Planarian flatworms have the remarkable capacity to regenerate their entire body. Despite a wealth of molecular-genetic data, no constructive model of regenerative patterning exists. Levin and colleagues (doi:10.1242/bio.20123400) created a formalism for abstracting key features of flatworm anatomy from functional experimental data; an example of this graph representation is shown here superimposed upon successive stages of head regeneration in an amputated worm. New artificial intelligence tools can use the formalism and database to help derive algorithmic models of regeneration, establishing a new bioinformatics of shape.