Relationships & Edges

What you’ll learn

The three concrete paths for creating an edge between individuals
Every supported relationship type and what it means
The difference between fixed and soft relationship types
How directed vs undirected edges render
How to edit or delete an existing edge

Three ways to create an edge

1. Edge-draw mode (drag from one node to another)

Switch the canvas into edge-draw mode and click-and-drag from one node to another to create an edge between them. Three equivalent entry points:

Toolbar → Build → Connect nodes.
Right-click empty canvas → Enter edge draw.
Press E.

While in edge-draw mode, the toolbar shows a yellow Edge Drawing Mode sub-bar with a Cancel button and an Esc to cancel hint. Each successful click-drag creates a new edge.

To leave edge-draw mode, press Esc, click Cancel in the sub-bar, or right-click the canvas and choose Exit edge draw.

2. Start from a selected node

If you’ve already selected a node and want to draw an edge from it without first switching modes:

Right-click the node → Start edge from here, or
Press Shift+E with the node selected, or
Toolbar → Build → Start edge from selection.

Your cursor is now bound to the node as the source of an edge — click any other node to complete it.

3. Auto-Associate & Split (bulk)

If your population uses systematic identifiers (like T049 → T049A → T049A2), you can let finwave infer mother-of and sibling-of edges from the identifier patterns and split the result into per-matriline graphs in one step. See the dedicated page: Auto-Associate & Split.

What gets stored when you draw an edge

When you create an edge by drawing it, finwave initially classifies it as an association edge. You can then change the type from the Inspector — the relationship-type dropdown in the right panel offers all six supported types. Edges of any type can carry a free-text note.

Relationship types

There are six supported relationship types, in two categories.

Fixed types (stored in the edge registry)

Type	Display label	Directed?	Default colour
`mother-of`	Mother of	Directed (mother → calf)	“Mother” colour from styles (default `#64748b`)
`father-of`	Father of	Directed (father → calf)	“Mother” colour
`sibling-of`	Sibling	Undirected	”Sibling” colour (default `#94a3b8`)
`mate-of`	Mate	Undirected	”Sibling” colour

These four types are fixed — they are stored in the persistent edge registry alongside their endpoints, type, note, and timestamps. They survive serialization and are the basis for cross-graph reasoning (e.g. matriline grouping).

Soft types (inline / local)

Type	Display label	Directed?	Default colour
`association`	Association	Undirected	”Assoc” colour (default `#94a3b8`)
`often-seen-with`	Often seen with	Undirected	”Assoc” colour

These types are soft — they live as inline edges on the graph. They’re the right choice when you want to record that two animals are seen together without making a structural claim about kinship.

Picking a type

A useful default mapping when you’re starting out:

Recording a known family link → mother-of or father-of (directed) or sibling-of (undirected).
Recording pair-bond / breeding pair observations → mate-of.
Recording co-occurrence above chance without a kin claim → association.
Recording frequent co-sighting as opposed to a one-off pairing → often-seen-with.

When in doubt, use association — it’s the catch-all and it’s also what unrecognised relationship strings normalise to on import.

Editing an edge

Click an edge to select it. The right panel’s Inspector tab shows the edge form:

Field	What it does
ID (read-only)	The edge’s stable id — useful as a handle.
Relationship type	Dropdown of all six types listed above. Changing this re-types the edge and re-styles it accordingly.
Note	Free-text scratch space, multi-line.

Press Apply to commit; Cancel to discard.

Multiple edges between the same pair

You can define more than one edge between the same pair of individuals if the relationship is multifaceted. For example, sibling-of and often-seen-with between the same two animals are both valid.

Deleting an edge

Select the edge and press Delete. Undoable with Ctrl/Cmd+Z.

How edges render

Visual styling for edges is controlled by the Styles tab in the right panel:

Edge curve: Straight, Bezier, or Bundled Bezier (cytoscape unbundled-bezier — bundles parallel edges).
Edge width in pixels.
Three colour pickers: Mother, Sibling, Assoc — applied by relationship type.

Directed edges (mother-of, father-of) render with an arrowhead pointing from source to target. Undirected edges have no arrowhead.

The relationship-type label is also rendered on the edge so you can read the graph at a glance.

Adding & Editing Individuals — the other half of every edge.
Auto-Associate & Split — bulk-create mother and sibling edges from identifier patterns.
Styling, Layout & Export — full styling reference.