The map rig·AI tool
The map was too complex to describe in words, so I built controls to shape it directly.
When I was designing the Shifu Foundation website in code, I wanted the homepage to open with a large map of India, tilted in a 3D isometric view, so a visitor could feel the size of the country and see that founders come from every part of it. I was building it with Claude, so I asked it to place the map for me.
The problem
I knew how I wanted the map to sit. I could not put it into words.
- In 2D this is easy. Top right, bottom left, center. Everyone knows what you mean.
- Isometric has no simple words for it. A tilt, a rotation, a skew, a height, all moving at once.
- So every prompt was a guess. Claude gave me a position, I didn't like it, and I had no clean way to say what to fix.
I tried a few prompts and the map came out wrong each time. One version stretched into a long rope. I even drew the angle on paper. That didn't help either.
What I did
The problem was the way I was talking to the tool. So I stopped prompting and learned the thing itself.
I asked Claude to explain how isometric works in code. It walked me through the handful of values behind it: rotate X, rotate Y, rotate Z, skew, offset, perspective, height. Now I knew the small set of numbers behind the look I wanted.
The solution
I had Claude build me a tuner.
- A panel of sliders, one per value, wired into the live map.
- I move a slider, the map moves with it, and I see every change as I make it.
- One more piece: a button that copies the values in a format Claude reads back exactly.
The tuner became a translator between me and the code.
Results
I could now adjust the map myself until it looked right, then handed the values to Claude and it got it in one go. That saved a hell of a lot of time and frustration.
The taste was still mine. AI did the work.
I don't just prompt AI. When words fall short, I build the control that lets me steer it myself.
