Turn a birth chart screenshot into a checked AI reading

Choose the image that contains the clearest evidence

If you can choose between a decorative chart wheel and a readable placement table, start with the table. A row containing a planet name, sign and degree is easier to inspect than a crowded glyph positioned near a sign boundary. Keep the wheel as a companion image when it helps explain the overall layout.

Include the settings panel if it names the zodiac, house system or sidereal ayanamsa. You can crop out a name, account details and unrelated browser content while retaining those calculation settings. Check the finished crop before sharing it; the privacy guide explains how to prepare a smaller chart extract.

Label what each panel represents

A single screenshot may contain more than one chart. Identify the natal wheel, transit ring, progression panel or second person's chart wherever the image labels them. Use neutral identifiers such as Chart A and Chart B. If a panel's purpose is unclear, mark it unknown rather than letting the assistant infer a story from the visual arrangement.

This matters when a planet appears twice. One Mercury entry could be natal and another transiting, or they could belong to two different people. Transcribing both into one placement list would create a chart that never existed. The transit workflow and compatibility workflow help once the panel identities are established.

Request transcription as a separate first task

Transcribe this chart image before interpreting anything. Make a table with chart identifier, object name, sign, degree, minute, retrograde marker and house number when explicitly shown. Copy the visible zodiac, ayanamsa and house-system settings into a separate section. Use "unreadable" or "not shown" for uncertain cells. Do not infer missing houses, aspects or chart settings. List ambiguous symbols or conflicting labels after the table, and wait for my corrections.

Ask for the table in plain text so you can edit a single cell without regenerating the whole response. If the assistant begins a personality reading immediately, return it to transcription. Separating these tasks prevents an early interpretation from making a mistaken sign seem more convincing.

Check the fields in a fixed order

Read down one column at a time. First check every object, then every sign, then the numbers. This reduces the chance of accepting a correctly read planet name alongside a degree taken from the next row. Keep a short correction log, such as "Chart A, Moon, minute field corrected," so the final table has a visible history.

Preserve notation instead of silently converting it

A position written as 12 degrees 30 minutes is different from 12.30 decimal degrees. Ask the assistant to keep the source notation during transcription. If you later need decimal degrees, request an explicitly labelled conversion after checking the original values. Do not allow the converted number to overwrite the source cell.

A sign-relative degree and a full-circle longitude are also different formats. A hypothetical row reading Taurus 12 degrees identifies a position within Taurus; a longitude of 12 degrees is measured from the zodiac's starting point. A transcription should preserve the sign label, units and reference rather than treating every visible number alike.

Handle houses and aspect grids as separate layers

House-cusp tables, planet-house assignments and numbers printed around a wheel are not interchangeable. If the screenshot supplies cusps but no planetary house column, copy the cusps separately. Do not assign a house merely because a planet label has been displaced toward a boundary to avoid overlapping another label.

For an aspect grid, identify the row and column planets first, then the aspect symbol and any displayed orb. Some grids show only one triangular half. Others distinguish natal and moving factors through their axes. Ask the assistant to state which grid convention it can actually see and leave ambiguous intersections unresolved.

The AI houses guide and AI aspects guide provide the next interpretive steps. Neither a coloured line nor a nearby glyph should become an exact aspect unless the screenshot or another supplied calculation establishes it.

Lock a small verified table before interpreting

Mark each checked row verified, unresolved or excluded. You do not need to recover every entry to begin learning. A verified Sun and Moon pair can support a focused discussion while an unreadable house table remains outside the reading. Ask the assistant to use the verified subset and to repeat the relevant entries at the start.

A useful follow-up is: "Use only the rows marked verified. Explain the supplied Sun and Moon signs in the stated zodiac, then give two questions about how their themes could interact. Do not add houses or aspects from the image." The Moon-sign workflow offers a focused place to begin.

Return to calculated text when the image cannot be resolved

If a degree remains unreadable, obtain a clearer source or recalculate with known inputs in the birth chart calculator. A screenshot should not be repaired by guessing the placement that best matches an interpretation. Save the final checked table with its settings so the next conversation can begin from text rather than repeating the extraction.