--- title: "Build a Branching playlist" slug: "/help/playlists/branching" topic: "playlists" last_updated: "2026-11-02T16:51:23.748Z" --- ## **Overview** A **Branching playlist** is a playlist layout that you build on a canvas instead of a stacked list. You lay out questions, interest surveys, and content items as cards, draw threads between them, and each viewer travels the path their own answers unlock — the same playlist adapts to every buyer. Use a Branching playlist when the "right" demo depends on who is watching: different roles, different industries, different buying stages, or just different questions a buyer wants answered first. --- ## **When to use a Branching playlist** - Tailored pre-call journeys where the first question routes buyers to the right demo - Role- or industry-specific flows from a single shared link - Discovery experiences that ask what a buyer cares about and then surface only the items that match - Any playlist where you would otherwise have to maintain several near-duplicate playlists For a self-serve grid where viewers pick anything they want in any order, use a [Choose Your Own Adventure playlist](/help/playlists/create) instead. Branching is for authored paths; CYOA is for open browsing. --- ## **Create a Branching playlist** 1. In your Walnut library, click **New Asset** and choose **Playlist**. 2. In the gallery, under **Start from scratch**, select **Branching**. 3. Click **Create**. The playlist opens straight into the Branching editor on an empty canvas. --- ## **The canvas** The editor is a zoomable, pannable canvas. A **Playlist opens** start marker on the left is where every viewer begins — drag a thread from it to the first card they should see. Three kinds of cards live on the canvas: - **Question** — a prompt with up to several short answers. Each answer has a port on its right side; drag from the port to the card the answer should lead to. An answer whose port isn't connected shows as "Set destination" and is called **unrouted**. - **Survey** — an interest survey with a list of topics. Each topic groups one or more content items. A viewer rates the topics, then plays through the items in the order they ranked them. - **Item** — one demo, video, document, image, or embed from the playlist's content. This is what a viewer actually watches. Click a card to select it. Selected cards reveal their edit controls — rename the card, edit answers, add or remove answers (**+ Add an answer**), and so on. Deleting a Question or Survey card prompts a confirm because it also clears every thread pointing into it; Item cards delete without confirmation. ### **Canvas toolbar** The toolbar at the bottom of the canvas carries: - **Add question** — drops a new question card beside the current view - **Add survey** — drops a new survey card with a starter list of topics - **Add item** — opens the content picker so you can place a specific item - **Auto arrange** — relays every card into a tidy flow left-to-right so threads don't cross - **Clear canvas** — removes every card and every route after a confirmation - Zoom controls and a hint area that tells you what the next click will do (for example *Click the card "Pricing" leads to* while you're routing an answer) ### **Starting from an empty canvas** A brand-new Branching playlist opens on an empty-state card titled **Let prospects pick their own path through this playlist**, which illustrates the three steps: *Ask your question → Point answers at items → Complete the flow*. From there you can: - **Draft from my items** — ask AI Mode to draft a branching flow from the content already in the playlist - **Add an item**, **Add a survey**, or **Add a question** to place the first card yourself --- ## **Add a survey step** A **Survey** card asks the viewer which topics matter most to them, then plays through the items grouped under those topics. 1. Click **Add survey** in the toolbar (or in the empty state). 2. Edit the survey's heading — this is the question your viewer sees ("What matters most to you?" works well). 3. Rename the starter topics and add more as needed. Each topic is a bucket that holds one or more content items. 4. Add content items to each topic from the card's **+** control, or by dragging items onto the topic from the canvas. An item can sit in only one topic of a survey — if you drag an item that's already placed under another topic, the editor shows an "In *(other topic)*" badge and refuses the move until you remove it from the original topic. Thread the survey card from an answer, a question, or straight from **Playlist opens**, just like any other card. When a viewer reaches the survey, they rate each topic, then the survey plays the items it holds back-to-back with **Skip this item**, **Skip all items**, and **Change my ranking** controls in the sidebar. --- ## **Route the flow** To draw a route (a "thread"): 1. Click the port on the right edge of a Question answer, a Survey, or an Item card. The hint area asks you to click the destination. 2. Click the card that should come next. The thread snaps into place. To re-route an answer, click its port again and pick a different card. To clear a route, drop its thread off the destination card. The canvas also lets you drag threads directly between ports if you prefer. An **unrouted answer** means a viewer who picks it reaches the end of the playlist there — the publish guard (below) will warn you about this before you ship. --- ## **Preview the flow** Click **Preview** in the editor header to open **Preview — as your prospect sees it**. The preview plays the published player exactly as a viewer would experience it, from the start marker through to the end: - **Restart** replays the flow from the top with answers reset. - **Close preview** returns you to the canvas. - Press **Esc** to close the preview at any time. Preview is the fastest way to validate every path before publishing — walk each answer in turn and confirm each one lands where you expect. --- ## **Publish** Click **Publish** when you're ready to share the playlist. If any answer on the canvas is still unrouted, Walnut shows a confirmation: > *N answers don't lead anywhere yet* > > *Viewers who pick one of them reach the end of the playlist there.* Choose **Publish anyway** to ship as-is (viewers who pick an unrouted answer will reach the end of the playlist), or cancel and route the remaining answers first. Published Branching playlists share and embed like any other playlist. See [How to Embed a Walnut Demo or Playlist](/help/playlists/embed-demos) for embed options. --- ## **Draft a flow with AI Mode** From the empty state, **Draft from my items** sends AI Mode a *Draft a branching flow from my items* prompt. AI Mode reads the playlist's existing content, proposes a flow of question, survey, and item cards wired together, and places the result on the canvas as one undo step. You can then adjust questions, re-route answers, and preview the flow as usual. Everything AI Mode can do for a Branching playlist runs through the flow — it will not reshuffle the underlying content list behind your back. See [Build a playlist with AI Mode](/help/playlists/ai-mode) for how to open AI Mode and iterate on a draft. --- ## **FAQs** **How is a Branching playlist different from Choose Your Own Adventure?** A Choose Your Own Adventure playlist shows every item on a welcome screen and lets a viewer pick what to open in any order. A Branching playlist walks the viewer through an authored path — their answers to a question (or ratings in a survey) decide which items they see next. **Can I turn an existing playlist into a Branching playlist?** No — the layout is chosen when you create the playlist. If you already have a playlist whose items you want to use, create a new Branching playlist, add the same items, and use **Draft from my items** to generate a starting flow. **What happens if two answers point to the same card?** Whichever answer a viewer picks, they arrive at that card. Multiple answers can safely lead to the same destination. **What happens at the end of a path?** When a viewer finishes the last item on their path, the playlist shows its end screen like any other playlist. An **unrouted** answer also ends the playlist there — the publish guard warns you about these before you ship. **Can I reuse a Branching playlist as a template?** Yes — Branching playlists support the same template, duplicate, and library behaviors as other playlists. See [Start a playlist from a template](/help/playlists/start-from-template). --- ## **Related Resources** [Create a playlist](/help/playlists/create) [Build a playlist with AI Mode](/help/playlists/ai-mode) [Start a playlist from a template](/help/playlists/start-from-template) [How to Embed a Walnut Demo or Playlist](/help/playlists/embed-demos) [Playlist Insights & Analytics](/help/playlists/insights)