_of_chorus}

Path A can't carry exact annotation placement, per-line voice colours, or precise typesetting. For those, use the import link below.

Path B · One-click import link

The app has an /import route that decodes a whole song and opens it in the studio. Two transports:

Payload in the link (#gc=)

#gc= carries a compressed .gigchart envelope in the URL hash. Build it exactly the way the app does:

import LZString from "lz-string";

const envelope = { format: "gigchart", version: 3, song: /* SongFile */ };
const token = LZString.compressToEncodedURIComponent(JSON.stringify(envelope));
const url = "https://app.gigcharts.app/import#gc=" + token;

(A raw, percent-encoded JSON token also works, but compression keeps links short.)

Fetch a hosted file (?src=)

Point the app at a public .gigchart (JSON) or ChordPro text file, under 256 KB:

https://app.gigcharts.app/import?src=https://gist.githubusercontent.com/…/yesterday.gigchart

The .gigchart envelope

body is the array of chord/lyric lines ("" is a stanza break) — the same shape Path A produces, so you can start from ChordPro and only add annotations.

{
  "format": "gigchart",
  "version": 3,
  "song": {
    "properties": {
      "title": "Yesterday",
      "artist": "The Beatles",
      "originalKey": "F",
      "capo": "0",
      "tempo": 97
    },
    "body": [
      "F      Em7    A7        Dm",
      "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away",
      "",
      "Dm7   G       Bb      F",
      "Now I need a place to hide away"
    ],
    "annotations": []
  }
}

After import you land in the studio editor, where you review, tweak, and export the PDF.

Defaults & limits

• Page count is a render outcome, not something the text sets directly. Aim for a sensible font size and layout; the final page break depends on the rendered result.
• Size: fetched ?src= files must be under 256 KB; keep link payloads pasteable.
• Chords: use standard names (C, Am, F#m7, G/B). Transpose/concert display comes from key / transpose.
• Copyright: you're responsible for the songs you make charts of — GigCharts is a typesetting tool and hosts none of your content.

Ready? Open the app and paste, or hand your assistant this page.