# Asten: the complete site text > Asten is a local-first writing app that remembers the facts of your story and marks contradictions in red. It never writes a word for you. Publisher: Verne (Verne Ltd.), https://vernesystems.com. Contact: info@vernesystems.com. Updated 2026-10-26. Every public page follows, separated by horizontal rules. Each section starts with its canonical URL. --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ Title: Asten: let AI be your editor, not your writer Summary: Asten is a local-first writing app that remembers your story’s facts and marks contradictions in red. It never writes your prose. No account, no cloud. Pre-alpha 0.0.1b # Let AI be your editor, not your writer. Asten keeps the record a good editor keeps: the facts you settle about your story, like a hair color, a death, or the day the harbor burned. When a page disagrees, it takes a red pencil to the margin. It never writes a word for you, and your manuscript never leaves your computer. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[See how it works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) - No AI writes your prose - No account - No cloud - Not used for training ### 1 The lamp at Gull Point Mara Vell climbed the last ninety steps with the oil can knocking against her knee. Mara’s grey eyes stung in the wind. ### 2 Night crossing When she turned back, the lamp at Gull Point was out. Mara’s brown eyes found the headland and found nothing there. Chapter 2 gives Mara brown eyes. Chapter 1 settled them as grey. The pencil circles “brown eyes” and asks which to keep. CANON-E013 ## Continuity slips in a long manuscript A long manuscript is written over months, and a detail set down in chapter 2 is hard to keep in mind by chapter 19. Three common kinds of slip: Chapter 2: Mira’s hair is auburn. Chapter 19: she pushes back her black hair. An attribute you settled, quietly drifting. CANON-E013 Captain Oren dies in chapter 9. In chapter 14 he pours the tea. A life that continues after a settled death. CANON-E101 The harbor burns on day 17. The next scene is day 4, and it isn’t a flashback. Reading order and story time, crossing by accident. CANON-E201 Once the facts involved are settled, Asten marks each of these in the margin with the code shown. The marks stay on your computer. ## Black ink for your text, red for Asten’s marks An Egyptian scribe’s palette held two inks: black for the text, red to mark it. Asten follows the same split. It never changes what you write. It adds marks in the margin, each with a code, both sides of the disagreement, and the actions you can take. ### AI writing tools often - offer to write the scene - suggest rewrites of your sentences - send your draft to a server ### Asten - does not generate or rewrite text - shows the evidence for each mark - keeps your files on your machine ## Weighing a page against the canon Three examples, with the wording Asten’s engine gives each mark. Pick a word on the page and the balance settles. The sentence itself is never changed. ## How Asten works There is no setup step. Asten builds a record of your story from the facts you settle, and adds a mark only when a page disagrees with that record. - ### Write Open a scene and type. No setup, no character forms, no world bible required. The binder keeps chapters, scenes, notes, and sources in order. - ### Settle When a detail matters, settle it as a fact: Mira · hair · auburn. It joins your canon, with a status, an optional span of story time, and a source. - ### Notice When a later page disagrees with what you settled, Asten marks it in red in the margin with a code, both sides of the disagreement, and your options. - ### Decide Keep the sentence, update canon, record a change, or silence the rule. Asten records your decision. It never rewrites a word. [How it works in detail](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) ## The writing desk The binder on the left, the page in the middle, and Asten’s marks in the margin. ## What Asten includes [The deskA calm manuscript editor with a binder, comments, find, page view, and track changes.Read more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk)[Canon checksSettle a fact once. Asten marks any page that disagrees, and shows both sides.Read more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[CastCharacters and other entities with aliases, notes, and the facts you’ve confirmed.Read more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast)[Two clocksStory time and reading order, kept separately, so flashbacks are a choice and not a mistake.Read more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[WorldAn optional wall, atlas, and dossier. Spark, sketch, settle. Never a gate.Read more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[The compilerDeterministic rules with stable codes, suppressions, snapshots, and an append-only history.Read more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Method packsOptional sets of rules and hints. Turn on what helps; nothing becomes doctrine.Read more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Word & Google DocsCompile to Markdown, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB, and Final Draft. Optional Word and Docs add-ins talk to your own machine.Read more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs)[Local-firstOne file on your computer. No account, no sync, no telemetry, no training.Read more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first) ## Story time and reading order Asten records when each scene happens in the story separately from where it sits in the book. It compares the two only inside a run of scenes you have declared continuous, so a flashback raises no mark. Thoth, keeper of timeA story retold by Plutarch says Thoth won five extra days from the moon, so that a birth forbidden on every day of the year could happen on days that belonged to no month. ## Optional world notes Places, histories, and rules can be kept as sparks, sketches, or settled entries. Only settled entries become canon, and none of it is required before you write. Below the sand settled ### The atlas Veld sits east of the reef, two days’ sail from the capital. Pinned on a rough map. ## Who Asten is for [NovelistsFor long manuscripts where details drift between chapters.For novelists](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/novelists)[WorldbuildersFor fantasy and science-fiction writers whose world is bigger than the book.For worldbuilders](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/worldbuilders)[ScreenwritersFor scripts with timelines, reveals, and a cast that has to stay straight.For screenwriters](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/screenwriters)[Fan-fiction writersFor writers keeping their own version of an existing canon.For fan-fiction writers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/fan-fiction)[AI tinkerersFor people who use AI daily and want a writing tool that draws a clear line.For ai tinkerers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/ai-tinkerers) ## Your project stays on your computer Each project is one SQLite file on your own disk. Asten has no account, no sync, and no telemetry, so nothing in it sends your manuscript anywhere. One file, yoursA SQLite file on your computer. No accountNothing to sign up for or lose. No telemetryAsten sends no usage data. This site runs no analytics. No trainingYour manuscript is not used to train any model. [How local-first works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first) ## Deterministic rules, run locally No model runs inside Asten. The checks are rules with stable codes, and the same project always produces the same marks. The planned perception models are small local classifiers that propose facts for you to confirm; they do not generate text. - Rust - SQLite - Axum on 127.0.0.1 - React - TypeScript - Tauri [Asten for AI tinkerers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/ai-tinkerers)[Our AI stance](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai) $ curl -s -H "authorization: Bearer $ASTEN_TOKEN" \ 127.0.0.1:4317/api/v1/projects/$PROJECT/story/diagnostics CANON-E013 warning Mira's hair was settled as auburn. ① Settled: Mira · hair · auburn ② Chapter 19 says: “black” (Chapter 19) ③ No event between an unplaced time and day 40 changes Mira's hair. Most likely slip: ② (93%) Fixes: Add an event · Mark the scene as a memory · auburn holds until day 39 · Retire “auburn” · Silence this mark · Keep my sentence Message text as the local API returns it for a sample project, with line breaks added and the other fields left out. ## Current status What works in the current code, what does not exist yet, and what Asten will not do. ### Works today - The desk: binder, comments, page view, track changes, snapshots - Canon with fifteen continuity rules, read from the page and from what you settle - Cast, two clocks, optional world - Compile to Markdown, plain text, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB, and FDX; import of all but EPUB ### Not yet - Signed installers, and a macOS build - Android and iOS apps tested on devices - Trained perception models (the reading is rule-based) - Collaboration ### Never - Writing your prose - Training on your manuscript - Locking your files behind a server [Read the roadmap](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap) ## From the journal [7 min readLet AI be your editor, not your writerThe tedious half of writing is remembering what you already decided; the half that makes a book yours is everything else.Read](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/ai-editor-not-writer)[7 min readHow to keep continuity in a long novelReaders forgive a lot, but they notice when the dead captain gives an order.Read](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/continuity-in-a-long-novel)[7 min readStory time vs. reading order: flashbacks without contradictionsYour story has two clocks, and most timeline mistakes happen when you only watch one of them.Read](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/story-time-and-reading-order) ## Common questions Does Asten write for me? No. Asten never generates prose. It remembers the facts you settle and marks the places where your draft disagrees with them. Every word on the page is yours. Does Asten use AI? The checks run no model: Asten reads names and plain attributes from the page with fixed rules and weighs them against facts you confirm. The desktop app has an optional assistant (off by default) that can use a model on your machine, or a cloud provider with your own key and consent, to explain marks and propose facts for you to confirm. It never writes your prose. Will my writing be used to train AI? Never. Your manuscript stays in a file on your computer. Verne never receives it, and Asten will never send it to train a model. Do I have to build a world or a story bible first? No. You can start with a blank scene. Settle facts only when they matter, and the cast, timeline, and world notes stay optional. What does Asten check today? Seven families of rules, all deterministic: attributes that disagree with your canon or with each other (CANON-E013 to E015), lifecycle such as acting after a settled death (E101 to E103), the two clocks and dates that cannot all be true (E201 to E203), a journey that does not fit the time (E301), who knows what and when (E401), relations and genealogy (E501 to E503), and rules you write yourself (E601). Name hygiene and a setup ledger come along. Optional diction hints are off until you turn them on. How do I get Asten? Try the pre-alpha: open the hosted copy in your browser, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows x64 or Linux x64 from the [download page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download). macOS comes later. The builds are unsigned, so your system warns before the first run. [All questions](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/faq) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works Title: How Asten works: write, settle, notice · Asten Summary: Write freely, settle the facts that matter, and Asten marks the page that disagrees. A plain-language tour of canon, diagnostics, and the author’s veto. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - How it works # How Asten works Asten keeps a record of the facts you settle, compares each page against it, and marks what disagrees. You decide what to do with each mark. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[See an example](#try) ## In short Asten works in four steps. You write freely; you settle the details that matter as facts; Asten’s deterministic compiler marks any page that disagrees with those facts, in red, with evidence; and you decide whether to keep the sentence, update canon, record a change, or silence the rule. Asten never edits your text. - ## Write Open a scene and type. No setup, no character forms, no world bible required. The binder keeps chapters, scenes, notes, and sources in order. - ## Settle When a detail matters, settle it as a fact: Mira · hair · auburn. It joins your canon, with a status, an optional span of story time, and a source. - ## Notice When a later page disagrees with what you settled, Asten marks it in red in the margin with a code, both sides of the disagreement, and your options. - ## Decide Keep the sentence, update canon, record a change, or silence the rule. Asten records your decision. It never rewrites a word. ## 1. Write, with nothing in the way Create a project (novel, screenplay, non-fiction, or something else) and start a scene. Asten doesn’t ask for a synopsis, a character sheet, or a map. The [binder](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk) holds chapters, scenes, notes, and sources; the page is plain and quiet. If you already have a draft, import it from Markdown, plain text, Fountain, HTML, or .docx. ## 2. Settle the facts that matter A detail becomes canon when you settle it. Each [fact](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#fact) records who it’s about, what it says, how sure you are, when in story time it’s true, and where it came from. **Mira · hair · auburn** Confirmed, established, settled in chapter 2. **Oren · status · dead** Confirmed, from chapter 9 onward. **Veld · east of · the reef** Settled from the atlas. **The guild · founded · year 300** Contested: three characters disagree, and that’s the point. You can settle facts from the cast or canon views, or from a world entry you mark settled. Asten also reads names and plain attributes from the page with fixed rules and weighs them against your facts; what it reads is never stored as a fact, so canon changes only when you change it. ## Three of the fifteen rules Asten ships fifteen canon rules in seven families, each with a stable code that means the same thing every time. Three examples: CANON-E013Mira’s hair was settled as auburn. - ① Settled: Mira · hair · auburn - ② Chapter 19 says: “black” - Add an event · Retire “auburn” · Silence this mark · Keep my sentence CANON-E101Oren acts after a settled death. - ① Captain Oren dies (day 9) - ② Chapter 14 mentions Captain Oren in narration - Mark the scene as a memory · Set the scene’s time · Keep my sentence CANON-E201Story time runs backward inside a continuous run. - ① Chapter 10: placed at day 17 - ② Chapter 11: placed at day 4 - Set the scene’s time · This scene is not part of the run · Keep my sentence ## 3. Asten notices, in red Asten’s [compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler) weighs your project against its canon. When something doesn’t balance, a red mark appears in the margin beside the sentence, with a stable code and both sides of the disagreement. ## 4. You decide A mark is a question, not a correction. Every mark offers choices, and none of them touch your sentence unless you do: - Keep my sentence. Nothing changes on the page, and the mark stays until you decide. - Silence the mark. The suppression and your reason stay with the project, and the mark comes back for review if its evidence changes. - Retire the old fact. The page was right; retire “auburn” and settle black. - Record a change. Add an event, or let auburn hold until a day: auburn until chapter 12, black after. - Mark it contested. For lies, legends, and unreliable narrators. Contested facts never raise errors. - Deprecate the old fact. It stays in history but stops being compared. ## Example: an attribute check ## About the process How does Asten find contradictions? Asten compares the facts you have settled with each other, with your timeline, and with plain attributes it reads from your prose, such as hair color, age, or whether someone is alive, when a character’s name is in the same sentence. It uses deterministic rules with stable codes, not an AI model. Does Asten change my text when it finds a problem? No. Asten only adds a red mark in the margin. Your text changes only if you edit it yourself. What if I don’t want to settle any facts? Then Asten is simply a calm manuscript desk with a binder, comments, page view, and compile. The continuity checks only speak once there is canon to compare against. ## Keep reading [Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Two clocks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[How to keep continuity in a long novel](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/continuity-in-a-long-novel) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features Title: Features · Asten Summary: The desk, canon checks, cast, two clocks, an optional world, method packs, Word and Google Docs guests, and local-first files. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - Features # Features A manuscript desk, canon checks, two clocks for story time, optional world tools, and add-ins for Word and Google Docs. Everything runs on your own computer. ## In short Asten’s features are the desk (binder, comments, find, page view, track changes, snapshots), canon checks with stable codes, a cast of entities, two clocks for story time and reading order, optional world tools, method packs, compile and import for Markdown, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB (compile only), and Final Draft, Word and Google Docs add-ins, and local-first storage. [The deskA calm manuscript editor with a binder, comments, find, page view, and track changes.The desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk)[Canon checksSettle a fact once. Asten marks any page that disagrees, and shows both sides.Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[CastCharacters and other entities with aliases, notes, and the facts you’ve confirmed.Cast](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast)[Two clocksStory time and reading order, kept separately, so flashbacks are a choice and not a mistake.Two clocks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[WorldAn optional wall, atlas, and dossier. Spark, sketch, settle. Never a gate.World](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[The compilerDeterministic rules with stable codes, suppressions, snapshots, and an append-only history.The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Method packsOptional sets of rules and hints. Turn on what helps; nothing becomes doctrine.Method packs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Word & Google DocsCompile to Markdown, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB, and Final Draft. Optional Word and Docs add-ins talk to your own machine.Word & Google Docs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs)[Local-firstOne file on your computer. No account, no sync, no telemetry, no training.Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first) ## Features by kind of writer [NovelistsFor long manuscripts where details drift between chapters.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/novelists)[WorldbuildersFor fantasy and science-fiction writers whose world is bigger than the book.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/worldbuilders)[ScreenwritersFor scripts with timelines, reveals, and a cast that has to stay straight.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/screenwriters)[Fan-fiction writersFor writers keeping their own version of an existing canon.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/fan-fiction)[AI tinkerersFor people who use AI daily and want a writing tool that draws a clear line.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/ai-tinkerers) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk Title: The desk: a manuscript editor built for long stories · Asten Summary: Asten’s desk is a calm manuscript editor: a binder for chapters and scenes, comments, find, word counts, a letter-sized page view, track changes, and snapshots. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features) - The desk # A manuscript editor for long projects Chapters and scenes in a binder, a clean page in the middle, and Asten’s red marks in the margin. Asten adds marks beside the text and never changes it. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[How Asten works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) ## In short The Asten desk is a manuscript editor for long-form writing. It has a binder of chapters, scenes, notes, and sources; a rich-text page; comments; find; word counts; a letter-sized page view; track-change marks; and named snapshots. Diagnostics sit in the margin and never rewrite your text. ### A binder Manuscript, chapters, scenes, notes, and sources in one tree. Exclude a scene from compile without deleting it. ### The page Headings, emphasis, and the formatting a manuscript needs. Literata on warm paper. Nothing animated near your words. ### Comments and track changes Leave notes to yourself or an editor. Insertions and deletions show as marks you can read back. ### Page view A letter-sized sheet with a running header, so you can feel how long the chapter is. It is not a typesetter. ### Find, counts, snapshots Find next and previous, live word counts, and named snapshots you can restore without any cloud. ### Red in the margin When a page disagrees with your canon, the mark appears beside the sentence, with the evidence one click away. ## Example: the binder and the page ## What is the desk for? The desk is where the book gets written. Everything else in Asten (canon, cast, time, world) exists to serve the page, and none of it is required before you start typing. Think of it as a writer’s subset of a word processor: the parts you use every day on a manuscript, without the layout features you only need for a printed brochure. When the book needs to leave, you [compile](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs) it to Markdown, Fountain, HTML, Word, EPUB, or Final Draft. ## How does the binder work? The binder is a tree. A manuscript holds chapters; chapters hold scenes. Notes and sources live alongside the prose, so research is one click from the scene that needs it. - Reorder chapters and scenes by moving them in the tree. - Mark a scene as excluded from compile while you decide its fate. - Keep wiki pages, notes, and sources in the same project, never in a separate app. ## What the desk is not Asten is not trying to be Word. Track changes are insertion and deletion marks, not a full review workflow. Find moves one match at a time. Page view is a letter sheet for the feel of length, not a print-production engine. These are deliberate limits, written down so nobody is surprised. Asten never writes on the pageThere is no “continue writing” button, no rewrite suggestion, and no autocomplete for prose. The only thing Asten adds is a red mark in the margin. ## About the desk Is the Asten desk a replacement for Microsoft Word? Not entirely. The Asten desk covers what a manuscript needs day to day, including a binder, comments, find, counts, page view, and track-change marks, and it compiles to .docx when a publisher or editor wants Word. Can I import an existing manuscript into Asten? Yes. Asten imports Markdown, plain text, Fountain, Final Draft (.fdx), HTML, and .docx. The .docx import is deliberately conservative: it keeps your text and basic structure, not complex layout. How do I see how long my book is in Asten? The Asten desk shows live word counts, and its page view lays a chapter out on letter-sized sheets with a running header, so you can feel the length in pages. ## Other features [Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Cast](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast)[Two clocks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[World](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Method packs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Word & Google Docs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs)[Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first) ## Keep reading [Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Word & Google Docs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs)[Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first)[Novelists](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/novelists) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon Title: Canon checks: continuity without the spreadsheet · Asten Summary: Settle a fact once, like Mira’s auburn hair, and Asten marks any later page that disagrees, with the code, the evidence, and your options. You always decide. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features) - Canon checks # Check the manuscript against settled facts Canon is what your story says is true. Settle a fact (Mira · hair · auburn) and Asten weighs every later page against it. If chapter 19 says black, you get a red mark with both sides, never a rewrite. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[How Asten works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) ## In short Canon checks in Asten compare your manuscript against facts you have settled. A fact is an entity, a predicate, and a value, with a status, a modality, an optional span of story time, and a source. When two confirmed facts disagree, or the page says something different from what you settled, Asten marks it in red with code CANON-E013 and shows both sides. Asten reads plain attributes from your prose with fixed rules, not a model, and keeps dialogue, belief, dreams, visions, and frame stories in contexts of their own. ### Facts with a source Every fact records where it came from, so a mark can show you the sentence that settled it. ### Statuses you control Proposed, confirmed, deprecated, rejected. Confirmed against confirmed is an error, the page against a confirmed fact is a warning, and a clash that is only possible is information. ### Room for lies and legends Dialogue, belief, dream, vision, and frame stories are separate contexts. What a character says or dreams never contradicts the world, and contested facts stay quiet. A memory is weighed at the story time you give it. ### Change over time Give a fact a valid-from and valid-to in story time, and a dyed head of hair stops being a contradiction. ### Stable codes Every mark carries a code, like CANON-E013, that means the same thing every time. ### Silence with a reason Suppress a mark or a whole rule. Suppressions are stored with the project, so the decision is remembered. ## Example: an attribute check ## What does “canon” mean in Asten? In fandom, canon means what the source material says is true. In Asten it means the same thing for your own book: the details you have decided are true, recorded as [facts](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#fact). **Entity** Who or what the fact is about: Mira, the harbor at Veld, Captain Oren’s sword. **Predicate** The attribute: hair color, status, birthplace. **Value** What is true: auburn, dead, Veld. **Status** Proposed, confirmed, deprecated, or rejected. Only confirmed facts produce errors. **Modality** Established, inferred, contested, or author override. Contested facts stay quiet. **Story time** An optional valid-from and valid-to, for facts that change during the book. **Context** World, narration, dialogue, belief, memory, dream, vision, frame, or hypothetical. World, reliable narration, and memory (at the story time you give it) count against canon; the rest do not. ## What does a mark look like? A mark is short and specific. It names the rule, quotes both sides, and lists what you can do. It does not tell you which side is right, because only you know that. CANON-E013Mira’s hair was settled as auburn. - ① Settled: Mira · hair · auburn - ② Chapter 19 says: “black” - Most likely slip: ② - Add an event · auburn holds until day 39 · Retire “auburn” · Silence this mark · Keep my sentence Two confirmed facts that disagree over overlapping story time are an error. The page disagreeing with a confirmed fact is a warning: worth a look, not a verdict. A clash that is only possible, because a scene’s time is uncertain, is information; a merely proposed fact speaks only at the Thorough setting. Every mark reads as a numbered chain (①②③), names the statement most likely at fault, and lists repairs you own: add a change event, mark the scene a memory, retire the fact, or keep your sentence. ## How do facts get into canon? - Add them directly in the cast or canon views. - Settle a world entry. Moving it from sketched to settled can mint a confirmed fact. - Add a fact with the status proposed to park it: it can raise a warning at most, never an error, until you confirm it. Asten reads the page, not your mindThe reading is deterministic: fixed rules over words and cues, no model. It attributes an observation to a name in the same sentence, so a pronoun on its own is not weighed. Anything inside quotation marks counts as something a character says, not as world truth. What Asten reads (hair, eyes, height, age, where someone is, alive or dead, who is married to whom) is weighed against your canon and never stored as a fact; only you settle canon. You can also type an explicit reading into the prose, such as [[mira.hair_color=black]], and Asten weighs it the same way. ## What if the contradiction is on purpose? Unreliable narrators, lies, disguises, and legends are part of fiction. Mark a fact as contested and it stays on file without raising errors. Deprecate a fact you’ve abandoned. Or silence the mark for that passage, and the decision stays with the project. ## About canon checks How does Asten know a sentence contradicts my canon? Asten compares the facts you have settled with each other, and compares them with plain attributes it reads from your prose (hair and eye color, height, age, location, alive or dead, relations), each attributed to a name in the same sentence. It uses deterministic rules, not an AI model. Can Asten handle a character who changes over the story? Yes. Give a fact a valid-from and valid-to in story time, and Asten only compares facts whose spans overlap, so auburn hair before the dye and black hair after it are not a contradiction. Can I turn off a canon check in Asten? Yes. You can suppress a single mark or a whole rule, and the suppression is stored with the project. The attribute check belongs to the Scribe pack, which is always available, but any individual mark can be silenced. ## Other features [The desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk)[Cast](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast)[Two clocks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[World](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Method packs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Word & Google Docs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs)[Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first) ## Keep reading [How it works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works)[Cast](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast)[The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[How to keep continuity in a long novel](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/continuity-in-a-long-novel) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast Title: Cast: characters, places, and other entities · Asten Summary: The Asten cast keeps characters, places, items, and events as entities with aliases and confirmed facts. Name someone when the draft needs them, not before. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features) - Cast # Characters and other entities, added when you need them The cast is a view of your book, not a form to fill in before chapter one. Characters, places, items, and events appear when you give them a fact worth keeping. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[How Asten works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) ## In short The Asten cast lists the entities in your story (characters, places, events, items, rules, sources, and others) with their aliases, notes, and confirmed facts. It is optional and grows as you write; nothing in it is required before you draft a scene. ### More than characters Entities can be characters, places, events, items, rules, sources, or anything else. ### Aliases Mira, Captain Mira, the harbormaster’s daughter. One entity, many names. ### Facts at a glance Each entity shows the facts you’ve settled about it, with their status and source. ### No mandatory fields A cast member can be a name and nothing else until the story needs more. ## Example: a name in a cartouche ## Why not character sheets? Many writing tools greet you with a 40-field character questionnaire. Some writers love that. Many [discovery writers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#gardener) find it kills the draft. Asten takes the other road: the cast fills in as you settle facts, so the record follows the story rather than leading it. ## Why are names drawn in cartouches? Egyptian scribes enclosed royal names in a cartouche, an oval ring that marks a name as important. Asten borrows the idea: an entity’s name appears in a cartouche wherever it is referenced. The example below draws a name in one, using a playful alphabet rather than real hieroglyphic spelling. ## About cast Do I have to create characters before writing in Asten? No. Asten lets you write first and add a character to the cast only when there is a fact about them worth keeping. Can one Asten character have several names? Yes. Each entity in the Asten cast can carry aliases, so nicknames, titles, and false names point to the same person. ## Other features [The desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk)[Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Two clocks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[World](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Method packs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Word & Google Docs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs)[Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first) ## Keep reading [Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[World](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[Fan-fiction writers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/fan-fiction)[Glossary](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time Title: Two clocks: story time and reading order · Asten Summary: Asten keeps two clocks: when events happen (story time) and when readers meet them (reading order). It marks story time that steps backward only inside a run you declared continuous. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features) - Two clocks # Story time and reading order, kept apart Every story has two timelines: the order things happen, and the order readers find out. Asten keeps both, and marks the moments they cross so you can tell a flashback from a slip. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[How Asten works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) ## In short Asten tracks story time (when an event happens in the world) and reading order (when the reader meets it) as two separate clocks. A flashback is not a mistake: Asten argues only inside a run of scenes you declared continuous (CANON-E201), when the dates you gave cannot all be true (CANON-E202), or when an effect is seen before its cause (CANON-E203). Story time can be a day count, a Gregorian date, or a calendar you define. ### Story time When it happens in the world: day 14, 1890-03-02, the winter of 1890, three days after the siege. Day counts, Gregorian dates, or a fictional calendar with your own months. ### Reading order When the reader meets it: chapter 3, scene 2. ### CANON-E201 to E203 Story time stepping backward inside a run you declared continuous; dates that cannot all be true; an effect seen before its cause. ### CANON-E101 Someone acting after a settled death gets a mark, unless the scene is placed earlier in story time than the death (a flashback), or the mention is a dream, a vision, or something a character says. ### Silent until dated The clocks only compare scenes you’ve placed on both. Undated scenes are never judged. ### No timeline required Draft first. Date scenes when the order starts to matter. ## Example: story time inside a continuous run ## Why does a story need two clocks? Narrative theorists call these the fabula (what happened, in order) and the syuzhet (how the telling arranges it). You don’t need the jargon to feel the problem: a flashback is the syuzhet stepping back in the fabula. Done on purpose, it’s craft. Done by accident, it’s a reader frowning at page 212. Read more in [Story time vs. reading order](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/story-time-and-reading-order). ## What does Asten check, exactly? CANON-E201Story time runs backward inside the continuous run “The siege”. - ① Chapter 10: placed at day 17 - ② Chapter 11: placed at day 4 - Set the scene’s time · This scene is not part of the run · Silence this mark · Keep my sentence Asten compares scenes only inside a run you declared continuous, so an ordinary flashback raises nothing. Give scenes dates, or relative placements such as “three days after the siege”, and Asten solves them together: if no placement satisfies them all, CANON-E202 lists the dates in the knot. If a state is seen before the event that causes it, CANON-E203 says so. CANON-E101Captain Oren acts after a settled death. - ① Captain Oren dies (day 9) - ② Chapter 14 mentions Captain Oren in narration: “Captain Oren” - ③ Chapter 14: placed at day 14 - Mark the scene as a memory · Set the scene’s time · Move the death later · Silence this mark · Keep my sentence ## Why the moon? Thoth, the god Asten is named for, was a moon god and the reckoner of time. A story retold by the Greek writer Plutarch tells how Thoth won five extra days from the moon in a game, so that a birth forbidden on every day of the year could happen on days that belonged to no month. A keeper of time who makes room for a story is a fair patron for a timeline. ## About two clocks Does Asten treat every flashback as an error? No. Asten compares story time only inside a run of scenes you declared continuous, and a flashback is simply a scene placed earlier in story time. CANON-E201 appears only when a run you said was continuous steps backward; take a scene out of the run and it is no longer compared. Do I have to date every scene in Asten? No. Asten only compares scenes that have both a story time and a reading order. Undated scenes are never marked. Can Asten use a fantasy calendar? Yes. A project’s clock can count days, use Gregorian dates such as “1890-03-02” or “the winter of 1890”, or use a fictional calendar whose months you define. Relative placements such as “three days after the siege” resolve against the scene they name. ## Other features [The desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk)[Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Cast](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast)[World](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Method packs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Word & Google Docs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs)[Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first) ## Keep reading [Story time vs. reading order: flashbacks without contradictions](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/story-time-and-reading-order)[Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Method packs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Screenwriters](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/screenwriters) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world Title: World: optional worldbuilding that never blocks the draft · Asten Summary: Asten’s world tools are optional: a wall for scraps, an atlas for places, and a dossier by kind. Ideas move from spark to sketched to settled, and settled ones can become canon. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features) - World # Optional world notes, connected to canon Maps, factions, histories, and rules get a place in Asten, and none of them has to exist before you write. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[How Asten works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) ## In short Asten’s world tools are an optional wall (loose cards for scraps), an atlas (a rough map for pinning places), and a dossier (entries grouped by kind). Entries can be places, cultures, systems, creatures, items, questions, or fragments, and move from spark to sketched to settled. Settling an entry can mint a confirmed fact. ### The wall Pin a scrap, a question, a fragment of dialogue. Loose cards, no filing required. ### The atlas A rough map for pinning places. Good enough to remember that Veld is east of the reef. ### The dossier Everything grouped by kind: places, cultures, systems, creatures, items, questions, fragments. ### Spark → sketched → settled Ideas mature at your pace. Only settled entries become canon. ## Example: world entries by status ## Do I have to build the world first? No. George R. R. Martin has described two kinds of writers: architects, who plan the house before building, and gardeners, who plant and see what grows. Asten doesn’t rank them. An architect can fill the dossier before chapter one. A gardener can write twenty chapters and settle the harbor at Veld afterwards. There is a real risk on the architect side: the world can become a beautiful way to avoid writing the book. That’s why every world tool in Asten is optional and lives one click away from the page, not in front of it. More in [Do you need a story bible?](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/do-you-need-a-story-bible) ## How does the world connect to canon? A world entry starts as a spark. You sketch it as it grows. When you settle it, Asten can mint a confirmed fact, and from then on the canon checks treat it as true. Sparks and sketches never raise errors; they’re allowed to be wrong. ## About world Is Asten a worldbuilding app? Asten is a writing app with optional worldbuilding. Its wall, atlas, and dossier hold places, cultures, systems, creatures, items, questions, and fragments, but none of them are required to write. Does Asten’s atlas check travel times? Yes, once you declare routes. Give two places a route with a travel time, and CANON-E301 marks a journey that does not fit the story time between two scenes. Someone placed in two places at the same story time is marked CANON-E013, because where a person is counts as a one-valued attribute. ## Other features [The desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk)[Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Cast](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast)[Two clocks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Method packs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Word & Google Docs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs)[Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first) ## Keep reading [Worldbuilders](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/worldbuilders)[Do you need a story bible? Gardeners, architects, and the space between](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/do-you-need-a-story-bible)[Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Cast](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler Title: The compiler: deterministic checks you can read · Asten Summary: Under Asten’s red marks is a deterministic engine with stable codes, four severities, explanation chains, repairs you own, suppressions, and a verifiable history of your edits. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features) - The compiler # Deterministic checks with stable codes Programmers have compilers that read code and point at the line that breaks. Asten does the same for a story’s facts, with deterministic rules, stable codes, and evidence for every mark. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[How Asten works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) ## In short Asten’s compiler is a deterministic rule engine written in Rust. It reads your settled facts, your timeline, and the page itself, and emits diagnostics with stable codes (CANON-E013 to E601, NAME-W001 to W004, PLOT-I001, and optional CRAFT hints) at four severities: error, warning, information, and hint. Each mark explains itself in a numbered chain and offers repairs. It runs entirely on your machine and never changes your text. ### Deterministic Same project, same marks. No model, no randomness, no “it depends on the prompt”. ### Stable codes CANON-E013 always means an attribute contradiction. Search it, discuss it, suppress it. ### Four severities Errors for confirmed against confirmed, warnings for the page against a confirmed fact, information for clashes that are only possible, hints for confusable names and optional craft notes. ### Evidence attached Every mark points at a span in a document, reads as a numbered chain (①②③), and names the statement most likely at fault. ### Repairs you own Add an event, mark the scene a memory, retire a fact, silence the mark, or keep your sentence. Bisect finds the edit that raised a mark. ### Append-only history Document operations are recorded, and named snapshots restore a revision on your own disk. ### Stable block ids Paragraphs carry identities, so a mark can follow its sentence when you edit around it. ## Which rules ship today? | Code | Pack | What it notices | Default | CANON-E013 | Scribe | Two values for a one-valued attribute at the same story time in the same context, with no change event between them | Always on | CANON-E014 / E015 | Scribe | An immutable attribute (a birthplace) changed; an attribute on the wrong kind of thing | Always on | CANON-E101 / E102 / E103 | Lifecycle | Acting after a settled death; appearing before birth; an item used after it was destroyed | On | CANON-E201 / E202 / E203 | Clocks | Story time stepping backward inside a continuous run; dates that cannot all be true; an effect before its cause | On | CANON-E301 | Atlas | A journey that does not fit the time between two scenes. Two places at one story time is marked E013. | On | CANON-E401 | Knowledge | A character using knowledge no event has given them yet | On | CANON-E501 / E502 / E503 | Relations | Their own ancestor; two of an exclusive relation at once; a parent too young | On | CANON-E601 | Invariants | A rule you wrote in the invariants panel fails on the scene trace | On | NAME-W001 to W004 | Scribe | A name not in the cast; named before being introduced; confusable names; a fact pointing at a removed entity | Always on | PLOT-I001 | Invariants | A setup you marked for payoff has not been paid off yet | On | CANON-E302, CANON-E602, PLOT-I002 | Reserved | Codes the catalogue holds for later; no rule raises them yet | Not raised | CRAFT-H001 / H002 | Diction watch | Filter words such as “very” and “really”, as optional notes | Off ## Why rules and not an AI model? Because a mark you can’t trust trains you to ignore all of them. Deterministic rules can be explained, tested, and argued with. They also run instantly on a laptop with no network. AI may later help propose facts, but the compiler that judges contradictions stays rule-based and inspectable. See [our AI stance](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai). ## What’s under the hood? For the curious: the engine is a set of Rust crates. A story IR holds entities, facts, events, scenes, and contexts; a block model gives every paragraph a stable id and a hash-chained history so marks follow their sentence through edits; perception reads the page with Unicode folding and dictionary matching, no model; the analyses are an event calculus, a lifecycle typestate, a temporal network, shortest routes, and a small temporal-logic checker for your own rules. Storage is SQLite. An Axum server exposes a local API on 127.0.0.1:4317 that answers only to paired clients. The interface is React and TypeScript; the Tauri desktop shell embeds the same API. More in [For AI tinkerers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/ai-tinkerers). ## About the compiler Is the Asten compiler an AI? No. The Asten compiler is a deterministic rule engine. It produces the same marks for the same project every time, and it runs entirely on your computer. What do Asten’s diagnostic codes mean? CANON-E0xx codes are attribute clashes, E1xx lifecycle, E2xx the two clocks, E3xx travel and place, E4xx knowledge, E5xx relations and genealogy, E6xx your own rules. NAME-W codes are name hygiene, PLOT-I codes are setup ledgers, and CRAFT-H codes are optional diction hints. The [glossary](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary) defines the common ones. ## Other features [The desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk)[Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Cast](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast)[Two clocks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[World](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[Method packs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Word & Google Docs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs)[Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first) ## Keep reading [Method packs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[AI tinkerers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/ai-tinkerers)[AI stance](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs Title: Method packs: rules you can decline · Asten Summary: Asten’s checks come in eight packs: Scribe (always on), Lifecycle, Clocks, Relations, Knowledge, Atlas, Invariants, and the optional Diction watch. No craft doctrine is a default. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features) - Method packs # Optional groups of rules Asten doesn’t believe in one right way to write. Its checks come in packs you turn on and off, and craft advice stays switched off until you ask for it. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[How Asten works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) ## In short Method packs are optional groups of rules in Asten. Eight ship today: Scribe (the core canon check and name hygiene, always on), Lifecycle, Clocks, Relations, Knowledge, Atlas, Invariants (your own world rules), and Diction watch (optional filter-word hints, off by default). Packs add marks; they never change your manuscript. ### Scribe The core canon compiler. Attribute contradictions and name hygiene, CANON-E013 to E015 and NAME-W001 to W004. Always on. ### Lifecycle A settled death followed by a later act, a birth after a first appearance, an item used after it was destroyed. CANON-E101 to E103. ### Clocks Story time inside continuous runs, dates that cannot all be true, effects before causes. CANON-E201 to E203. Silent until scenes are dated. ### Relations, Knowledge, Atlas Genealogy and exclusive relations (E501 to E503), who knows what and when (E401), routes and travel time (E301). ### Invariants Rules you write yourself in plain patterns (“after X, never Y”), checked against the scene trace. CANON-E601, and the setup ledger PLOT-I001. ### Diction watch Optional craft hints for filter words. Never a canon error. Off until you enable it. ## Example: method packs ## Why packs instead of built-in advice? Craft advice is contested. One editor’s “cut every adverb” is another writer’s voice. So Asten separates truth (your canon contradicts itself) from taste (you used “very” twice), and puts taste in a pack that starts switched off. Hints are notes, not errorsDiction hints appear as gentle notes: “Filter word. Keep it if the voice wants it.” They never count as a canon error. ## What packs might come next? The plan is to let method packs carry templates, scene fields, reports, and advisory rules for approaches such as mystery clue ledgers or screenplay sequences, always optional and never the default. These are planned, not shipped. See the [roadmap](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap). ## About method packs Can I turn off Asten’s checks? Yes. Every pack except Scribe can be switched off, and a project’s strictness can be set to quiet (settled against settled only), standard, or thorough. Scribe, the core attribute check, stays on, but any individual mark can be silenced with a reason. Does Asten give writing-style advice? Only if you ask. Asten’s Diction watch pack offers optional filter-word hints and is off by default. Asten never rewrites your sentences. ## Other features [The desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk)[Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Cast](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast)[Two clocks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[World](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Word & Google Docs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs)[Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first) ## Keep reading [The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[AI stance](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai)[Glossary](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs Title: Word and Google Docs: export, import, and add-ins · Asten Summary: Asten compiles to Markdown, plain text, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB 3, and Final Draft (.fdx), and imports all but EPUB. Word and Google Docs add-ins show marks from your local Asten. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features) - Word & Google Docs # Export, import, and add-ins for Word and Google Docs Your editor wants a .docx. Your co-writer lives in Google Docs. Asten sends the manuscript out and takes it back, and two small add-ins let those apps show Asten’s marks without your canon leaving your machine. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[How Asten works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) ## In short Asten compiles a manuscript to Markdown, plain text, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB 3, or Final Draft (.fdx), and imports every one of those except EPUB. PDF comes from printing the HTML. Optional Word and Google Docs add-ins pair once with a six-digit code shown in the desk, then list your local projects, show the Scales, and can file a selected passage into Asten; they talk only to the Asten API on 127.0.0.1:4317 and hold a token you can revoke. ### Compile Markdown, plain text, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB 3, and Final Draft (.fdx). Excluded scenes stay out; the EPUB’s table of contents follows your binder. ### Import Bring drafts home from the same formats, EPUB aside. The .docx import is conservative on purpose. ### Word task pane See Asten’s marks next to your Word document and file a selection into a local project. ### Docs sidebar The same, inside Google Docs, through Apps Script. ## Example: one scene in several formats ## Which formats does Asten support? | Format | Compile | Import | Good for | Markdown | Yes | Yes | Plain-text backups, static sites, version control | Plain text | Yes | Yes | Anything, forever | Fountain | Yes | Yes | Screenplays | HTML | Yes | Yes | Web, and PDF by printing | .docx | Yes | Yes (conservative) | Editors, agents, publishers | EPUB 3 | Yes | No | E-readers and reading apps | Final Draft (.fdx) | Yes | Yes | Final Draft and other screenwriting tools ## How do the add-ins work? The add-ins are thin windows onto your own computer. They call the Asten API at 127.0.0.1:4317 (that address only exists on your machine) to list projects, show the Scales, and file a selected passage into a project. The API answers only to clients you have paired: the first time a pane opens, it asks for a six-digit code from the desk’s Guests panel, and you can revoke that pairing at any time. Microsoft and Google already have the document you opened; Asten doesn’t send your canon to them or to Verne. Sideload only, for nowThe add-ins are installed by hand (“sideloaded”) and are not in the Microsoft or Google stores. Each add-in’s README in the source repository has the steps. ## About word & google docs Can Asten export to Word? Yes. Asten compiles a manuscript to .docx, as well as Markdown, plain text, Fountain, HTML, EPUB, and Final Draft (.fdx). Does the Asten Google Docs add-on send my book to Verne? No. The Asten Docs sidebar talks only to the Asten API running on your own computer at 127.0.0.1:4317. Verne never receives your text. Can Asten export EPUB or PDF? EPUB, yes: Asten compiles the binder to an EPUB 3 file whose table of contents follows your chapters and scenes. PDF comes from printing Asten’s HTML output. ## Other features [The desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk)[Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Cast](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast)[Two clocks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[World](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Method packs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first) ## Keep reading [The desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk)[Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first)[Screenwriters](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/screenwriters)[Privacy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first Title: Local-first: your manuscript stays on your computer · Asten Summary: Asten keeps your whole project in one SQLite file on your computer. No account, no sync, no telemetry, and no training on your words. Export anytime. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features) - Local-first # Your manuscript stays on your computer Asten has no account, no cloud storage, and no telemetry, and your manuscript is not used for training. Your project is a single file on your own disk, and you can export it to open formats at any time. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[How Asten works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) ## In short Asten is local-first: every project lives in a SQLite database file on your computer (asten.db, in the operating system’s app-data folder). There is no account, no sync service, and no telemetry, and Verne never receives your manuscript. You can export to Markdown, plain text, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB, or Final Draft (.fdx) at any time. ### One file Projects, scenes, facts, comments, snapshots, and marks live in asten.db on your disk. ### No account Nothing to sign up for, nothing to log into, nothing to lose access to. ### No sync, no telemetry Asten doesn’t phone home. Verne can’t see your book because Verne never receives it. ### Never trained on Your manuscript will never be used to train a model, by Verne or anyone Verne works with. ### Open exits Export to open formats any time. Copy the database file to back it up. ### Works offline The desktop app needs no network connection. The Word and Docs add-ins depend on those apps. ## Example: working offline ## Why does local-first matter for writers? Cloud-only tools ask you to trust that the service stays up, stays affordable, keeps your account in good standing, and keeps its promises about your data. For an unpublished novel, that’s a lot of trust. Local-first software flips the default: your copy is the real one, and anything networked is optional. More in [Why your manuscript should live on your own computer](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/local-first-writing). ## How should I back up an Asten project? - Take named snapshots in the desk before big revisions. - Copy asten.db to a backup drive or your own cloud folder, ideally while Asten is closed. - Export to Markdown or .docx now and then, so a readable copy exists outside Asten. - Keep three copies, on two kinds of storage, with one somewhere else. ## And this website? The same principle applies here. This site sets no cookies, runs no analytics, loads no third-party fonts or scripts, and shows no ads. The only thing it stores is your light or dark theme choice, in your own browser, if you change it. See the [privacy policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy). ## About local-first Where does Asten store my manuscript? Asten stores each project in a SQLite file called asten.db in your operating system’s application-data folder. It never leaves your computer unless you copy it. Does Asten need an internet connection? No. Asten works fully offline. The optional Word and Google Docs add-ins need those apps, but your Asten data stays local. Can Verne read my manuscript? No. Asten has no account, sync, or telemetry, so Verne never receives your manuscript. ## Other features [The desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk)[Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Cast](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast)[Two clocks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[World](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Method packs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Word & Google Docs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs) ## Keep reading [Privacy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy)[Why your manuscript should live on your own computer](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/local-first-writing)[AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy)[Word & Google Docs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai Title: Our AI stance: editor, never writer · Asten Summary: Where Asten stands on AI: no model writes your prose, nothing trains on your manuscript, and any future AI only proposes facts you confirm, locally first. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - AI stance # Asten and AI Asten does not write prose. Its checks run no model. An optional assistant can use a model you choose, under the conditions this page states. ## In short Asten never generates prose and never trains on manuscripts. Its checks run no model; they are deterministic rules. The optional assistant in release 0.0.1b explains marks, searches your canon and proposes facts with cited evidence for you to confirm; it runs a model locally where you have one, uses your own provider and key otherwise, only with your consent, and can be switched off entirely. ## What an editor does, and what a writer does. A good editor remembers what you said on page 40, notices when page 312 forgets it, and asks a pointed question. They don’t take the pen. That is the job Asten wants. Language models are genuinely good at parts of that job: finding names, comparing claims, summarizing evidence. They are also prone to smoothing every voice toward the same average, and to stating guesses with confidence. A tool that writes for you inherits both. A tool that only proposes, with evidence, and lets you decide, inherits only the first. Ancient Egyptian scribes kept two inks: black for the text, red to mark it. Thoth, the god of writing for whom Asten is named, recorded the verdict at the weighing of the heart without deciding it. Asten takes the same role: it records and points, and the author decides. ## No model runs inside the checks. Every mark comes from a deterministic rule with a stable code. The same project produces the same marks, and no network is involved. ### Deterministic Rules you can read and test, from CANON-E013 to CANON-E601, and perception that is dictionaries and cues, not a model. ### Offline by default Everything runs on your machine. The only things that leave it are a request you send from the assistant to a provider you chose and consented to, and the update check when you press it. ### Explainable Every mark points to evidence: the settled fact and the page that disagrees. ## The conditions every AI feature meets These commitments were written down before the features existed, so they shaped the features rather than the other way round. - ### Editor, never writer No feature will generate, continue, rewrite, or autocomplete your prose. This applies to every feature, including experimental ones. - ### Proposals only AI may propose a fact, a link, or an explanation. Nothing it suggests becomes canon until you confirm it. - ### Evidence attached Every proposal cites the sentence it came from, so you can check it. - ### Local first Where a model is practical on your own machine, that is the default. - ### Your provider and key If you choose a cloud model, you choose the provider, you hold the key (kept in your operating system’s credential store, never in the page), and you consent to that provider before anything is sent. - ### You can read the request Before a request leaves, Asten shows it exactly as the provider will receive it, with your key replaced by a placeholder. Your manuscript’s wording is left out unless you pick a passage. - ### A full switch-off AI features can be switched off completely. Asten remains a full desk and a full compiler without them. - ### No training on manuscripts Your manuscript is never used to train any model, by Verne or anyone Verne works with. [Read the full AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy) ## About AI and Asten Does Asten use AI? Only if you ask it to. Asten’s continuity checks run no model: they are deterministic rules over facts you confirm. Release 0.0.1b adds an optional assistant to the desktop app that can use a model you choose. It is off by default, local models come first, a cloud provider needs your own key and your consent, and one switch turns it all off. The [AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy) says exactly what is sent, when, and to whom. Why would a writing app refuse to write? Because the writing is the part that makes the work yours. Asten aims at the part writers find tedious: remembering hundreds of settled details and noticing when a page drifts from them. Can I use ChatGPT or Claude with Asten? In the desktop app, yes, with your own account: the assistant can call OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Mistral, DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, GLM, a model on your own machine through Ollama, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint you enter. You choose the provider, you hold the key, you consent to that provider, and you can read the exact request before it is sent. The assistant never writes your prose. What you paste into other tools is governed by their terms. Does the assistant cost money? Asten has nothing to buy, and pricing hasn’t been decided. If you use a cloud provider, that provider bills your own account; Asten keeps a local spend ledger and lets you set a cap, and a cap of zero means no call at all. The commitments on this page don’t depend on price. ## Keep reading [Let AI be your editor, not your writer](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/ai-editor-not-writer)[AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy)[AI tinkerers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/ai-tinkerers)[The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/novelists Title: Asten for novelists: continuity without losing your voice · Asten Summary: For novelists with a long draft: Asten remembers hair colors, deaths, and dates, and marks contradictions in red. It never writes your prose or trains on it. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features) - Novelists # Asten for novelists In a long draft, details drift: an eye color changes, a dead man pours tea, a flashback lands in the wrong week. Asten keeps a record of what you settled and marks the pages that disagree with it. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[How it works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) ## In short Asten helps novelists keep a long manuscript consistent without handing their prose to an AI. You settle the facts that matter, and Asten marks later pages that disagree, such as a changed hair color, a character acting after their death, or scenes out of story order. It never writes or rewrites a sentence. ## Common problems ### The style sheet you stopped updating You meant to keep a list of who has which scar. It stopped at chapter six. ### Search-and-squint revision Checking every mention of a name by hand, hoping you didn’t miss the one that matters. ### AI that wants the pen You tried an AI tool for help and it offered to write the scene. In a voice that wasn’t yours. ## How Asten helps [Settle it onceMira’s hair, Oren’s death, the day the harbor burned. Facts with sources.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Red in the marginWhen chapter 19 disagrees with chapter 2, you see both sides at once.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works)[Two clocksFlashbacks, frame stories, and parallel threads, with story time and reading order kept apart.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[A desk you can live inBinder, comments, find, page view, track changes, snapshots.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk) ## A Tuesday in revision - You rewrite chapter 19 in a rush. Mira “pushes her black hair out of her eyes.” - A red mark appears in the margin: CANON-E013. Chapter 2 settled her hair as auburn. - You remember: she dyed it in chapter 12 to slip past the harbor guards. - You give the auburn fact an end date in story time, add the black one from chapter 12 onward, and the mark disappears. The sentence never changed. ## Limits - Asten reads only plain attributes from your prose (hair, eyes, age, location, alive or dead, relations), and only when a name is in the same sentence. Anything subtler, you settle yourself. - It is a pre-alpha: release 0.0.1b for Windows and Linux, unsigned, with macOS later. - It won’t typeset your book. Compile to .docx for your editor or publisher. ## Asten for novelists Is Asten good for writing a novel? Asten is built for long fiction. It combines a manuscript desk (binder, comments, page view, track changes) with continuity checks that remember the facts you settle, without ever writing prose for you. How is Asten different from Scrivener? Both organize a long manuscript in a binder. Asten adds a canon model and continuity checks that mark contradictions, and it is local-first with no account. It does not try to replicate every Scrivener compile option. ## Asten for other writers [Worldbuilders](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/worldbuilders)[Screenwriters](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/screenwriters)[Fan-fiction writers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/fan-fiction)[AI tinkerers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/ai-tinkerers) ## Keep reading [Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[How to keep continuity in a long novel](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/continuity-in-a-long-novel)[The desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk)[Compare](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/compare) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/worldbuilders Title: Asten for worldbuilders: a world that keeps its own rules · Asten Summary: For fantasy and sci-fi writers: keep places, cultures, systems, and creatures in an optional wall, atlas, and dossier, and let Asten catch contradictions in your canon. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features) - Worldbuilders # Asten for worldbuilders Asten gives your notes on places, cultures, and rules a home, connects the parts you settle to the manuscript, and keeps the rest out of the way until you need it. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[How it works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) ## In short Asten gives fantasy and science-fiction writers optional worldbuilding tools (a wall for scraps, an atlas for places, and a dossier grouped by kind) connected to a canon of settled facts. When the manuscript contradicts a settled fact, Asten marks it. Nothing in the world is required before you write. ## Common problems ### The wiki that ate the novel Three years of lore, eleven pages of chapter one. ### Facts scattered across apps Maps in one tool, a wiki in another, the manuscript in a third, and none of them talk. ### Your own rules, broken Magic costs blood in book one. By book two, nobody bleeds. ## How Asten helps [Wall, atlas, dossierScraps, places, and entries by kind: places, cultures, systems, creatures, items, questions, fragments.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[Spark → sketched → settledIdeas grow at their own pace. Only settled entries become canon.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[Canon checked against the manuscriptSettled facts are checked against the manuscript, with sources.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Two clocksHistories, prophecies, and flashbacks with story time and reading order kept apart.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time) ## The harbor at Veld - You pin a spark on the wall: “Veld: harbor town, eats the reef’s fish, distrusts the capital.” - Two chapters later you sketch it in the atlas, east of the reef. - When the siege chapter needs it, you settle it. Asten mints the facts. - Chapter 31 has Mira sail from Veld to the capital in two days. You declared that route as five, so CANON-E301 marks the journey. ## Limits - The atlas is a rough map for pinning places. Travel-time checks work once you declare routes with a travel time. - World rules (“magic costs blood”) are written as plain patterns in the invariants panel and checked against the scene trace. - Story time can count days, use Gregorian dates, or use a fictional calendar whose months you define. ## Asten for worldbuilders Can Asten replace World Anvil or Campfire? Asten is a writing app with optional worldbuilding, not a dedicated worldbuilding platform. Its world tools are lighter, but they connect directly to your manuscript’s continuity checks and stay on your own computer. Does Asten support magic systems and invented cultures? Yes. Asten’s dossier has kinds for systems, cultures, creatures, places, items, questions, and fragments. Settled entries become facts that Asten can check. ## Asten for other writers [Novelists](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/novelists)[Screenwriters](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/screenwriters)[Fan-fiction writers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/fan-fiction)[AI tinkerers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/ai-tinkerers) ## Keep reading [World](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[Do you need a story bible? Gardeners, architects, and the space between](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/do-you-need-a-story-bible)[Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Roadmap](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/screenwriters Title: Asten for screenwriters: Fountain in, continuity checked · Asten Summary: For screenwriters: import and compile Fountain, keep story time and reading order apart for non-linear scripts, and catch continuity slips before the table read. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features) - Screenwriters # Asten for screenwriters Cold opens, flash-forwards, “three weeks earlier.” Asten keeps the order audiences see scenes separate from the order events happen, imports and compiles Fountain and Final Draft, and marks story time that steps backward inside a run of scenes you declared continuous. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[How it works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) ## In short Asten supports screenwriters by importing and compiling Fountain, the plain-text screenplay format, and by tracking story time and reading order as two clocks for non-linear scripts. It marks continuity contradictions in your settled facts. It is not a full screenplay formatting suite. ## Common problems ### Non-linear structure A cold open, two timelines, and a reveal that depends on both lining up. ### Character drift across drafts The limp moved from the left leg to the right somewhere in draft four. ### Format lock-in A script trapped in one app’s file format. ## How Asten helps [Fountain in and outImport and compile the open plain-text screenplay format.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs)[Two clocksScreen order and story order, kept separate. CANON-E201 only inside a run you declared continuous.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[Canon checksScars, cars, and who knows what, settled once.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Local and privateAn unproduced script stays on your machine.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first) ## Three weeks earlier - Your script opens on the fire, then cuts to “THREE WEEKS EARLIER.” - The cut steps backward in story time. It is outside the run you declared continuous, so Asten says nothing. - In act three a scene you dated day 15 lands before day 14, and this time you didn’t mean it. - You swap the scenes in the binder. Fountain compiles clean. ## Limits - Asten is not a full screenplay editor: no production revisions or page locking. - Fountain and Final Draft (.fdx) are supported for import and compile. - A flashback is never marked on its own. CANON-E201 appears only inside a run of scenes you declared continuous. ## Asten for screenwriters Does Asten support Fountain? Yes. Asten imports and compiles Fountain, the plain-text screenplay format, alongside Final Draft (.fdx), Markdown, plain text, HTML, and .docx. Can Asten replace Final Draft? No. Asten is not a production screenplay suite: it exchanges .fdx files with Final Draft, but has no page locking or revision colors. It is for keeping a script’s story and continuity straight. ## Asten for other writers [Novelists](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/novelists)[Worldbuilders](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/worldbuilders)[Fan-fiction writers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/fan-fiction)[AI tinkerers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/ai-tinkerers) ## Keep reading [Two clocks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[Story time vs. reading order: flashbacks without contradictions](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/story-time-and-reading-order)[Word & Google Docs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs)[Roadmap](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/fan-fiction Title: Asten for fan-fiction writers: keep your canon straight · Asten Summary: For fan-fiction writers: settle canon facts (and your own AU changes), get marks when a chapter drifts, and keep your writing on your own computer, never trained on. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features) - Fan-fiction writers # Asten for fan-fiction writers Asten uses canon the way fandom does. Settle what is true in your version, keep source canon you have changed on file as contested, and get a mark when chapter 40 contradicts chapter 4. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[How it works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) ## In short Asten lets fan-fiction writers record canon as settled facts, keep source canon they’ve changed on file as contested, and get notified when the story contradicts what they settled. Everything stays in a file on your own computer; Asten never generates prose and never trains on your writing. ## Common problems ### Long fics, longer memories A 300,000-word work-in-progress and readers who notice everything. ### AU rules you invented You changed one thing about canon. Now you have to remember its consequences. ### AI scraping worries You want your writing to stay yours, not become someone’s training data. ## How Asten helps [Canon, literallySettle facts from the source and from your own story.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Contested, not deletedKeep source canon on file as contested. Your AU facts are the ones Asten checks.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#contested)[Local-firstYour fic lives in a file on your computer. No account, no upload, no training.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first)[Export anywhereCompile to HTML or Markdown for posting.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs) ## The AU where he lived - In source canon, Captain Oren dies. In your AU, he doesn’t. - You keep the source fact “Oren · status · dead” on file as contested, so it never raises a mark, and settle “alive” for your story. - Months later an old outline note settles him as dead again. Asten marks the clash (CANON-E013) before you post the chapter. - Throughout, the fic stays in a file on your laptop. ## Limits - Asten doesn’t import a franchise’s canon for you. You settle the facts that matter. - There’s no posting integration; compile to HTML or Markdown and post as usual. - It is a pre-alpha (release 0.0.1b); expect rough edges. ## Asten for fan-fiction writers Is Asten good for writing fan fiction? Yes. Asten’s canon model fits fan fiction naturally: settle the facts of your version, keep changed source canon on file as contested, and get marks when your canon contradicts itself. Your writing stays on your computer. Will Asten use my fan fiction to train AI? No. Asten keeps your writing in a local file that Verne never receives, and Verne’s AI policy forbids training on manuscripts. ## Asten for other writers [Novelists](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/novelists)[Worldbuilders](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/worldbuilders)[Screenwriters](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/screenwriters)[AI tinkerers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/ai-tinkerers) ## Keep reading [Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first)[AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy)[Glossary](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/ai-tinkerers Title: Asten for AI tinkerers: a clear line, a plain architecture · Asten Summary: For AI enthusiasts who write: Asten is a local-first, deterministic canon engine with stable diagnostic codes, a loopback API, and a clear rule that AI edits and never writes. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features) - AI tinkerers # Asten for AI tinkerers If you use models every day, you know where they are unreliable. Asten’s checks are deterministic rules. The assistant is optional: bring your own key or run a local model, read the exact request before it is sent, and know that it never writes your prose and your manuscript is never used for training. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[How it works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) ## In short Asten is a local-first writing environment with a deterministic canon engine: Rust, SQLite, a loopback HTTP API on 127.0.0.1:4317, and stable diagnostic codes. The checks run no model: perception is deterministic. The optional assistant in the desktop app (bring your own key, or a local model) only explains, searches and proposes; it never writes prose and never trains on manuscripts. ## Common problems ### Voice flattening Every AI draft sounds like every other AI draft. ### Confident nonsense A model “remembers” a plot point that never happened. ### Opaque data flows Where did your chapter go when you pasted it in? ## How Asten helps [Deterministic firstRules you can read, test, and argue with. Same project, same marks.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Stable codesCANON-E013 to E601, NAME-W, PLOT-I, CRAFT-H. Searchable, suppressible, documented.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#diagnostic)[Plain architectureRust crates, SQLite, Axum on loopback, React, Tauri.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[A written AI policyProposals only, local first, your key, full switch-off, no training.Learn more](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy) ## How the assistant fits - You finish a chapter and ask the assistant what the draft implies. It reads what you attach and proposes three facts: “Mira · hair_color · black?” - Each proposal cites the sentence it came from. None of them is canon yet. - You confirm one, reject one, and mark one as a lie Mira tells. Only the confirmed one joins canon. - The compiler, still deterministic, does the checking. The model never touches your prose. ## Limits - The assistant is new in 0.0.1b and has only been tested against mock providers that speak each vendor’s wire format; live providers need your key and are untested by Verne. The checks that judge contradictions stay rule-based. - Asten is open source under the MIT License; the source is on GitHub. - The local API binds to loopback by default and answers only to paired clients. Don’t expose it to a network without TLS and an owner passphrase. ## Asten for ai tinkerers Does Asten run a local LLM? Asten does not bundle one. Its checks are deterministic rules. The optional assistant can call a local model through Ollama (or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint on your machine), or a cloud provider with your own key and consent, and everything AI-related switches off in one place. Does Asten have an API? Asten runs a local HTTP API on 127.0.0.1:4317 that its desk and add-ins use. It is a loopback API on your own machine, not a public cloud API. Is Asten open source? Yes. Asten is released under the MIT License, and the source is on GitHub (ArefinAlter/asten). Its rules and diagnostic codes are documented on this site. ## Asten for other writers [Novelists](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/novelists)[Worldbuilders](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/worldbuilders)[Screenwriters](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/screenwriters)[Fan-fiction writers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/fan-fiction) ## Keep reading [AI stance](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai)[AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy)[The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Let AI be your editor, not your writer](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/ai-editor-not-writer) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/compare Title: Asten compared: generators, word processors, wikis · Asten Summary: How Asten differs from AI story generators, word processors, manuscript organizers, and worldbuilding wikis, and when you might want one of those instead. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - Compare # Where Asten fits, and where it doesn’t. Asten is one tool among many on a writer’s desk. Here is how it differs from the kinds of tools you may already use, and when one of those is the better choice. ## In short Asten is a local-first writing desk with continuity checks. Unlike AI story generators it never writes prose; unlike word processors it keeps a canon and checks the manuscript against it; unlike worldbuilding platforms its world tools are optional and wired to the manuscript; and unlike cloud tools it keeps every file on your computer. ## Asten vs. ai story generators Apps built around a model that drafts, continues, or rewrites prose for you. ### What they do well Produce sentences, scenes, and ideas on demand. Fast drafts, brainstorming, and getting unstuck. ### What Asten does Never writes a word. Remembers the facts you settle and marks contradictions, so the voice on the page stays entirely yours. Choose a generator if you want help producing text. Choose Asten if you want help keeping your own text consistent. ## Asten vs. general ai chat assistants ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and similar assistants. ### What they do well Answer questions, brainstorm, and critique a passage you paste in, within the limits of one conversation. ### What Asten does Keeps a permanent, structured record of your story on your own machine and checks every page against it, deterministically. Use a chat assistant for open-ended conversation about craft. Use Asten as the memory and the checker. They can sit side by side, and Asten never connects to them. ## Asten vs. word processors Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Pages. ### What they do well Rich formatting, review workflows, real-time co-editing, page layout. ### What Asten does A manuscript-focused desk with a binder and a canon. It compiles to .docx and invites Word and Docs in as guests. Stay in Word or Docs for heavy review cycles and layout. Bring the manuscript into Asten when continuity is the problem. ## Asten vs. manuscript organizers Binder-style writing apps for long projects. ### What they do well Organize chapters, scenes, and research; flexible compile to many formats. ### What Asten does Organizes the same way, and adds a canon model with continuity checks and two clocks for story time. If you need very detailed compile templates today, a mature organizer may suit you better. If you want your project to notice its own contradictions, try Asten. ## Asten vs. worldbuilding platforms Online wikis and apps for lore, maps, and timelines. ### What they do well Deep, shareable encyclopedias of a setting, often with publishing and community features. ### What Asten does Lighter, optional world tools (wall, atlas, dossier) wired directly to the manuscript’s continuity checks, and kept offline. If your world is the product (a campaign setting you publish), a dedicated platform fits. If the novel is the product, Asten keeps the world in service of it. ## Asten vs. spreadsheets and style sheets A story-bible spreadsheet. ### What they do well Anything you can type, sorted any way you like. Free and flexible. ### What Asten does Turns the style sheet into facts that check themselves against the manuscript, with sources and story time. A spreadsheet is fine until you stop updating it. Asten is for when you’d like the sheet to do some of the remembering. Product names belong to their owners and are mentioned only to describe categories. Comparisons are general and reflect how these kinds of tools are typically designed, not the details of any particular version. ## Keep reading [AI stance](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai)[Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features)[Novelists](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/novelists)[Let AI be your editor, not your writer](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/ai-editor-not-writer) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download Title: Try the Asten pre-alpha · Asten Summary: Asten 0.0.1b, a pre-alpha: download the unsigned desktop app for Windows x64 or Linux x64, or open the hosted copy in your browser in a private 24-hour sandbox. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - Get Asten # Try the pre-alpha Asten 0.0.1b is out as a pre-alpha. Open it in your browser on a sample novel, or install the desktop app for Windows or Linux and write on your own machine. [Download](#downloads)[Open it in the browser](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/) Released 27 October 2026. The browser copy keeps a private sandbox for 24 hours and sets one session cookie; see the [privacy policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy). ## In short Asten 0.0.1b is a pre-alpha. The desktop app for Windows x64 and Linux x64 runs the engine on your own computer, keeps your projects in one file on your disk and offers “Open the sample novel”. The hosted copy runs the same engine on Verne’s server in a private sandbox per visitor, deleted 24 hours after the first visit. The builds are unsigned. macOS comes later. ## Two ways to try it - ### Try it in the browser Open the hosted pre-alpha. It runs the real engine in a private sandbox of your own, starts on a short sample novel, and is deleted 24 hours after your first visit. Do not put your manuscript there. - ### Install the desktop app Download release 0.0.1b for Windows x64 or Linux x64. It runs the engine on your own computer, with your projects in one file on your disk, and offers “Open the sample novel”. The installers are not signed yet, so your system warns before the first run. - ### Start a project Create a novel, screenplay, or non-fiction project. Write the first scene before you settle anything. - ### Keep a copy Your project is one file on your disk. Take snapshots as you go, and export to Markdown, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB, or Final Draft whenever you like. ## Release 0.0.1b downloads ### Windows Windows 10 or 11, x64. Uses the WebView2 runtime; the installer fetches it if it is missing. [Download for WindowsInstaller · .exe · 8.9 MB](https://github.com/ArefinAlter/asten/releases/download/v0.0.1b/Asten_0.0.1-beta_x64-setup.exe) - [Portable .zip (Asten.exe)Asten_0.0.1-beta_windows_x64_portable.zip12.3 MB](https://github.com/ArefinAlter/asten/releases/download/v0.0.1b/Asten_0.0.1-beta_windows_x64_portable.zip) - [asten-api, the local API without the window, .zipasten-api_0.0.1-beta_windows_x64.zip7.2 MB](https://github.com/ArefinAlter/asten/releases/download/v0.0.1b/asten-api_0.0.1-beta_windows_x64.zip) ### Linux x64, glibc 2.35 and WebKitGTK 4.1. AppImage on most distributions, .deb for Debian 12 and Ubuntu 22.04 or newer. [Download for LinuxDesktop app · .AppImage · 90.1 MB](https://github.com/ArefinAlter/asten/releases/download/v0.0.1b/Asten_0.0.1-beta_amd64.AppImage) - [Debian package, .debAsten_0.0.1-beta_amd64.deb13.0 MB](https://github.com/ArefinAlter/asten/releases/download/v0.0.1b/Asten_0.0.1-beta_amd64.deb) - [asten-api, the local API without the window, .tar.gzasten-api_0.0.1-beta_linux_x64.tar.gz6.9 MB](https://github.com/ArefinAlter/asten/releases/download/v0.0.1b/asten-api_0.0.1-beta_linux_x64.tar.gz) ### macOS: planned No macOS build yet. Use Asten in the browser meanwhile. [Open in the browser](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[All files and release notes on GitHub](https://github.com/ArefinAlter/asten/releases/tag/v0.0.1b)[Verify downloads (SHA-256)](https://github.com/ArefinAlter/asten/releases/download/v0.0.1b/SHA256SUMS.txt) To verify a file, compare its hash with the line in [SHA256SUMS.txt](https://github.com/ArefinAlter/asten/releases/download/v0.0.1b/SHA256SUMS.txt): certutil -hashfile SHA256 on Windows, sha256sum on Linux. The builds are not signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may warn before the first run: choose More info, then Run anyway. - Windows: run the installer (it installs for your user only), or unzip the portable build and run Asten.exe. - Linux: make the AppImage executable with chmod +x and run it, or install the .deb with sudo apt install ./Asten_0.0.1-beta_amd64.deb. - asten-api: run it, open 127.0.0.1:4317 and type the pairing code it prints. ## What 0.0.1b includes. - The desk, canon, cast, two clocks, and optional world tools - Fifteen canon rules in seven families, plus name hygiene and a setup ledger, in eight method packs - Compile to Markdown, plain text, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB 3, and Final Draft (.fdx), and import of all but EPUB, with Word tracked changes and comments and long files split into chapters - One-file projects (.asten) to move a project, library backups with restore, and rename and delete for projects - The Word task pane and Google Docs sidebar, for sideloading against the desktop app - No account, no sync, no telemetry. An optional assistant in the desktop app (off by default) can call a model on your machine, or a cloud provider with your own key and consent; it never writes your prose, and you can read each request before it is sent ## About the pre-alpha What is the pre-alpha? Release 0.0.1b is the second public build of Asten. It is early software: the engine, the desk, import, compile, backups and the optional assistant work, but expect rough edges and changes between releases. Keep your own copies of anything you write in it. What is the difference between the hosted copy and the desktop app? Both run the same engine. The desktop app runs it on your computer and keeps your projects in one file on your disk; it is the way to use Asten for real work. The hosted copy runs it on Verne’s server in a private sandbox per visitor, for trying Asten without installing anything. The sandbox and everything in it are deleted 24 hours after your first visit. Do not put your manuscript there. The hosted copy runs release 0.0.1a and has no assistant: it calls no AI provider. Why does my system warn me before it runs? The installers are not code-signed yet. On Windows, SmartScreen shows “Windows protected your PC”; choose More info, then Run anyway. Compare the file’s SHA-256 with its line in SHA256SUMS.txt first (the “Verify downloads” link on this page). Signed installers are next on the [roadmap](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap). Is there a macOS build? Not in 0.0.1b. macOS comes later. On a Mac you can use the hosted copy in the meantime. How much does Asten cost? Nothing today. Pricing hasn’t been decided. Whatever happens, your projects will stay readable and exportable without a subscription or a server. Does it update itself? No. Settings, This desk, Check for updates asks for a newer release only when you press it, and installs only after a second press. Nothing checks on its own. [See what’s next](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap) ## Keep reading [How it works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works)[Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first)[Roadmap](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap)[Privacy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap Title: Roadmap: shipped, next, later, never · Asten Summary: What Asten does today, what is planned next, what comes later, and the things it will never do. No dates are given. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - Roadmap # Shipped, next, later, and never. What Asten does today, what is being built next, what comes later, and what Asten will not do. There are no dates. ## In short The current code includes the desk, canon with fifteen rules in seven families, rule-based reading of the page, method packs, cast, two clocks with calendars, optional world tools, compile and import, the Word and Docs add-ins, generated API contracts, and local-first storage. Next: verified and signed installers, tested Android and iOS shells, and verified ARM builds. Never: writing your prose or training on it. ## Shipped Built and working in the current code. - The deskBinder, rich-text page, comments, find, word counts, letter page view, track-change marks, named snapshots, an append-only history you can verify, blame, and drafts you can merge. - CanonFacts with status, context, story-time span, confidence, and a source anchored to the sentence that settled them. Entities with aliases and an introduction point. - Reading the pageDeterministic perception, no model: names and aliases across scripts, hair and eyes, height and age, where someone is, alive or dead, who is married to whom. Dialogue, belief, dream, and frame stories are separate contexts, so a lie is not a contradiction; a memory is weighed at the story time you give it. - Fifteen canon rulesAttributes (CANON-E013–E015), lifecycle (E101–E103), two clocks and a temporal network (E201–E203), travel (E301), knowledge (E401), relations and genealogy (E501–E503), and author invariants (E601), plus name hygiene (NAME-W001–W004) and a setup ledger (PLOT-I001). The catalogue also holds CANON-E302, CANON-E602 and PLOT-I002, which no rule raises yet. - The ScalesEvery mark explains itself in a numbered chain, names the most likely slip, and offers repairs you own: add an event, mark the scene a memory, retire a fact, keep your sentence. Suppressions know when their evidence changed. Bisect finds the edit that raised a mark. - Two clocks and calendarsStory time as day counts, Gregorian dates (“winter of 1890”), or a fictional calendar with your own months, plus relative placements (“three days after the siege”). Flashbacks are a choice: Asten argues only inside a run you declared continuous. - Method packsScribe, Lifecycle, Clocks, Relations, Knowledge, Atlas, Invariants, and the optional Diction watch. Suppressions and baselines stored with the project. - WorldWall, atlas, and dossier. Spark, sketched, settled. Routes with travel times feed the atlas checks. - Compile and importMarkdown, plain text, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB 3, and Final Draft (.fdx); import of all but EPUB. PDF by printing HTML. - GuestsWord task pane and Google Docs sidebar, sideloaded. They pair once with a six-digit code and hold a token you can revoke. - Local-first storageSQLite on your disk, a desktop shell that embeds the local API, no account, no sync, no telemetry. The API answers only to paired clients. - API contractsTypeScript contracts generated from the Rust types and checked for drift, and an OpenAPI 3.1 document served by the local API. - Pre-alpha 0.0.1aThe first public release: unsigned desktop builds for Windows x64 and Linux x64 that run the engine on your machine, and a hosted copy in the browser that gives each visitor a private sandbox for 24 hours. - Pre-alpha 0.0.1b: a complete desktop deskReal importers (Word with tracked changes and comments, Markdown, HTML, plain text with chapter splitting), a project file you can move to another computer, library backups with restore, rename and delete, and an optional bring-your-own-key assistant that explains, searches and proposes, never writes, and shows you the exact request before it is sent. ## Next Being worked on now. No dates. - Installers for the other desktop platformsReleases 0.0.1a and 0.0.1b ship Windows x64 and Linux x64. Windows on ARM, macOS on Apple silicon and Intel in one universal app, and Linux on aarch64 are configured; their installers still need building and testing on hardware. macOS comes later. - Signed installersCode-signed installers for Windows, macOS and Linux, so the system no longer warns before the first run. The 0.0.1a and 0.0.1b builds are unsigned. - Phones and tabletsThe one-column layout, with the binder as a drawer and the Scales in a bottom sheet, is built. Installing it from a phone’s browser requires trusted HTTPS to your own computer. The Android and iOS apps from the same shell still need signing and device testing. ## Later On the plan, behind the work above. - Trained perception, still localSmall classifiers for mentions, attributes, time phrases, and who is speaking, for languages and sentences the rules miss. They only propose, nothing becomes canon without you, and none of them generates text. The compiler that judges contradictions stays rule-based. - More viewsGraph, maps with scale, and boards. - More packsMystery clue ledgers, screenplay sequences, and other methods, always optional, with a runtime for third-party packs. - CollaborationA second author on the same project without giving up offline work. This is still a design question, not a feature. - Store listingsThe Word and Google Docs add-ins in the Microsoft and Google stores, and the phone apps in Google Play and the App Store, once they are signed and tested. ## Never Promises, not plans. - Writing your proseNo generate, continue, rewrite, or autocomplete for your manuscript. - Training on your wordsNo manuscript is used to train any model, by Verne or anyone Verne works with. - Locking up your filesYour projects stay readable and exportable without a subscription or a server. - Craft doctrine by defaultStyle advice stays in optional packs, switched off until you ask. ## Keep reading [Get Asten](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download)[AI stance](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai)[Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features)[FAQ](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/faq) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal Title: Journal: craft notes on continuity and AI · Asten Summary: Essays and guides on keeping a long story consistent, flashbacks and story time, story bibles, local-first writing, and using AI as an editor. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - Journal # Journal Essays and practical guides on keeping long stories consistent, handling time, building worlds without drowning in them, and using AI as an editor rather than a ghostwriter. [Subscribe by RSS](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/rss.xml) [6 October 2026 · 7 min readLet AI be your editor, not your writerThe tedious half of writing is remembering what you already decided; the half that makes a book yours is everything else.Read the essay](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/ai-editor-not-writer) [6 October 2026 · 7 min readHow to keep continuity in a long novelReaders forgive a lot, but they notice when the dead captain gives an order.Read](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/continuity-in-a-long-novel)[6 October 2026 · 7 min readStory time vs. reading order: flashbacks without contradictionsYour story has two clocks, and most timeline mistakes happen when you only watch one of them.Read](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/story-time-and-reading-order)[6 October 2026 · 7 min readDo you need a story bible? Gardeners, architects, and the space betweenA story bible is a tool for finishing the book, which is easy to forget once the bible gets more fun than the book.Read](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/do-you-need-a-story-bible)[6 October 2026 · 7 min readWhy your manuscript should live on your own computerThe safest home for a book you’ve spent years on is a file you can see, copy, and open without anyone’s permission.Read](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/local-first-writing) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/ai-editor-not-writer Title: Let AI be your editor, not your writer · Asten Summary: Why drafting with AI changes the voice of a book, what a good editor does, why that job suits software better, and how Asten leaves every word of your draft to you. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Journal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal) - Let AI be your editor, not your writer AI · Craft · Editing · Voice # Let AI be your editor, not your writer The tedious half of writing is remembering what you already decided; the half that makes a book yours is everything else. By the Asten team at Verne6 October 20267 min read ## The short answer Use AI the way you’d use a good editor: to remember what you decided, check new pages against it, ask questions, and point at evidence. Keep the sentences for yourself. Prose drafted by a model drifts toward the average, and the voice, choices, and ownership that make a story yours drift with it. ## Key takeaways - Drafting is where your voice lives; hand it to a model and the book drifts toward the average. - An editor’s most useful work is memory and evidence: what you decided, and where a page disagrees. - That work suits software because you can check it, and because it never has to touch your sentences. - Asten’s checks are deterministic rules over facts you confirm; no model runs in them. An optional assistant, off by default, never writes. - Any future AI in Asten is planned as proposals you confirm, local first, and never trained on your manuscript. ## Contents - [What goes wrong when AI writes the book?](#what-goes-wrong) - [What does a good editor actually do?](#what-an-editor-does) - [Why black ink and red ink?](#black-ink-red-ink) - [Why is editing a better job for software than writing?](#why-software-suits-editing) - [What does Asten do today, and what doesn’t it do?](#what-asten-does-today) - [What will AI do in Asten later?](#what-asten-plans) - [How can you use AI as an editor with the tools you already have?](#editor-habits) ## What goes wrong when AI writes the book? You’ve probably tried it. You paste a scene into a chatbot, ask it to “make this better,” and get back something smoother, tidier, and somehow no longer yours. Nothing in it is wrong, but it no longer sounds like you. Language models are built to produce a likely next word. That is useful, and it is also why model prose drifts toward the middle: the familiar image, the expected beat, the sentence a thousand other writers might have written. Your voice is mostly the set of unlikely choices you keep making on purpose. The odd comparison. The clipped line. The joke the scene doesn’t strictly need. Smooth those out and you get competent pages that could belong to anyone. There’s a quieter cost, too. When a draft is half yours and half a model’s, it gets hard to say which decisions you made. Revision turns strange, because you’re editing a stranger’s instincts. And many writers simply feel that the work stops being theirs in the way that matters to them, whatever the rules about it say. When a reader quotes a line back to you someday, you want to know it was yours. This isn’t an argument against AI. It’s an argument about which job you give it. ## What does a good editor actually do? Much of an editor’s most useful work is routine. A good editor: - Remembers. That Mira’s hair is auburn, that the harbor at Veld freezes in winter, that Captain Oren died in chapter 9. - Checks. Reads the new chapter against everything that came before and notices where it slips. - Questions. Asks “Did you mean this?” instead of announcing “This is wrong.” - Points at evidence. Shows you the two sentences that disagree, so you can judge for yourself. Notice what isn’t on that list: rewriting your sentences. Line editors do suggest changes, of course, but the good ones treat a suggestion as a question with a pencil attached. The decision stays with the author. An editor who takes over the prose has stopped editing. Two jobs you could give AI, and what each costs when it gets something wrong. | | AI as writer | AI as editor | Holds | The pen | The record | Produces | Sentences and scenes | Questions and marks | Answers to | What’s likely | Evidence on the page | When it misses | The book sounds like someone else | You dismiss a note Notice, too, how much of the job is memory and comparison. In a long manuscript (a doorstop fantasy, a fan-fiction series that has run for years, a campaign setting with hundreds of named places) that is exactly the part people are worst at and most tired of. It’s also the part a machine can do without going anywhere near your voice. ## Why black ink and red ink? Egyptian scribes carried a palette with two cakes of ink. Black was for the text. Red was for marking it: headings, dates, verse points, corrections. The two never got confused, because they did different jobs. Asten takes its [name](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/name) from that tradition. It’s another name for Thoth, the scribe of the Egyptian gods, who stood beside the scales at the weighing of the heart and recorded the verdict without deciding it. Asten takes the same role: your text is the black ink, and Asten’s marks are the red. In practice the rule is simple. Everything you type is yours and stays untouched. Everything Asten adds (a mark in the margin, a code, a note) sits beside your text, points at a span, and can be dismissed. A [diagnostic](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#diagnostic) never rewrites the sentence it’s about. It looks like this: CANON-E013Mira’s hair was settled as auburn. - ① Settled: Mira · hair · auburn - ② Chapter 19 says: “black” - Add an event · Retire “auburn” · Silence this mark · Keep my sentence The mark doesn’t say which side is right. Maybe chapter 19 is the slip. Maybe Mira dyed her hair offstage and the story needs to show it. Maybe chapter 2 was wrong all along. That’s your call. The mark only makes sure you get to make it before a reader does. ## Why is editing a better job for software than writing? ### You can check it When a tool says “these two facts disagree,” you can look at both and know in seconds whether it’s right. When a tool hands you a paragraph, there’s no such check. There’s only taste, and taste was the thing you were supposed to supply. ### It stays out of the sentences A consistency check doesn’t need to touch your prose to be useful. It reads, compares, and points. Your style survives because nobody else is holding the pen. ### It takes the boring part Few people become writers for the bookkeeping. Remembering eye colors, death dates, and which spring the war ended is necessary work that crowds out the work you love. Handing that off costs you nothing you care about. ### It can be wrong without doing harm No checker is perfect. A mark that turns out to be wrong costs you a glance and a click. Sometimes the contradiction is deliberate: a character lies about her past, or a narrator misremembers on purpose. Then you keep your sentence and [suppress](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#suppression) the mark, with a note about why. A model’s paragraph that turns out to be wrong for your book costs far more, because by the time you notice, it has already shaped the scenes around it. The author decidesAsten keeps the record; you keep the pen. Every mark names the rule, the sentence, and the settled fact it disagrees with, and any rule can be silenced with a reason. ## What does Asten do today, and what doesn’t it do? Asten is a local-first writing desk in early development. Here is what it does now. You write in the [desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk): a binder of chapters and scenes, a rich-text editor, comments, and named snapshots. As you go, you settle the details that matter as [canon](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#canon). A [fact](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#fact) is just an entity, a property, and a value, like Mira · hair · auburn. The [compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler) then weighs the draft against that record with fifteen rules in seven families. Three examples: - CANON-E013 marks an attribute with two values at the same point in story time, like auburn and black. - CANON-E101 marks a character who acts after a settled death. - CANON-E201 marks story time stepping backward inside a run of scenes you declared continuous. Those rules are deterministic. No AI model runs in Asten’s checks, local or cloud. (Release 0.0.1b adds an optional assistant that can use a model you choose; it explains, searches and proposes, and the [AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy) says exactly what it sends.) The checks compare facts you’ve confirmed with each other and with plain attributes that fixed rules read from the page. They don’t claim to understand your story, and nothing they read from the page becomes canon unless you settle it yourself. Optional craft hints (a note when you lean on “very” or “really”) live in a [method pack](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#method-pack) that is off by default, and they’re labeled as notes, not errors. There’s nothing to buy today. Asten is in early development; release 0.0.1b is a public pre-alpha you can try in the browser or download for Windows and Linux. See [Download](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download). ## What will AI do in Asten later? The [roadmap](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap) has AI on it, in a narrow role. Asten does not make fact proposals today: its fixed rules read the page and weigh it against what you settled. The planned step is small local classifiers that read more of the page and propose facts, along the lines of “This looks like Mira’s hair is auburn. Settle it?” Every proposal will wait for you to confirm it. Nothing becomes canon silently. - Local models first. A cloud model only with your own provider and key, and only with your explicit consent. - A complete switch-off. You can turn AI off entirely. - No training on manuscripts. Your book is never used to train any model. - No prose. Asten won’t produce your sentences, now or later. The models are planned, not shipped, and there are no dates. The [AI page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai) and the [AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy) say the same thing at more length. ## How can you use AI as an editor with the tools you already have? You don’t need Asten to take this stance. If you keep a chatbot open beside your draft, a few habits keep you on the editor side of the line: - Ask for questions, not rewrites. “What would a careful reader find confusing in this scene?” beats “Improve this scene.” - Ask for evidence. “Quote the lines where the timeline might conflict” gives you something you can check. - Keep the record yourself. A plain list of settled facts (names, ages, deaths, dates) is worth more than any clever prompt. - Mind where your pages go. Read a tool’s data and training terms before you paste in a chapter. - Write the sentence yourself, even when the suggestion is good. Take the idea; leave the wording. The point isn’t purity. It’s that the book should come out sounding like you, and that you should be able to say, without hedging, that you wrote it. ## Questions about this article Does Asten use AI to check my story? Not for its checks: they are deterministic rules that compare facts you have confirmed. The desktop app’s optional assistant can call a model you choose, with your consent, and it never writes your prose. Will Asten ever draft prose? No. Asten will not produce an author’s prose. Planned AI features are fact proposals that you confirm, never sentences in your manuscript. Is my manuscript used to train AI models? No. Asten’s principles rule out using any manuscript to train a model, and your project stays on your computer, so Verne never receives it. What is the difference between an AI writer and an AI editor? An AI writer produces the sentences. An AI editor remembers what you decided, checks new pages against it, and points at evidence, leaving every word and every decision to you. [Next in the journalHow to keep continuity in a long novelReaders forgive a lot, but they notice when the dead captain gives an order.Read next](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/continuity-in-a-long-novel) ## Keep reading [AI stance](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai)[The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[How to keep continuity in a long novel](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/continuity-in-a-long-novel)[Roadmap](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/continuity-in-a-long-novel Title: How to keep continuity in a long novel · Asten Summary: Hair colors change, the dead walk, Tuesday comes twice. A practical guide to catching continuity errors in a long novel, by hand and with a canon checker. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Journal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal) - How to keep continuity in a long novel Continuity · Revision · Novels · Canon # How to keep continuity in a long novel Readers forgive a lot, but they notice when the dead captain gives an order. By the Asten team at Verne6 October 20267 min read ## The short answer Keep continuity in a long novel by deciding which details are settled, recording them in one place, and checking each new chapter against that record. A style sheet, a story bible, and a scene list catch most slips by hand. A canon checker can mark contradictions for you once those facts are settled. ## Key takeaways - Most continuity slips fall into six families: attributes, lifecycles, timeline, names, objects, and places. - A style sheet, a scene list, and targeted search passes catch most of them by hand. - Check at the seams: after a draft, after moving scenes, and before the book goes out. - The most useful step is settling a detail once, in one place, so later pages have something to be checked against. - Asten marks contradictions against facts you’ve confirmed; deciding which side is right stays with you. ## Contents - [Why does continuity slip in a long novel?](#why-continuity-slips) - [What kinds of continuity errors are there?](#kinds-of-continuity-errors) - [How do you check continuity by hand?](#checking-by-hand) - [When should you check for continuity errors?](#when-to-check) - [What does it mean to settle a fact as canon?](#settling-facts-as-canon) - [What does a continuity check look like in practice?](#worked-example) - [What can’t a continuity checker catch?](#what-a-checker-cannot-catch) ## Why does continuity slip in a long novel? Nobody loses track of a heroine’s hair color on purpose. It happens because a novel gets written over months or years, in hundreds of sittings, by a person whose memory is busy with harder things: the shape of the second act, the line of dialogue that won’t sit right, the subplot that might have to go. Chapter 2 was written last spring. Chapter 19 was written at midnight last Tuesday. The two have never met. Revision makes it worse, not better. You cut the scene where Oren loses his ship and forget that chapter 14 still mentions the loss. You rename a city and miss three of the forty mentions. Readers, meanwhile, are very good at noticing. They read your book in a week, so details you set down a year apart sit side by side in their heads. The goal of any continuity process is simple to state: give your memory the same advantage the reader’s has. ## What kinds of continuity errors are there? Most slips fall into a handful of families. Knowing which one you’re hunting makes the hunt faster. Six families of continuity error, with an example of each. | Kind | Example | Where it hides | Attributes | Mira’s auburn hair turns black in chapter 19 | Descriptions, ages, heights, eye colors, accents | Lifecycle | Captain Oren dies in chapter 9 and gives an order in chapter 14 | Deaths, births, injuries, marriages, departures | Timeline | A three-day ride takes one day on the way back | Travel, pregnancies, seasons, “the next morning” | Names and aliases | “The Captain,” “Oren,” and “Orren” on the same page | Nicknames, titles, spelling drift, renamed characters | Objects | The sword lost in the river is back on her hip | Weapons, letters, keys, rings, money | Places | The harbor at Veld faces east, then west | Geography, room layouts, which door leads where Some of these are pure memory problems (attributes, names). Some are arithmetic (timeline). Lifecycle errors are the most embarrassing, because they’re the easiest for a reader to spot. Dead is a yes-or-no question. ## How do you check continuity by hand? Writers and editors kept long books straight for a long time before software came along. The old tools still work. ### Keep a style sheet Copyeditors keep a style sheet for every book: how names are spelled, which words are capitalized, how numbers are written, and a running list of character details. Start your own on day one. Keep it as a plain list, alphabetical by name, with a chapter number beside every entry. The chapter number is what turns a memory into evidence. ### Keep a story bible, if it helps A [story bible](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#story-bible) is a bigger reference: characters, places, history, and the rules of the world. It earns its keep for series, shared worlds, and anything with a magic system. Keep it lean; it exists to serve the draft. (There’s more on that in [Do you need a story bible?](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/do-you-need-a-story-bible)) ### Make a scene list One line per scene: chapter, point-of-view character, where it happens, when it happens, and who’s present. Timeline errors show up here, because you can see the days side by side. Add a column for who is alive. ### Run search passes Before a draft goes out, search for every name, alias, and plausible misspelling. Search for colors near character names. Search for “the next morning” and “that night” and check each one against your scene list. It’s tedious, and it works. ### Ask beta readers specific questions Beta readers catch what you can no longer see, but “Any continuity problems?” mostly gets a shrug. Ask instead: “Did anything about timing or travel feel off?” “Did anyone seem to know something they shouldn’t?” “Did you ever lose track of who was in the room?” ## When should you check for continuity errors? Not while you’re drafting, if checking slows you down. A first draft’s job is to exist, and stopping every paragraph to confirm an eye color is a reliable way to lose a scene. Plenty of writers keep a running “verify later” note and push on. The best moments to check are at the seams of the work: - After a draft. Build or update the style sheet from what the pages actually say, not what you remember them saying. - After cutting or moving scenes. Recheck the scene list and every reference to what you cut. Moving scenes is the riskiest edit of all; a reordered book can quietly put a funeral before a death. - Before it goes out. Run your search passes before the manuscript reaches beta readers, an editor, or an agent. ## What does it mean to settle a fact as canon? All of those methods share one move: deciding that a detail is fixed, and writing it down somewhere other than the manuscript. That’s what [canon](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#canon) means here. Not “everything in the book,” but the details you’ve decided are true. The difference matters. A draft is full of details nobody has decided yet. Mira’s hair might be auburn only because you needed an adjective at one in the morning. Settling it is a separate act: “Yes. Auburn. That’s her.” Once a detail is settled, a later page that disagrees is a question worth asking. Before it’s settled, it’s just a draft being a draft. Settled so farMira · hair · auburn (chapter 2). Captain Oren · lifecycle · dead (chapter 9). The harbor at Veld · faces · east (chapter 3). A tool can only help once you’ve made that move. In Asten’s [canon](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon), a [fact](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#fact) is an entity, a property, and a value (Mira · hair · auburn) with a status. Only confirmed facts produce hard contradictions, so half-formed ideas don’t start arguing with you. A fact can also carry a valid-from and a valid-to, which is how you record a change, like a dye job or a promotion, rather than a mistake. And when you change your mind about the record, you mark the old fact contested or deprecated, and it stops arguing. ## What does a continuity check look like in practice? Take the two classic slips from our running example. ### Mira’s hair In chapter 2 you settled Mira’s hair as auburn. Seventeen chapters and several months later, you write: She pushed her black hair out of her eyes and looked down at the harbor.Chapter 19, draft Asten’s [compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler) weighs the page against the record and marks it in red: CANON-E013Mira’s hair was settled as auburn. - ① Settled: Mira · hair · auburn - ② Chapter 19 says: “black” - Add an event · Retire “auburn” · Silence this mark · Keep my sentence The mark doesn’t fix anything. It names the rule, the sentence, and the settled fact, and leaves you the choice. Keep my sentence if chapter 19 is right and you’ll revisit chapter 2. Retire “auburn” if black is the new truth. Add an event if Mira dyed her hair and the story should show it. Or [suppress](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#suppression) the mark with a reason; the suppression is saved with the project, so it won’t come back on the next pass. ### Captain Oren’s death Oren dies in chapter 9, and you settled it. In chapter 14, a scene beat has him on the quay, giving orders. CANON-E101Captain Oren acts after a settled death. - ① Captain Oren dies (day 9) - ② Chapter 14 mentions Captain Oren in narration: “Captain Oren” - Mark the scene as a memory · Set the scene’s time · Move the death later · Silence this mark · Keep my sentence Maybe chapter 14 is a memory and should read like one. Maybe someone else gives the order. Maybe Oren isn’t as dead as everyone thinks, and that’s the twist, in which case you silence the rule for him and move on. The attribute check is always on. The lifecycle check lives in the Lifecycle [method pack](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#method-pack), which is on by default and can be turned off. ## What can’t a continuity checker catch? Be wary of any tool that promises to catch everything. Asten doesn’t. It reads only plain attributes from your prose, such as hair color, age, or whether someone is alive, and only when a name is in the same sentence; a pronoun on its own is not weighed, and what it reads is never stored as a fact. Travel checks work only along routes you declare with a travel time. Name drift is still partly a job for your search passes, though Asten flags names that aren’t in the cast and names that are easy to confuse, and giving an entity its aliases means “the Captain” and Oren are recorded as the same person. And no checker can tell you whether a contradiction is a mistake, a lie a character tells, or a clue you planted. That judgment is the writing. A good process (a style sheet, a scene list, a handful of settled facts, and something to do the comparing) just makes sure you get to exercise it before your readers do. What a mark doesMarks point at a sentence and the settled fact it disagrees with. They never rewrite it. No AI model runs in the checks; they are deterministic rules over facts you confirm. ## Questions about this article What is a continuity error in a novel? A continuity error is a detail that contradicts something the story already established, such as a character’s hair color changing, a dead character reappearing, or a journey taking a different length of time on the way back. What is a style sheet for a novel? A style sheet is a running list of a book’s spellings, capitalization choices, and character details, each with the chapter where it was set. Copyeditors keep one for every book, and writers can keep their own. Can software find continuity errors automatically? Software can compare new pages against details you have settled. Asten marks contradictions against confirmed facts. It also reads plain attributes from the page with fixed rules and weighs them against your facts, but it never settles anything; you decide what is canon. How does Asten handle a character who changes, like dyed hair? A fact can carry a valid-from and a valid-to, so a change is recorded as a change. When a mark appears, you can keep your sentence, update canon, add an event, or suppress the mark with a reason. [Next in the journalStory time vs. reading order: flashbacks without contradictionsYour story has two clocks, and most timeline mistakes happen when you only watch one of them.Read next](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/story-time-and-reading-order) ## Keep reading [Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Cast](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast)[Story time vs. reading order: flashbacks without contradictions](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/story-time-and-reading-order)[Novelists](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/novelists) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/story-time-and-reading-order Title: Story time vs. reading order: flashbacks that hold up · Asten Summary: Every story has two clocks: when things happen and when the reader learns them. How to use flashbacks, frames, and parallel timelines without contradictions. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Journal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal) - Story time vs. reading order: flashbacks without contradictions Structure · Timeline · Flashbacks · Craft # Story time vs. reading order: flashbacks without contradictions Your story has two clocks, and most timeline mistakes happen when you only watch one of them. By the Asten team at Verne6 October 20267 min read ## The short answer Story time is when events happen in the story’s world; reading order is when the reader meets them on the page. Flashbacks, frame stories, and openings in the middle of the action separate the two on purpose. A contradiction exists only when two things you’ve stated about time can’t both be true. ## Key takeaways - Story time is when it happens; reading order is when the reader finds out. - Flashbacks, frames, and parallel timelines are deliberate gaps between the two clocks, not errors. - Track both clocks side by side in one scene list, using one unit of time. - A real contradiction is two statements about time that can’t both be true. - Asten’s CANON-E201 compares story time only inside a run of scenes you declared continuous, so a flashback raises no mark. ## Contents - [What is the difference between story time and reading order?](#two-clocks) - [How do flashbacks, frames, and parallel timelines work?](#splitting-the-clocks) - [How do you track both clocks?](#tracking-two-clocks) - [When is a timeline contradiction real?](#when-a-contradiction-is-real) - [How does Asten keep track of the two clocks?](#how-asten-tracks-time) - [What should you check before a nonlinear draft goes out?](#nonlinear-checklist) ## What is the difference between story time and reading order? Every story runs on two clocks. The first is [story time](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#story-time): the order in which things happen in the world of the story. Oren is born, Oren goes to sea, Oren takes command, the harbor burns, Oren dies. The second is [reading order](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#reading-order): the order in which the reader meets those events on the page. You might open with the fire, cut back to his first voyage, and let the reader learn of his death from a letter. Same events, two sequences. Neither one is wrong. The gap between them is one of the main tools you have for suspense, mystery, and emotional timing: what the reader knows, and when, is as much a part of the story as what happens. The idea has formal names. Early twentieth-century Russian critics, usually grouped as the Russian Formalists, distinguished the fabula, the raw events in chronological order, from the syuzhet, the way a telling arranges them. Critics have used versions of that distinction ever since. You don’t need the vocabulary. You need the habit of remembering that there are two clocks. **Story time (fabula)** When events happen in the story’s world, in chronological order. **Reading order (syuzhet)** When the reader meets those events, in the order of the pages. **Flashback** A scene that comes later in reading order than its place in story time. **Flash-forward** A scene that shows a later moment of story time before the events leading up to it. ## How do flashbacks, frames, and parallel timelines work? ### Flashbacks A flashback steps backward in story time while reading order keeps moving forward. The craft questions are about the doorways: a clear cue going in (a shift of tense, a dated heading, a smell or sound that pulls the character back), a reason the past matters right now, and a clean way out. The continuity question is narrower. Whatever happens in the flashback has to fit what you’ve already established about that earlier time. ### Frame stories A frame story wraps one telling inside another: someone in the present tells, writes, or remembers the main story. Frankenstein is framed by a sea captain’s letters home; One Thousand and One Nights by a storyteller buying herself one more night. Frames give you two story-time lines at once, the teller’s and the tale’s, and each needs its own consistent clock. ### Parallel timelines Some books alternate between two eras, or between two characters whose stories happen years apart and slowly converge. Each strand has its own internal order. The places where the strands touch (an heirloom handed down, a house that burns in one strand and still stands in the other) are where contradictions breed. ### In medias res Starting “in the middle of things,” to borrow the old Latin phrase, means opening at a dramatic moment and filling in what came before. It’s the most common split between the clocks and the easiest to lose track of, because the backstory arrives in fragments scattered across many chapters. By the time the harbor at Veld caught fire, Captain Oren had already made the mistake that would kill him, and Mira was the only one who knew it.Chapter 1, opening line (draft) One sentence, two clocks. The fire is now. The mistake is earlier, and the reader will learn about it later. The death is still to come, and the reader will spend eight chapters waiting for it. Every one of those has to stay true for the rest of the book. ## How do you track both clocks? The simplest tool is a scene list with two columns you keep strictly separate: where each scene sits in the book, and when it happens in the world. A scene list that keeps both clocks visible. | Reading order | Scene | Story time | Note | 1 | The harbor burns | Year 12, late autumn | Opening, in the middle of things | 2 | Oren’s first voyage | Year 1, spring | Flashback | 3 | Mira reaches Veld | Year 12, late autumn | The morning after the fire | 4 | Oren’s death | Year 12, early winter | Chapter 9; the death the opening hinted at A few habits make a list like this earn its keep: - Pick one unit and stick to it. Days from the start of the story, a calendar date, or a season and a year. Mixing units is how “three weeks later” quietly becomes two. - Give every scene a story time, even the linear ones. Most contradictions hide in the scenes you assumed were obvious. - Label deliberate jumps. A flashback marked as one is a choice. An unmarked backward jump is a question. - Note your anchors. Births, deaths, wars, holidays, phases of the moon. Everything else gets measured from them. ### Two strands, two lists For a frame story or parallel timelines, keep one list per strand, each in its own story-time order, and then a merged list in reading order that shows how the strands alternate. The strand lists catch slips inside a timeline. The merged list catches the ones between them, like an heirloom that turns up in the past strand after it was lost in the present one. ### On the screen Screenwriters face the same problem with fewer words to solve it. The audience learns story time from a title card, a costume, a haircut, a season outside the window. Your scene list is where you make sure those cues agree, so the flashback that’s supposed to be ten years earlier doesn’t put a character in a coat they only buy in act two. ## When is a timeline contradiction real? A flashback isn’t a contradiction. Neither is a frame, a parallel strand, or a cold open. Those are gaps between the clocks that you put there on purpose. A contradiction is when two things you’ve stated about time can’t both be true. For example: - Chapter 11 opens “the morning after the funeral,” but your notes put chapter 11 a day before the funeral. - Mira reaches Veld in late autumn in her own strand and in midwinter in Oren’s, and both are meant to be the same arrival. - In a flashback, a character remembers talking with someone who hadn’t been born yet. - The frame narrator, telling the tale in Year 12, describes the rebuilt harbor, which the main story doesn’t rebuild until Year 13. The test is simple. If you can’t explain the gap as a choice, it’s probably a slip. If you can explain it (the narrator is lying, the memory is wrong on purpose), then it’s a choice, and you should record it as one so that future you doesn’t “fix” it during revision. ## How does Asten keep track of the two clocks? Asten’s [Time](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time) view keeps both clocks as separate things: story time, for when something happens, and reading order, for when the reader meets it. You don’t have to choose one view of your book. You state each, and the compiler compares them where you have said they should agree. The rule that does the comparing is CANON-E201, part of the Clocks [method pack](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#method-pack), which is on by default. It looks only inside a run of scenes you have declared continuous, so an ordinary flashback outside such a run raises nothing, and a scene you take out of the run is no longer compared. If you never state a story time, you never hear from it. When story time steps backward inside a run, it marks the spot: CANON-E201Inside the run “The funeral”, story time steps backward. - ① Chapter 10 · Oren’s funeral · placed at day 15 - ② Chapter 11 · The morning after · placed at day 14 - Set the scene’s time · This scene is not part of the run · Silence this mark · Keep my sentence As with every Asten [diagnostic](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#diagnostic), the mark points and never rewrites. Maybe the scenes are in the wrong order. Maybe a date is off by one. Or maybe the jump is deliberate: then you mark the scene a flashback, or take it out of the run, and the mark goes away. Two sibling rules cover the rest: CANON-E202 marks dates that cannot all be true together, and CANON-E203 marks an effect seen before its cause. Asten doesn’t read time phrases out of your prose; you state each scene’s story time yourself, as a day count, a date, a fictional calendar you define, or a placement such as “three days after the siege”. Reading time phrases is [planned](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap) for the local perception models. No AI model runs in Asten today. ## What should you check before a nonlinear draft goes out? - Every scene has a story time, in one consistent unit. - Every backward jump is either labeled as a flashback or fixed. - Every relative phrase (“the next morning,” “a week later”) agrees with the scene list. - Every character in a flashback is alive, and old enough, at that point in story time. - Every place where two timelines touch has been read side by side. - Every deliberate inconsistency, like a lie or a false memory, is recorded as a choice. None of this limits the structure you choose. It only keeps both clocks where you can see them. ## Questions about this article What is the difference between fabula and syuzhet? Fabula is a story’s events in chronological order; syuzhet is the order and manner in which the telling presents them. The terms come from the Russian Formalist critics of the early twentieth century. Is a flashback a continuity error? No. A flashback is a deliberate gap between story time and reading order. It becomes a problem only when what happens in it contradicts something already established about that earlier time. How do I keep track of a nonlinear timeline? Keep a scene list with two separate columns, one for where each scene sits in the book and one for when it happens in the story, and use one consistent unit of time throughout. When does Asten’s CANON-E201 rule mark a scene? CANON-E201 marks a scene when story time steps backward inside a run of scenes you declared continuous. Scenes outside a run, and scenes you take out of a run, are not marked, and any mark can be suppressed with a reason. [Next in the journalDo you need a story bible? Gardeners, architects, and the space betweenA story bible is a tool for finishing the book, which is easy to forget once the bible gets more fun than the book.Read next](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/do-you-need-a-story-bible) ## Keep reading [Two clocks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[Method packs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[How to keep continuity in a long novel](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/continuity-in-a-long-novel)[Screenwriters](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/screenwriters)[Glossary](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/do-you-need-a-story-bible Title: Do you need a story bible? Gardeners and architects · Asten Summary: A story bible can save a series or swallow a draft. Which kind of writer you are, what belongs in a bible, and how to stop worldbuilding long enough to write. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Journal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal) - Do you need a story bible? Gardeners, architects, and the space between Worldbuilding · Planning · Story bible · Craft # Do you need a story bible? Gardeners, architects, and the space between A story bible is a tool for finishing the book, which is easy to forget once the bible gets more fun than the book. By the Asten team at Verne6 October 20267 min read ## The short answer You need a story bible when your world holds more details than you can reliably remember: a series, a shared universe, a system of rules, a long timeline. Keep it lean and in service of the draft. Gardeners can build it from what the pages settle; architects can plan ahead but should stop before planning replaces writing. ## Key takeaways - A story bible is a reference for keeping a world consistent, not a ticket you need before you start writing. - Architects plan first, gardeners discover as they draft, and most writers are some of each. - Worldbuilding can quietly become a way of not writing. Watch for it. - Most of the world should stay below the sand: build what the story shows, and let the rest stay a sketch. - In Asten the world is optional, and each entry moves from spark to sketched to settled as you decide. ## Contents - [What is a story bible?](#what-is-a-story-bible) - [Are you an architect or a gardener?](#architects-and-gardeners) - [Can worldbuilding become a way of not writing?](#worldbuilding-instead-of-writing) - [How much of your world should the reader see?](#below-the-sand) - [What should go in a lean story bible?](#a-lean-story-bible) - [How do you start a story bible halfway through a draft?](#starting-mid-draft) - [How does Asten handle a story bible?](#asten-optional-world) - [So, do you need a story bible?](#so-do-you-need-one) ## What is a story bible? A [story bible](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#story-bible) is the reference book for your fictional world: who the characters are, what they look like, where things are, what happened when, and how the world works. Television writers call it a series bible, a document that lets a room full of writers keep a show consistent across seasons. Novelists, fan-fiction writers, game masters, and screenwriters borrow the idea for the same reason. A useful one tends to hold: - Characters: names, aliases, ages, appearances, relationships, and who is still alive. - Places: geography, distances, what the harbor at Veld looks like at low tide. - Timeline: the major events in story order, with dates or relative markers. - Rules: how magic, technology, politics, or religion work, and what they cost. - Open questions: the things you haven’t decided yet, written down so you know they’re open. The last item is the one people skip, and it may be the most useful. A list of undecided things is permission to keep writing without pretending you already know. ## Are you an architect or a gardener? George R. R. Martin has described writers as architects or gardeners. The architect plans the house down to the plumbing before building anything. The gardener digs a hole, plants a seed, waters it, and finds out what comes up. Writing communities use a blunter pair of words for the same split: plotters and pantsers, the second group writing by the seat of their pants. An [architect](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#architect) usually wants the bible first. Outlines, maps, family trees, a history of the war: the scaffolding is what makes the draft possible. A [gardener](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#gardener) often finds that planning drains the story. Once they know what happens, the urge to write it fades. Their bible, if they keep one at all, grows behind the draft as a record of what the pages have already decided. Two ways to work, and the bible each one tends to need. | | Architect | Gardener | Starts with | An outline, a map, a timeline | A voice, a scene, a question | The bible is | Built first, used as a plan | Built after, used as a record | Main risk | Planning instead of writing | Contradictions piling up by revision | What helps | A date to start the draft | Settling details as pages decide them In practice, most writers are some of each. You might plan the plot and discover the characters, or know the ending and garden your way toward it. The useful question isn’t which label fits. It’s which details you need to decide before you write, and which you can safely decide by writing. ## Can worldbuilding become a way of not writing? Yes, and it’s one of the most pleasant ways to procrastinate ever devised. Designing a currency, a liturgy, and four centuries of succession disputes feels like progress. It is work. It just isn’t the book. Some signs the bible has started eating the draft: - You’ve written more words about the world than in it. - You can’t start chapter 1 until you’ve settled the tax system of a country that first appears in chapter 30. - You keep revising the bible instead of the manuscript. - The bible holds things no scene will ever touch, and you know it. None of this means you should stop worldbuilding. Some people build worlds as a creative act in its own right, and that’s a perfectly good thing to do with an evening. It just means being honest about which project you’re working on today. ## How much of your world should the reader see? Picture your world as a pyramid half-buried in the desert. The reader sees the capstone catching the light: the handful of details a scene actually needs. Most of the stone stays below the sand. That buried mass isn’t wasted. It’s part of why the visible tip feels solid; readers sense depth in the confidence of a detail, even when they never see what’s under it. But the buried part doesn’t need to be finished. It needs to be consistent where it shows. A rough sketch underground is fine. A contradiction above ground is what readers notice. The chain went up across the harbor at Veld the year the old queen died, and nobody had lowered it since.Chapter 1, draft One sentence, and it implies a queen, a succession, a history of threat, and a city that has lived with a closed harbor for years. You don’t need to know all of that to write it. You need to remember it once it’s written, so that chapter 20 doesn’t lower the chain without a reason. ## What should go in a lean story bible? A practical rule: write down what the pages have committed to, plus what the next few chapters need. Everything else can stay a sketch. - Record details as the pages commit to them. When a scene fixes an eye color, a death, or a distance, add it to the bible with the chapter number. - Mark how sure you are. “Idea,” “rough,” and “decided” are enough. A bible that treats every note as law becomes a cage. - Keep open questions visible. “Who killed the queen?” is a perfectly good entry. - Prune. If an entry hasn’t mattered in fifty pages, it may not matter at all. - Read it before revision, not before every scene. The bible checks the draft. It doesn’t need to stand guard over it. ## How do you start a story bible halfway through a draft? Plenty of writers only reach for a bible once the draft starts contradicting itself. That’s fine. A bible built from real pages is often better than one built from guesses. Just don’t try to build it in one sitting. - Start with the people. Read the draft once with only the cast in mind: names, ages, looks, relationships, and who dies. That alone catches the most visible slips. - Then the clock. Make a one-line-per-scene list of when things happen, in one unit of time. - Then the places and rules, but only the ones the pages have actually used. - Put a chapter number on everything. When two entries disagree, the chapter numbers tell you where to look. When you find a contradiction while you’re harvesting, don’t fix it on the spot. Note both versions and keep reading. Deciding which one is true gets easier once you’ve seen the whole draft. ## How does Asten handle a story bible? Asten treats the world as optional. You can write a whole book in the [desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk) and never open the world view. If you do want one, [World](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world) offers three ways to look at the same material: **Wall** A board for pinning loose scraps (a place, a question, a fragment) and moving them around until they want an order. **Atlas** A rough map where you can pin places. Crude shapes are enough; it’s a sketch, not a survey. **Dossier** The same entries gathered into a list by kind, for when you want to look something up. Every world entry has a kind (place, culture, system, creature, item, question, or fragment) and a status that says how sure you are: spark → sketched → settled. A spark is a passing idea. A sketch is rough but usable. Settled means decided, and settling an entry can mint a confirmed [fact](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#fact) in your [canon](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#canon), which the compiler then weighs the draft against. That status line is the lean-bible rule, built in. Most of your world can stay a spark or a sketch, below the sand, and only the parts the story commits to need settling. Gardeners can settle details after the pages decide them; architects can sketch ahead and settle as they go. Either way, nothing in the world has to exist before you write. The world is optionalYou can write first and settle details once the pages decide them. Asten reads only plain attributes from your prose and never settles them for you; you decide what is canon. The atlas checks travel only along routes you declare with a travel time, and there is no graph view yet; a graph is [planned](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap). ## So, do you need a story bible? If you’re writing a short, linear novel with a small cast, a style sheet and a decent memory may be enough. If you’re writing a series, a shared world, fan fiction set against a large existing canon, or anything with rules that cost something, you probably want a bible. Make it a lean one, built mostly from what your pages have already decided. Either way, the bible serves the book. Architect or gardener, the measure is the same: are the pages getting written, and do they agree with each other? Everything else can stay below the sand. ## Questions about this article What is a story bible? A story bible is a reference document for a fictional world. It records characters, places, timelines, and rules so a long book or series stays consistent. What is the difference between a plotter and a pantser? A plotter plans the story before drafting; a pantser discovers it while drafting. The architect and gardener framing describes the same split, and most writers mix the two. How detailed should a story bible be? Detailed enough to keep the published pages consistent, and no more. Record what the draft has committed to, mark what is still undecided, and let the rest stay a sketch. Do I have to build a world before writing in Asten? No. Asten’s world view is optional, and a scene never waits on it. World entries move from spark to sketched to settled as you decide them. [Next in the journalWhy your manuscript should live on your own computerThe safest home for a book you’ve spent years on is a file you can see, copy, and open without anyone’s permission.Read next](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/local-first-writing) ## Keep reading [World](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[Worldbuilders](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/worldbuilders)[Fan-fiction writers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/fan-fiction)[How to keep continuity in a long novel](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/continuity-in-a-long-novel)[Glossary](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/local-first-writing Title: Why your manuscript should live on your own computer · Asten Summary: Cloud-only writing tools can lock you out, go down, or change their terms. What local-first software means, how to back up a book, and which formats last. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Journal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal) - Why your manuscript should live on your own computer Local-first · Privacy · Backups · Ownership # Why your manuscript should live on your own computer The safest home for a book you’ve spent years on is a file you can see, copy, and open without anyone’s permission. By the Asten team at Verne6 October 20267 min read ## The short answer Your manuscript should live on your own computer because a local file keeps working when the internet, a company, or a policy doesn’t. Local-first software keeps the real copy on your device, works offline, and lets you export to open formats. Add a 3-2-1 backup and your book outlives any single tool. ## Key takeaways - Local-first means your device holds the real copy; any cloud service is optional, not the owner. - Cloud-only tools add risks you don’t control: lockouts, outages, shutdowns, and changing terms. - Follow the 3-2-1 rule: three copies, on two kinds of storage, with one somewhere else. - Export regularly to open formats such as Markdown, HTML, and .docx. - Asten keeps your projects in a SQLite file on your computer, with no account, no sync, and no telemetry. ## Contents - [Where does your manuscript actually live?](#where-your-book-lives) - [What is local-first software?](#what-is-local-first) - [What can go wrong with cloud-only writing tools?](#risks-of-cloud-only) - [Why does it matter whether a company can see your pages?](#privacy-and-training) - [How should you back up a manuscript?](#backing-up-a-manuscript) - [Which file formats will still open in twenty years?](#formats-that-last) - [How does Asten keep your manuscript on your computer?](#how-asten-keeps-it-local) - [What’s a simple plan for keeping your book safe?](#a-simple-plan) ## Where does your manuscript actually live? Ask a writer where their novel is and they’ll usually point at a laptop. Often the honest answer is different: on a server in a data center they’ve never seen, owned by a company whose terms they skimmed once, reachable as long as the login works and the internet is up. The laptop is a window. For a grocery list, that’s fine. For a book you’ve worked on for three years, a fan-fiction series readers are waiting on, or a screenplay in its fortieth revision, it’s worth asking whether a window is enough. Some tools blur the line. A desktop app might keep a local cache while treating the server as the truth, or offer a download in a format nothing else can open. There’s a simple test: turn off the internet, sign out, and see what you can still open and edit. Whatever’s left is what you actually own. ## What is local-first software? [Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary#local-first) is a name for software that treats the copy on your own device as the real one. The idea was set out in a widely read 2019 essay from the research lab Ink & Switch, which argued that you can keep much of the convenience of cloud apps without giving up ownership of your work. Paraphrased, their wish list looks something like this: - It’s fast, because your work isn’t waiting on a round trip to a server. - It works offline, on a plane, in a cabin, or during an outage. - It lasts, so your files stay readable long after a product or a company is gone. - It’s private by default. - You’re in control: you can copy, back up, and delete your own data. - It can still sync and collaborate, without making a server the owner of your work. Notice the last item. Local-first isn’t anti-internet. It’s about who holds the master copy. A local-first app can still sync between devices; it just doesn’t need a server’s permission to let you open your own book. ## What can go wrong with cloud-only writing tools? Cloud tools are convenient, and plenty of writers use them happily. The risks are real, though, and they share one feature: you don’t control them. - Lockouts. A forgotten password, a lost phone holding your two-factor codes, a flagged account, or a lapsed payment can stand between you and your manuscript. - Outages. When the service is down, so is your writing session. - Shutdowns and redesigns. Products get discontinued, sold, or rebuilt. Features you rely on can disappear, and export options aren’t guaranteed to stay. - Policy changes. Terms of service change. Many writers now read them looking for one thing: whether their words can be used to train AI models. - Formats you can’t open anywhere else. If the only way to read your work is through one company’s app, your book is only as durable as that company. None of this is a scandal. It’s simply what it means to keep your work in someone else’s house. If you use a cloud tool, find its export button today, not on the day you need it. Then press it. ## Why does it matter whether a company can see your pages? For many writers, the sharpest worry about the cloud is a newer one: that unpublished pages could end up as training data for an AI model. Policies differ from service to service and change over time, and few people can keep track of every clause. Reading the terms is still worth doing. Local storage answers the question in a simpler way. A company can’t train on a manuscript it never receives. When the only copy lives on your machine and the software sends nothing home, privacy stops being a matter of trust and fine print and becomes a matter of where the file is. (The one exception is the assistant you may switch on: it sends a request to the provider you chose, only after you consent, and the [AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy) lists exactly what goes.) That doesn’t make every desktop app private. Software on your computer can still send data out. The questions to ask any tool are the same: Does it need an account? Does it sync, and to where? Does it report on how you use it? Does it still work with the network unplugged? ## How should you back up a manuscript? Local-first moves the responsibility to you, which is both the point and the catch. A file on one laptop is one spilled coffee away from gone. The standard answer is the 3-2-1 rule, a rule of thumb that photographers and IT people have repeated for years: - Three copies of your work: the one you edit, plus two backups. - Two kinds of storage, for example your laptop’s drive and an external drive. - One copy somewhere else: a drive at a friend’s house, a desk drawer at work, or an encrypted online backup. That last item deserves a note. A cloud backup is different from a cloud-only tool. A backup is a copy you control, in a format you can open, that you don’t need in order to keep writing. Two more habits make the rule work in real life: - Automate it. Most computers come with a backup tool that runs on a schedule. A backup that depends on remembering is a backup that stops. - Test a restore. Every so often, open a backup on a different machine. A backup you have never opened may not work. ## Which file formats will still open in twenty years? Ownership isn’t only about where a file lives. It’s also about whether anything can still read it. Plain, open formats age best. Open formats worth exporting your manuscript to. | Format | Good for | Why it lasts | Plain text (.txt) | Raw words and archives | Almost any device can open it | Markdown (.md) | Drafts with light formatting | Plain text with simple, readable marks | HTML | Formatted reading copies; print to PDF | Every web browser reads it | Fountain | Screenplays | A plain-text screenplay format with a public spec | .docx | Editors, agents, submissions | The format much of publishing expects A good habit: at every milestone (the end of a draft, the night before a big revision), export a plain copy and drop it into your backups. If every app you use vanished tomorrow, you would still have the book. ## How does Asten keep your manuscript on your computer? Asten is built [local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first). Here is exactly what that means today: - Your project is a file on your disk. Asten stores it in SQLite, a widely used database format, in a file called asten.db in your operating system’s application-data folder when you use the desktop app. - No account. There’s nothing to sign in to. - No sync and no telemetry. Asten doesn’t send reports about how you use it anywhere, and it sends your work nowhere unless you switch on the assistant and ask it a question. Verne, the company that makes Asten, never receives your manuscript. - Open exports. [Compile](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs) to Markdown, plain text, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB 3, or Final Draft (.fdx). For a PDF, print the HTML page. Import reads the same formats except EPUB. - No training. No manuscript is used to train any model, and the checks run no AI model. The [AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy) and [privacy notice](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy) say so in full. Inside that file, named snapshots and an append-only history in the [desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk) let you step back through your own changes. That protects you from yourself (the scene you cut too eagerly) but not from a dead drive. Snapshots live in the same file as your book, so asten.db belongs in your 3-2-1 backups like everything else, along with a compiled Markdown or .docx copy you can open anywhere. The house is yours.Your words stay on your computer, in a file you can copy. Local-first has trade-offs. Asten has no sync, no collaboration, and no app in the phone app stores today; collaboration is [planned](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap) without giving up offline work. Asten is in early development; release 0.0.1b is a public pre-alpha for Windows and Linux. See [Download](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download). ## What’s a simple plan for keeping your book safe? - Know where the real copy of your manuscript lives. - Make sure you can open it without an internet connection or an account. - Export to an open format at every milestone. - Keep three copies on two kinds of storage, with one somewhere else. - Read the data and AI-training terms of any tool that holds your words. The manuscript is the one thing in this process you can’t replace, so keep it somewhere you can see it, in a form you can open. ## Questions about this article What does local-first mean? Local-first software keeps the main copy of your work on your own device, works without an internet connection, and treats any cloud service as optional rather than as the owner of your data. What is the 3-2-1 backup rule? Keep three copies of your work on two different kinds of storage, with at least one copy in a different physical place. Where does Asten store my manuscript? In a SQLite database file, asten.db, in your operating system’s application-data folder when you use the desktop app. There is no account, no sync, and no telemetry. Which formats can Asten export? Asten compiles to Markdown, plain text, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB 3, and Final Draft (.fdx). For a PDF, you print the HTML page. [Next in the journalLet AI be your editor, not your writerThe tedious half of writing is remembering what you already decided; the half that makes a book yours is everything else.Read next](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/ai-editor-not-writer) ## Keep reading [Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first)[Privacy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy)[AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy)[The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Let AI be your editor, not your writer](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/ai-editor-not-writer) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary Title: Glossary of writing and continuity terms · Asten Summary: Plain definitions of canon, facts, modality, diagnostics, story time, reading order, story bibles, method packs, and other words used in Asten. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - Glossary # Glossary Plain definitions of the terms used in Asten and in conversations about continuity, story structure, and local-first software. [A](#architect)[B](#binder)[C](#canon)[D](#deprecated-fact)[E](#entity)[F](#fabula-and-syuzhet)[G](#gardener)[I](#inferred)[L](#lifecycle-pack)[M](#maat)[P](#plotter-and-pantser)[R](#reading-order)[S](#scribe-pack)[T](#thoth)[W](#weighing-of-the-heart) 52 of 52 terms **[#](#architect)Architect** An architect, in the comparison George R. R. Martin has made, is a writer who plans a story’s structure in detail before drafting it. An architect may know before chapter 1 that Captain Oren dies in chapter 9. Asten lets you confirm that as a fact early, then marks any later scene where he still acts. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/do-you-need-a-story-bible)[Gardener](#gardener)[Plotter and pantser](#plotter-and-pantser)[Story bible](#story-bible) **[#](#asten)Asten** Asten is a local-first writing app for creative writers that remembers the facts of your story and marks where a draft contradicts them, without writing a word. Asten pairs a writing desk with a rule engine, the compiler, that checks your story against the canon you’ve confirmed. It is made by Verne, and its name is another name for Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing. Your words are black ink; Asten only ever writes in red. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works)[Thoth](#thoth)[Canon](#canon)[Diagnostic](#diagnostic)[Local-first](#local-first) **[#](#author-override)Author override** Author override is a fact modality that labels a value as your deliberate ruling rather than something established in the text or inferred from it. It records why a fact exists. Asten still compares it like any confirmed fact, so to retire the value it replaces, mark the old fact contested or deprecated. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Modality](#modality)[Contested](#contested)[Suppression](#suppression)[Canon](#canon) **[#](#binder)Binder** The binder is Asten’s tree of everything in a project: the manuscript, its chapters and scenes, plus your notes and sources. Chapter 3, the scene at the harbor at Veld, and your notes on its tides all sit in one binder, on your computer. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk)[Snapshot](#snapshot)[Compile](#compile)[Track changes](#track-changes) **[#](#canon)Canon** Canon is the set of facts you have settled about your story; in Asten, confirmed facts are the canon your draft is checked against. Settle in chapter 2 that Mira’s hair is auburn, and that becomes canon. Asten doesn’t decide what’s true in your world; it remembers what you confirmed and points out where a draft disagrees. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Fact](#fact)[Confirmed fact](#confirmed-fact)[Story bible](#story-bible)[Continuity error](#continuity-error) **[#](#canon-e013)CANON-E013** CANON-E013 is Asten’s attribute-contradiction rule: it marks two confirmed values for the same attribute, such as auburn and black for one character’s hair. If Mira’s hair was settled as auburn in chapter 2 and a later confirmed fact, or the page itself, says black at the same story time with no change in between, the mark shows both sides in a numbered chain. The rule belongs to the Scribe pack and is always on. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Scribe pack](#scribe-pack)[Diagnostic](#diagnostic)[Confirmed fact](#confirmed-fact)[Predicate](#predicate) **[#](#canon-e101)CANON-E101** CANON-E101 is Asten’s life-after-death rule: it marks a character who acts after their death has been confirmed. Captain Oren dies in chapter 9. If a later scene in story time has him giving orders, Asten marks it; a scene placed earlier in story time (a flashback) is not marked. The rule belongs to the Lifecycle pack, which is on by default. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Lifecycle pack](#lifecycle-pack)[Diagnostic](#diagnostic)[Confirmed fact](#confirmed-fact)[Entity](#entity) **[#](#canon-e201)CANON-E201** CANON-E201 is Asten’s clocks rule: it marks story time stepping backward inside a run of scenes you declared continuous. It belongs to the Clocks pack, which is on by default, and it stays silent until scenes are dated and placed in a run. A flashback outside a run is never marked, and a scene you take out of the run is no longer compared. Its siblings are CANON-E202, for dates that cannot all be true, and CANON-E203, for an effect seen before its cause. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[Story time](#story-time)[Reading order](#reading-order)[Clocks pack](#clocks-pack)[Flashback](#flashback) **[#](#cartouche)Cartouche** A cartouche is the oval loop, tied at one end, that encloses a royal name in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. The word is French for “cartridge,” which the shape resembles. Royal names in cartouches gave early decipherers a foothold in reading hieroglyphs. Asten’s brand borrows the shape to frame names: the wordmark, a character, a diagnostic code. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/brand)[Rubric](#rubric)[Thoth](#thoth)[Asten](#asten) **[#](#clocks-pack)Clocks pack** The Clocks pack is the Asten method pack that compares reading order with story time; it holds CANON-E201 and is on by default. It holds CANON-E201, E202, and E203, and stays silent until scenes are dated, so if you never set story time, you never hear from it. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Method pack](#method-pack)[CANON-E201](#canon-e201)[Story time](#story-time)[Reading order](#reading-order) **[#](#compile)Compile** To compile, in Asten, is to turn your project into a finished file: Markdown, plain text, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB, or Final Draft (.fdx). For a PDF, compile to HTML and print the page. Import reads the same family of formats except EPUB, with a conservative .docx extract. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk)[Fountain](#fountain)[Binder](#binder)[Local-first](#local-first) **[#](#confirmed-fact)Confirmed fact** A confirmed fact is a fact you have settled as canon; in Asten, only confirmed facts can produce hard contradictions. Mira · hair color · auburn, confirmed in chapter 2, is one. What Asten reads from the page is weighed against your facts but never becomes a fact by itself. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Fact](#fact)[Proposed fact](#proposed-fact)[Deprecated fact](#deprecated-fact)[Canon](#canon) **[#](#contested)Contested** Contested is the fact modality for a claim whose truth is in dispute inside the story, such as a rumor or an unreliable narrator’s account. Asten doesn’t raise contradictions from a contested fact, so you can record what the gossips at Veld believe without it fighting your canon. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Modality](#modality)[Author override](#author-override)[Established](#established)[Inferred](#inferred) **[#](#continuity-error)Continuity error** A continuity error is a detail in a story that contradicts something established earlier, like a character’s eye color changing between chapters. Long manuscripts make them easy to commit and hard to catch, because the original detail is hundreds of pages back. Asten’s compiler marks the kinds it can check today: attributes, lifecycle, the two clocks, travel, knowledge, relations, and rules you write yourself. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/continuity-in-a-long-novel)[Canon](#canon)[CANON-E013](#canon-e013)[CANON-E101](#canon-e101)[CANON-E201](#canon-e201) **[#](#craft-hint)Craft hint** A craft hint is an optional style note from an Asten method pack; it is never a canon error, and it is off by default. Today the only craft hints come from Diction watch, which notes words like “very” and “really” (CRAFT-H001 and CRAFT-H002). Asten ships no craft doctrine as a default; you opt in. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Diction watch](#diction-watch)[Method pack](#method-pack)[Diagnostic](#diagnostic) **[#](#deprecated-fact)Deprecated fact** A deprecated fact is one you have retired from canon; Asten keeps it on record but no longer checks your draft against it. Revision changes minds. If Mira was never a sailor after all, deprecating the fact retires it without erasing the decision. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Confirmed fact](#confirmed-fact)[Proposed fact](#proposed-fact)[Fact](#fact) **[#](#diagnostic)Diagnostic** A diagnostic is a red mark Asten places on a passage when a rule notices something; it names the rule and never rewrites your words. Each one carries a code, such as CANON-E013, and points at the passage it concerns. What you do next is your call: revise the page, update canon, or suppress the mark. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Suppression](#suppression)[CANON-E013](#canon-e013)[Craft hint](#craft-hint) **[#](#diction-watch)Diction watch** Diction watch is an optional Asten method pack that notes filler words such as “very” and “really”; it is off by default. Its notes are craft hints (CRAFT-H001 and CRAFT-H002), not canon errors. Turn it on for a revision pass and off again when you’d rather not hear it. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Craft hint](#craft-hint)[Method pack](#method-pack) **[#](#docs-sidebar)Docs sidebar** The Docs sidebar is Asten’s add-in for Google Docs: a panel that shows your local Asten projects and diagnostics beside the document you’re editing. It can also file a selected passage into your local project. It talks to Asten’s local API on your own computer and is installed by sideloading; it isn’t in the Google Workspace Marketplace. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs)[Word task pane](#word-task-pane)[Sideload](#sideload)[Local API](#local-api) **[#](#entity)Entity** An entity, in Asten, is anything in your story that facts can be about: a character, place, event, item, rule, source, or other. Mira is an entity; so is the harbor at Veld. Entities can carry aliases, so “the Captain” and “Oren” point at the same person, plus notes of your own. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast)[Fact](#fact)[Predicate](#predicate)[Canon](#canon) **[#](#established)Established** Established is the fact modality for something your story states plainly as true, such as Mira’s auburn hair in chapter 2. Most of a canon is established: what the text says outright. Compare inferred, for what the reader works out, and contested, for what’s in dispute. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Modality](#modality)[Inferred](#inferred)[Contested](#contested)[Author override](#author-override) **[#](#fabula-and-syuzhet)Fabula and syuzhet** Fabula and syuzhet are Russian Formalist terms for a story’s events in chronological order (fabula) and the order and way the telling presents them (syuzhet). Asten’s two clocks follow the same idea: story time is roughly the fabula, and reading order is roughly the syuzhet. Keeping both lets you say when a scene happens separately from when it’s told. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/story-time-and-reading-order)[Story time](#story-time)[Reading order](#reading-order)[Flashback](#flashback) **[#](#fact)Fact** A fact, in Asten, is one recorded truth about your story: an entity, a predicate, and a value, such as Mira · hair color · auburn. Each fact also has a modality, a status, an optional stretch of story time when it holds (valid from, valid to), and an optional link to the passage it came from. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Entity](#entity)[Predicate](#predicate)[Modality](#modality)[Confirmed fact](#confirmed-fact) **[#](#flashback)Flashback** A flashback is a scene that shows events from earlier in story time than the scenes around it. Asten allows them and keeps story time and reading order as separate clocks. It argues only inside a run of scenes you declared continuous, and a flashback is simply a scene placed earlier in story time. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[Story time](#story-time)[Reading order](#reading-order)[CANON-E201](#canon-e201)[Fabula and syuzhet](#fabula-and-syuzhet) **[#](#fountain)Fountain** Fountain is a plain-text markup language for screenplays, readable as written and convertible into formatted scripts. Asten can compile a project to Fountain or to Final Draft’s FDX, and import either. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/screenwriters)[Compile](#compile)[Binder](#binder) **[#](#gardener)Gardener** A gardener, in the comparison George R. R. Martin has made, is a writer who plants an idea and discovers the story by writing it. Asten doesn’t ask gardeners for a story bible first. The world views are optional, nothing on the wall is canon until you settle it, and a scene never waits on a wiki. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/do-you-need-a-story-bible)[Architect](#architect)[Plotter and pantser](#plotter-and-pantser)[Spark, sketched, settled](#spark-sketched-settled) **[#](#inferred)Inferred** Inferred is the fact modality for something the story implies rather than states, a conclusion a careful reader would draw from the text. If Mira never gives her age but remembers a storm that hit Veld forty years ago, her being over forty is inferred. Recording the modality keeps clear what the page said and what you worked out. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Modality](#modality)[Established](#established)[Contested](#contested) **[#](#lifecycle-pack)Lifecycle pack** The Lifecycle pack is the Asten method pack that holds CANON-E101, which marks a character acting after a confirmed death; it is on by default. Once Captain Oren’s death in chapter 9 is confirmed, the pack notices any later scene where he still acts. If a return is intended, you can suppress the mark. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[CANON-E101](#canon-e101)[Method pack](#method-pack)[Scribe pack](#scribe-pack)[Suppression](#suppression) **[#](#local-api)Local API** The local API is the HTTP interface Asten runs on your own computer, at 127.0.0.1:4317, which the Word and Google Docs add-ins use to reach your projects. The address 127.0.0.1 means this machine, so the add-ins reach your projects without a cloud in between. It answers only to clients paired with a six-digit code. For tinkerers: it’s an Axum server written in Rust, and the desktop shell embeds it. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/ai-tinkerers)[Word task pane](#word-task-pane)[Docs sidebar](#docs-sidebar)[Local-first](#local-first)[SQLite](#sqlite) **[#](#local-first)Local-first** Local-first software keeps the primary copy of your data on your own device, so it works offline and doesn’t depend on a company’s server. Asten is local-first: your project lives in SQLite on your computer, with no account, no sync, and no telemetry. Verne never receives your manuscript, and your files must stay usable without a subscription or a server. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first)[SQLite](#sqlite)[Local API](#local-api)[Snapshot](#snapshot) **[#](#maat)Ma’at** Ma’at is the ancient Egyptian concept of truth, balance, and order, also personified as a goddess who wears an ostrich feather. At the Weighing of the Heart, a person’s heart was weighed against her feather. Asten borrows the idea as a principle: a mark should show its evidence. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/name)[Weighing of the Heart](#weighing-of-the-heart)[Thoth](#thoth)[Canon](#canon) **[#](#method-pack)Method pack** A method pack is a bundle of rules or hints added to Asten’s checks; packs mark your pages but never change your manuscript. Today there are eight: Scribe (the core canon compiler, always on), Lifecycle, Clocks, Relations, Knowledge, Atlas, and Invariants (on by default), and Diction watch (off by default). No craft doctrine is a default. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Scribe pack](#scribe-pack)[Lifecycle pack](#lifecycle-pack)[Clocks pack](#clocks-pack)[Diction watch](#diction-watch) **[#](#modality)Modality** A modality, in Asten, says what kind of claim a fact is: established, inferred, contested, or author override. Modality is separate from status. A fact can be confirmed and still contested, which is how you record a rumor that belongs in your canon as a rumor. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Established](#established)[Inferred](#inferred)[Contested](#contested)[Author override](#author-override) **[#](#plotter-and-pantser)Plotter and pantser** Plotter and pantser are writers’ shorthand for two habits: plotters outline before drafting, while pantsers write “by the seat of their pants” and discover the story. Most writers mix the two. Asten works either way: you can settle facts before chapter 1 or after the draft, and nothing makes you fill in a form first. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/do-you-need-a-story-bible)[Architect](#architect)[Gardener](#gardener)[Story bible](#story-bible) **[#](#predicate)Predicate** A predicate is the attribute part of an Asten fact, the thing being said about an entity, such as hair color in Mira · hair color · auburn. Two confirmed facts with the same entity and predicate but different values are exactly what CANON-E013 marks. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Fact](#fact)[Entity](#entity)[CANON-E013](#canon-e013) **[#](#proposed-fact)Proposed fact** A proposed fact is a fact waiting for your decision; Asten keeps it on file, but it can’t produce a hard contradiction until you confirm it. You can add a fact as proposed to keep it on file: it can raise a warning at most, never an error, until you confirm it. Nothing becomes canon until you confirm it. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon)[Confirmed fact](#confirmed-fact)[Deprecated fact](#deprecated-fact)[Fact](#fact) **[#](#reading-order)Reading order** Reading order is the sequence in which a reader meets the events of a story, page by page, which may differ from story time. It is one of Asten’s two clocks. If chapter 1 opens at the harbor at Veld and chapter 2 goes back ten years, reading order and story time run in different directions. That may be exactly what you meant; Asten’s job is to notice, and yours is to decide. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time)[Story time](#story-time)[Flashback](#flashback)[CANON-E201](#canon-e201)[Fabula and syuzhet](#fabula-and-syuzhet) **[#](#rubric)Rubric** A rubric is a heading or mark written in red ink; the word comes from Latin rubrica, red ochre, from ruber, red. Manuscript makers wrote headings and instructions in red, and much earlier, Egyptian scribes used red ink for headings and marks in otherwise black text. Asten keeps the rule: your words are black ink, and Asten only ever writes in red. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/name)[Cartouche](#cartouche)[Diagnostic](#diagnostic)[Thoth](#thoth) **[#](#scribe-pack)Scribe pack** The Scribe pack is Asten’s core canon compiler; it is locked on and holds CANON-E013, the attribute-contradiction rule. It is the part of Asten that keeps the record. Other packs add rules alongside it, but the Scribe is always at the desk. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs)[Method pack](#method-pack)[CANON-E013](#canon-e013)[Canon](#canon) **[#](#series-bible)Series bible** A series bible is a story bible that spans several books, seasons, or episodes, recording the characters, places, rules, and timeline that must stay consistent. A series bible usually grows out of the books themselves. In Asten, canon grows the same way: from facts you confirm as you write, not from a form filled in up front. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/do-you-need-a-story-bible)[Story bible](#story-bible)[Canon](#canon)[Continuity error](#continuity-error) **[#](#sideload)Sideload** To sideload an add-in is to install it manually rather than through an official store. Asten’s Word task pane and Google Docs sidebar are sideload only. They aren’t in the Microsoft or Google stores. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs)[Word task pane](#word-task-pane)[Docs sidebar](#docs-sidebar)[Local API](#local-api) **[#](#snapshot)Snapshot** A snapshot, in Asten, is a named record of your project at a moment in time, such as “Before cutting chapter 4.” Snapshots sit alongside an append-only operation history, which records each change instead of overwriting the past. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk)[Track changes](#track-changes)[Binder](#binder)[Local-first](#local-first) **[#](#spark-sketched-settled)Spark, sketched, settled** Spark, sketched, and settled are the three statuses of an Asten world entry, from a loose idea to a decided part of your world. Pin “a harbor that only appears at dusk” as a spark, sketch it later, and settle it when you’re sure. Nothing on the wall is canon until you settle it, and settling an entry can mint a confirmed fact. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[World wall, atlas, and dossier](#world-wall-atlas-and-dossier)[Confirmed fact](#confirmed-fact)[Gardener](#gardener) **[#](#sqlite)SQLite** SQLite is a widely used, self-contained database engine that stores a whole database in a single ordinary file. Asten keeps your projects in SQLite on your computer. With the desktop shell, the file is asten.db in your system’s application-data folder, so a backup is a copy of a file. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first)[Local-first](#local-first)[Local API](#local-api)[Snapshot](#snapshot) **[#](#story-bible)Story bible** A story bible is a reference document recording a story’s characters, places, rules, and timeline so the writing stays consistent. Some writers build one first; many never do. Asten doesn’t require one: the cast isn’t a mandatory character sheet, the world views are optional, and canon can grow from facts you confirm while you draft. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/do-you-need-a-story-bible)[Series bible](#series-bible)[Canon](#canon)[Gardener](#gardener)[Architect](#architect) **[#](#story-time)Story time** Story time is when events happen in the world of the story, as opposed to reading order, which is when the reader meets them. It is one of Asten’s two clocks. The great storm at Veld can happen years before chapter 1 in story time and still be told in chapter 20. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/story-time-and-reading-order)[Reading order](#reading-order)[Flashback](#flashback)[CANON-E201](#canon-e201)[Fabula and syuzhet](#fabula-and-syuzhet) **[#](#suppression)Suppression** A suppression silences a diagnostic you’ve decided to keep; in Asten, any rule can be suppressed, and suppressions are stored with your project. Use one when the page is right on purpose, such as a narrator who lies about Mira’s hair. The mark goes quiet; your sentence stays exactly as you wrote it. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler)[Diagnostic](#diagnostic)[Author override](#author-override)[Contested](#contested) **[#](#thoth)Thoth** Thoth is the ancient Egyptian god of writing, wisdom, the moon, and reckoning, often shown with the head of an ibis, and Asten is another of his names. Scribe of the gods and credited in Egyptian tradition with inventing writing, he recorded the verdict at the Weighing of the Heart rather than deciding it. That is Asten’s job description: keep the record, weigh the page, leave the verdict to you. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/name)[Asten](#asten)[Weighing of the Heart](#weighing-of-the-heart)[Ma’at](#maat)[Rubric](#rubric) **[#](#track-changes)Track changes** Track changes is a way of recording insertions and deletions as visible marks, so a writer or editor can review each edit. Asten’s desk records insertions and deletions as track-change marks. It isn’t a full replacement for Word’s review workflow; compile to .docx when you need that. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk)[Snapshot](#snapshot)[Compile](#compile)[Word task pane](#word-task-pane) **[#](#weighing-of-the-heart)Weighing of the Heart** The Weighing of the Heart is the ancient Egyptian judgment scene in which a dead person’s heart is weighed against the feather of Ma’at. In versions found in the Book of the Dead, Anubis tends the scales and Thoth records the result. Asten takes Thoth’s role: it weighs each page against your canon and records what doesn’t balance, but the verdict is yours. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/name)[Ma’at](#maat)[Thoth](#thoth)[Canon](#canon) **[#](#word-task-pane)Word task pane** The Word task pane is Asten’s add-in for Microsoft Word: a side panel that shows your local Asten projects and diagnostics next to your document. Select a passage and it can file it into your local project. It talks to Asten’s local API on your own computer and is installed by sideloading; it isn’t in Microsoft’s add-in store. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs)[Docs sidebar](#docs-sidebar)[Sideload](#sideload)[Local API](#local-api) **[#](#world-wall-atlas-and-dossier)World wall, atlas, and dossier** The world wall, atlas, and dossier are Asten’s three optional views of your world: a board of loose cards, a rough map for places, and an organized list. Pin the harbor at Veld to the wall as a scrap, drop it on the atlas once you know where it sits, and find it in the dossier grouped by kind. Declare a route with a travel time and the atlas checks can notice a journey that does not fit. [See it in context](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world)[Spark, sketched, settled](#spark-sketched-settled)[Entity](#entity)[Gardener](#gardener) ## Keep reading [FAQ](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/faq)[The record](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/guide)[How it works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works)[Journal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/faq Title: Questions and answers · Asten Summary: Answers about Asten: what it is, whether it uses AI, where your files live, what it checks, how to get it, and who makes it. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - FAQ # Questions and answers Everything people ask about Asten: what it is, whether it uses AI, where your files live, what it checks, how to get it, and who makes it. [The basics](#basics)[AI and your words](#ai)[Continuity and canon](#canon)[Privacy and your files](#privacy)[Getting Asten](#access)[Verne and the company](#company) ## The basics What is Asten? Asten is a local-first writing app for creative writers: a writing desk plus a rule engine that remembers the facts of your story and marks the moment a draft contradicts them. Asten never writes prose; it only adds marks beside your text. See [how it works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works). Who makes Asten? Asten is made by Verne Ltd., a company registered in Dhaka, Bangladesh. You can reach the team at info@vernesystems.com, and there’s more [about Verne](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/about) on this site. Why is the app called Asten? Asten is another name for Thoth, the ancient Egyptian god of writing, wisdom, the moon, and reckoning, who recorded the verdict at the Weighing of the Heart. The app takes his job, not his authority: it keeps the record of your story and weighs each page against it, and you decide. Read [the story behind the name](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/name). Who is Asten for? Asten is for creative writers who are curious about AI but protective of their voice: novelists, fan-fiction writers, worldbuilders, screenwriters, and game and campaign writers. It also suits AI tinkerers who care that the checks run locally and are deterministic. Start with the pages for [novelists](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/novelists), [worldbuilders](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/worldbuilders), [screenwriters](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/screenwriters), [fan-fiction writers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/fan-fiction), or [AI tinkerers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/ai-tinkerers). Is Asten a word processor? Asten includes a writing desk: a binder of chapters and scenes, a rich-text editor, comments, find, word counts, a page view, track-change marks, and named snapshots. Asten isn’t a print-layout tool or a full replacement for Word’s review features, so you can compile to .docx when you need Word. What a word processor lacks, and Asten has, is a memory of your canon. See [the desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk). Can I write a screenplay in Asten? Asten can compile your project to Fountain, the plain-text screenplay format, or to Final Draft’s FDX, and import either, and its canon checks work the same way on a script as on a novel. See [Asten for screenwriters](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/screenwriters). Can I use Asten for non-fiction? Asten is built for stories: its checks compare facts about characters, places, events, and time. You can still use the desk, binder, snapshots, and compile for any long document, and entities can include sources, but Asten has no research or citation tools. ## AI and your words Does Asten use AI to write my book? No, Asten never writes prose, and that’s a product principle, not a setting. Asten keeps the record of your story and marks where a draft contradicts it; every sentence in your manuscript is yours. Read [Let AI be your editor, not your writer](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/ai-editor-not-writer). Does Asten use AI right now? Only if you turn it on. The checks run no model: Asten reads names and plain attributes from the page with fixed rules, and its marks are deterministic over those readings and the facts you confirm, so the same manuscript and the same canon always produce the same marks. Release 0.0.1b adds an optional assistant to the desktop app. It is off by default; if you turn it on and choose a provider (a model on your own machine, or a cloud provider with your own key and your consent), it can explain marks, search your canon and propose facts for you to confirm. It never writes or changes your prose. See [Asten and AI](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai) and the [AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy). Will Asten add AI features in the future? The assistant in release 0.0.1b is the first AI feature. The checks themselves still read the page with fixed rules rather than a model, and nothing ever turns a reading into canon by itself. The roadmap’s later step is small local classifiers that read mentions, attributes, time phrases, and speakers and propose facts: nothing becomes canon until you confirm it. The [AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy) sets the conditions for any AI feature: local models first, a cloud provider only with your own key and explicit consent, and a complete switch-off. None of this has a date; see [the roadmap](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap). Will my writing be used to train an AI model? Never: no manuscript written in Asten is used to train any model. The checks send nothing anywhere, and Verne never receives your manuscript. If you turn on the assistant, a request goes only to the provider you chose, with your manuscript’s wording left out unless you pick a passage; that provider’s own terms then apply to what you sent. See the [AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy). What does the assistant send, and when? Nothing, until you turn on AI providers, choose one, enter your own key (for a cloud provider), consent to that provider, and press send in the assistant panel. A request then goes from your computer straight to that provider’s address over an encrypted connection (plain HTTP only to a model on your own machine), and nowhere else. It holds your question, the assistant’s fixed instructions, the names of the tools it may use, and what those tools return: a mark’s code and explanation, settled facts, cast entries. Your manuscript’s wording is left out unless you pick a passage to share, and the wording quoted inside a mark is left out unless that mark is attached. You can read the exact request, with your key shown as a placeholder, before it is sent. See the [AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy). Can the assistant write or change my text? No. It cannot edit your manuscript: it has ten tools that read or prepare things (explain a mark, search the project, summarise a source, propose a fact for you to confirm) and the tools that would change your text are closed. A request to write, rewrite or continue prose is refused before any provider is contacted, and a reply that reads like new narrative is withheld. How is Asten different from AI writing tools? AI story generators are designed to produce prose; Asten is designed never to. Asten remembers what you’ve decided about your story, like Mira’s auburn hair or Captain Oren’s death in chapter 9, and points at the place where a draft disagrees. See [the comparison](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/compare). Can I use ChatGPT or Claude alongside Asten? Yes, you can use ChatGPT or Claude alongside Asten; that’s your choice. Asten doesn’t connect to ChatGPT, Claude, or any other AI service, so nothing passes between them unless you copy it across yourself. Asten’s checks work the same way however a draft was written. Does Asten understand my story? No, and Asten doesn’t claim to. Asten reads plain attributes from the page (hair, eyes, height, age, where someone is, alive or dead, who is married to whom) with fixed rules, compares them with facts you’ve confirmed such as Mira · hair color · auburn, and notices when they disagree. It doesn’t read for meaning, and it never writes. ## Continuity and canon What is canon in Asten? Canon in Asten is the set of facts you’ve confirmed about your story. Each fact is an entity, a predicate, and a value, like Mira · hair color · auburn, with a modality and a status, and only confirmed facts produce hard contradictions. See [canon](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon). What continuity errors can Asten catch? Asten ships fifteen canon rules in seven families. CANON-E013 marks two values for one attribute, such as auburn and black hair, whether both are confirmed or one is on the page, and also what marks someone placed in two places at once; CANON-E101 marks a character acting after a confirmed death, such as Captain Oren after chapter 9; CANON-E201 to E203 cover story time stepping backward inside a continuous run, dates that cannot all be true, and an effect before its cause; E301 covers a journey that does not fit the time between two scenes; E401 knowledge a character cannot have yet; E501 to E503 genealogy and exclusive relations; E601 rules you write yourself. The catalogue also reserves E302 and E602, which no rule raises yet. See [the compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler). Does Asten find contradictions in my prose automatically? Yes, for plain attributes. Asten reads names, aliases, hair and eye color, height, age, location, alive or dead, and relations from the page with fixed rules, no model, and weighs them against the facts you have confirmed, as warnings. What it reads is used only for that comparison; it is never stored as a fact or turned into canon. Deeper reading, such as a pronoun with no name in the sentence, is not weighed. How do I silence a warning in Asten? Any mark in Asten can be suppressed with a reason, and the suppression is stored with your project and knows when its evidence changes. Diction watch is off unless you turn it on; Lifecycle, Clocks, Relations, Knowledge, Atlas, and Invariants are on by default; and the Scribe pack, Asten’s core canon compiler, is always on. A project’s strictness can also be set to quiet, standard, or thorough. Diagnostics only point at your text, so silencing one never changes a word. What if a contradiction in my story is intentional? Asten gives you several ways to keep an intentional contradiction. Anything inside quotation marks counts as something a character says, not as world truth; a scene can be marked a dream, vision, or frame story and nothing in it is weighed against the world, while a memory is weighed at the story time you give it; a narrator can be marked unreliable; a fact can be marked contested or deprecated; or you can suppress the single mark with a reason and keep your sentence. The canon is yours; Asten only records it. Do I have to fill out a story bible before I start writing in Asten? No, Asten doesn’t ask for a story bible, a character form, or a wiki before you write: the cast isn’t a mandatory character sheet, the world views are optional, and a scene never waits on a wiki. Canon grows from facts you confirm whenever you like; read [more on story bibles](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/do-you-need-a-story-bible). What are craft hints in Asten? Craft hints in Asten are optional style notes, and they’re never canon errors. Today they come from the Diction watch pack, which notes words like “very” and “really” and is off by default. Asten makes no craft doctrine a default; see [method packs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs). Does Asten work with flashbacks? Yes, Asten allows flashbacks: it keeps two clocks, story time and reading order, so a scene can happen early and be told late, and it argues only inside a run of scenes you declared continuous. A flashback is a scene placed earlier in story time, and a memory is weighed at the story time you give it. CANON-E201 appears only when a continuous run steps backward in story time. See [time](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time). ## Privacy and your files Where does Asten store my writing? Asten stores your projects on your own computer, in a SQLite database; with the desktop shell, that’s a file called asten.db in your system’s application-data folder. Verne never receives your manuscript. See [local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first). Do I need an account to use Asten? No, Asten has no accounts and no sign-in; your projects live on your computer, and using them doesn’t depend on a Verne server. Does Asten sync my writing to the cloud? No, Asten has no sync and no cloud storage, so your project stays on your computer unless you copy it somewhere yourself. Collaboration is planned for later, without giving up offline work. Does Asten collect telemetry or usage data? No, Asten sends no telemetry or usage data. Your manuscript stays on your computer, and Verne never receives it. What file formats can Asten export? Asten compiles to Markdown, plain text, Fountain and Final Draft (.fdx) for screenplays, HTML, .docx, and EPUB 3. For a PDF, compile to HTML and print it. Import reads the same family of formats except EPUB, with a conservative .docx extract. How do I back up my Asten projects? Asten keeps your work in an ordinary file on your computer, so you back it up by copying that file, ideally while Asten is closed, to a drive or folder you trust. Inside Asten, named snapshots mark points in your draft and an append-only history records each change. Compiling to Markdown or .docx also gives you a readable copy that doesn’t need Asten at all. Does the Asten website use cookies? No, the Asten website sets no cookies, runs no analytics or ads, and self-hosts its fonts. If you toggle light or dark mode, one localStorage key, asten-theme, remembers the choice in your browser and never leaves it. The site is hosted on Vercel, which processes ordinary request data such as IP address and user agent to serve pages and guard against abuse; see the [cookie notice](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/cookies). What does Verne receive when I use Asten? Verne receives nothing from your Asten desk: there is no account, no sync, and no telemetry, and your manuscript stays on your computer. The optional assistant talks to the provider you chose, never to Verne. If you email info@vernesystems.com, Verne receives your address and message and uses them to reply; there is no mailing list. See the [privacy notice](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy). ## Getting Asten Can I download Asten? Yes. Release 0.0.1b, a pre-alpha, is on the [download page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) for Windows x64 and Linux x64, and a hosted copy runs in your browser in a private sandbox that is deleted after 24 hours. The installers are not signed yet, so your system warns before the first run. macOS comes later. How much does Asten cost? Asten has nothing to buy today, and pricing hasn’t been decided. Whatever comes, the local-first promise holds: your files must stay usable without a subscription or a server. What platforms does Asten run on? Release 0.0.1b runs as a desktop app on Windows 10 and 11 (x64) and on Linux x86_64 (Ubuntu 22.04 or newer, or another desktop with WebKitGTK 4.1), and as a hosted copy in any modern browser. The same shell is configured for Windows on ARM, macOS 11 or later and Linux aarch64, but those builds still need building and verifying on hardware; macOS comes later. The desktop app keeps your projects on your machine; the hosted copy is a 24-hour sandbox for trying Asten. Is there a mobile app for Asten? Not in the stores yet. The desk has a one-column layout for phones and tablets, and installation from your phone's browser requires the Asten on your home computer to be served over HTTPS with a certificate trusted by the phone. Android and iOS apps are built from the same shell and come after the desktop installers are signed. Is Asten open source? Yes. Asten is released under the MIT License, and the source is on [GitHub](https://github.com/ArefinAlter/asten). Asten’s rules are deterministic, and the site describes what each one checks; see [the compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler). Does Asten work with Microsoft Word or Google Docs? Asten works with Word and Google Docs through a Word task pane and a Google Docs sidebar. Both pair once with a six-digit code from the desk, then list your local Asten projects, show the Scales, and can file a selected passage into a local project, talking to Asten’s local API on your computer. They are sideload only and aren’t in the Microsoft or Google stores; see [Word and Google Docs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs). What’s on the Asten roadmap? Next on Asten’s roadmap are verified and signed desktop installers, tested Android and iOS shells, and verified ARM builds. Later items include small local perception models that propose facts and never generate text, a graph, maps, and boards, a runtime for third-party packs, and collaboration that keeps offline work. None of it has a date. See [the roadmap](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap). How do I report a bug or security issue in Asten? To report a bug in Asten, email info@vernesystems.com with what you saw and how to reproduce it. For a security issue, read [the security page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/security) first, and please keep the details private until Verne has had a chance to respond. ## Verne and the company Who is Verne? Verne is the company that makes Asten: Verne Ltd., registered in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Verne’s website is [vernesystems.com](https://vernesystems.com). How do I contact the Asten team? You can reach the Asten team at info@vernesystems.com. Verne uses your address and message only to reply, and there is no mailing list. See [contact](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/contact). Where can I find Asten’s logo and brand guidelines? Asten’s logo, colors, type, and voice are set out on [the brand page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/brand). The short version: your words are black ink, and Asten only ever writes in red. Who do I contact for press inquiries about Asten? Press inquiries about Asten go to info@vernesystems.com, and [the brand page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/brand) covers the logo and how to use it. When describing Asten, please keep to what exists today: a local-first writing desk with deterministic canon checks, an optional assistant that never writes prose, and a public pre-alpha (release 0.0.1b) with unsigned installers. Where can I find Verne’s company details? Verne Ltd., is registered in Dhaka, Bangladesh (company registration C-201411-1), at 8/A, Sher-e-Bangla Road, Zighatola, Dhaka-1209. The full details are on Verne’s [company page](https://vernesystems.com/legal/company) and this site’s [legal page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal). ## Other questions Write to info@vernesystems.com. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/guide Title: The complete guide to Asten · Asten Summary: One page that describes all of Asten: the desk, canon, the compiler, cast, time, world, packs, guests, local storage, AI stance, status, and who publishes it. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - The record # The complete guide to Asten A complete description of Asten for readers, reviewers, and answer engines: what it does, what it refuses, how it works, where it stands, and who makes it. ## In short Asten is a local-first writing environment for long fiction and other long-form work, published by Verne Ltd. (Dhaka, Bangladesh). It combines a manuscript desk with a deterministic compiler that marks contradictions between the manuscript and facts the author has settled. It never generates prose, runs no AI model in its checks (the desktop app has an optional assistant, off by default, that can use a model the author chooses), stores projects in a SQLite file on the author’s computer, and is available as a public pre-alpha (release 0.0.1b) for Windows and Linux, with a hosted copy in the browser. ## What Asten is Asten is a writing app with a memory. You write in a calm manuscript desk; you settle the details that matter as facts; Asten’s compiler marks any page that disagrees with them. Its slogan is the product rule: Let AI be your editor, not your writer. The name is another name for Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing, who recorded the verdict at the weighing of the heart without deciding it. Asten keeps the record; the author decides. [More on the name](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/name). ## What it does ### [The desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk) The Asten desk is a manuscript editor for long-form writing. It has a binder of chapters, scenes, notes, and sources; a rich-text page; comments; find; word counts; a letter-sized page view; track-change marks; and named snapshots. Diagnostics sit in the margin and never rewrite your text. ### [Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon) Canon checks in Asten compare your manuscript against facts you have settled. A fact is an entity, a predicate, and a value, with a status, a modality, an optional span of story time, and a source. When two confirmed facts disagree, or the page says something different from what you settled, Asten marks it in red with code CANON-E013 and shows both sides. Asten reads plain attributes from your prose with fixed rules, not a model, and keeps dialogue, belief, dreams, visions, and frame stories in contexts of their own. ### [Cast](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast) The Asten cast lists the entities in your story (characters, places, events, items, rules, sources, and others) with their aliases, notes, and confirmed facts. It is optional and grows as you write; nothing in it is required before you draft a scene. ### [Two clocks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time) Asten tracks story time (when an event happens in the world) and reading order (when the reader meets it) as two separate clocks. A flashback is not a mistake: Asten argues only inside a run of scenes you declared continuous (CANON-E201), when the dates you gave cannot all be true (CANON-E202), or when an effect is seen before its cause (CANON-E203). Story time can be a day count, a Gregorian date, or a calendar you define. ### [World](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world) Asten’s world tools are an optional wall (loose cards for scraps), an atlas (a rough map for pinning places), and a dossier (entries grouped by kind). Entries can be places, cultures, systems, creatures, items, questions, or fragments, and move from spark to sketched to settled. Settling an entry can mint a confirmed fact. ### [The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler) Asten’s compiler is a deterministic rule engine written in Rust. It reads your settled facts, your timeline, and the page itself, and emits diagnostics with stable codes (CANON-E013 to E601, NAME-W001 to W004, PLOT-I001, and optional CRAFT hints) at four severities: error, warning, information, and hint. Each mark explains itself in a numbered chain and offers repairs. It runs entirely on your machine and never changes your text. ### [Method packs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs) Method packs are optional groups of rules in Asten. Eight ship today: Scribe (the core canon check and name hygiene, always on), Lifecycle, Clocks, Relations, Knowledge, Atlas, Invariants (your own world rules), and Diction watch (optional filter-word hints, off by default). Packs add marks; they never change your manuscript. ### [Word & Google Docs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs) Asten compiles a manuscript to Markdown, plain text, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB 3, or Final Draft (.fdx), and imports every one of those except EPUB. PDF comes from printing the HTML. Optional Word and Google Docs add-ins pair once with a six-digit code shown in the desk, then list your local projects, show the Scales, and can file a selected passage into Asten; they talk only to the Asten API on 127.0.0.1:4317 and hold a token you can revoke. ### [Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first) Asten is local-first: every project lives in a SQLite database file on your computer (asten.db, in the operating system’s app-data folder). There is no account, no sync service, and no telemetry, and Verne never receives your manuscript. You can export to Markdown, plain text, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB, or Final Draft (.fdx) at any time. ## The rules that ship today CANON-E013Attribute contradiction - Two values for one attribute at the same story time, no change between - Settled against settled is an error; the page against canon a warning - Scribe pack · always on · siblings E014, E015, NAME-W001 to W004 CANON-E101Life after a settled death - A later beat in story time for someone settled as dead - A scene placed earlier in story time is not marked - Lifecycle pack · on · siblings E102, E103 CANON-E201Backward inside a continuous run - Dated scenes in a run you declared continuous step backward - E202 dates that cannot all be true · E203 effect before cause - Clocks pack · on · also Atlas E301, Knowledge E401, Relations E501–E503, Invariants E601 ## What it refuses - Writing your prose. No generate, continue, rewrite, or autocomplete for your manuscript. - Training on your words. No manuscript is used to train any model, by Verne or anyone Verne works with. - Locking up your files. Your projects stay readable and exportable without a subscription or a server. - Craft doctrine by default. Style advice stays in optional packs, switched off until you ask. ## Who it is for - [Novelists](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/novelists): For long manuscripts where details drift between chapters. - [Worldbuilders](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/worldbuilders): For fantasy and science-fiction writers whose world is bigger than the book. - [Screenwriters](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/screenwriters): For scripts with timelines, reveals, and a cast that has to stay straight. - [Fan-fiction writers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/fan-fiction): For writers keeping their own version of an existing canon. - [AI tinkerers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/ai-tinkerers): For people who use AI daily and want a writing tool that draws a clear line. ## Where it stands ### Shipped Built and working in the current code. - The deskBinder, rich-text page, comments, find, word counts, letter page view, track-change marks, named snapshots, an append-only history you can verify, blame, and drafts you can merge. - CanonFacts with status, context, story-time span, confidence, and a source anchored to the sentence that settled them. Entities with aliases and an introduction point. - Reading the pageDeterministic perception, no model: names and aliases across scripts, hair and eyes, height and age, where someone is, alive or dead, who is married to whom. Dialogue, belief, dream, and frame stories are separate contexts, so a lie is not a contradiction; a memory is weighed at the story time you give it. - Fifteen canon rulesAttributes (CANON-E013–E015), lifecycle (E101–E103), two clocks and a temporal network (E201–E203), travel (E301), knowledge (E401), relations and genealogy (E501–E503), and author invariants (E601), plus name hygiene (NAME-W001–W004) and a setup ledger (PLOT-I001). The catalogue also holds CANON-E302, CANON-E602 and PLOT-I002, which no rule raises yet. - The ScalesEvery mark explains itself in a numbered chain, names the most likely slip, and offers repairs you own: add an event, mark the scene a memory, retire a fact, keep your sentence. Suppressions know when their evidence changed. Bisect finds the edit that raised a mark. - Two clocks and calendarsStory time as day counts, Gregorian dates (“winter of 1890”), or a fictional calendar with your own months, plus relative placements (“three days after the siege”). Flashbacks are a choice: Asten argues only inside a run you declared continuous. - Method packsScribe, Lifecycle, Clocks, Relations, Knowledge, Atlas, Invariants, and the optional Diction watch. Suppressions and baselines stored with the project. - WorldWall, atlas, and dossier. Spark, sketched, settled. Routes with travel times feed the atlas checks. - Compile and importMarkdown, plain text, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB 3, and Final Draft (.fdx); import of all but EPUB. PDF by printing HTML. - GuestsWord task pane and Google Docs sidebar, sideloaded. They pair once with a six-digit code and hold a token you can revoke. - Local-first storageSQLite on your disk, a desktop shell that embeds the local API, no account, no sync, no telemetry. The API answers only to paired clients. - API contractsTypeScript contracts generated from the Rust types and checked for drift, and an OpenAPI 3.1 document served by the local API. - Pre-alpha 0.0.1aThe first public release: unsigned desktop builds for Windows x64 and Linux x64 that run the engine on your machine, and a hosted copy in the browser that gives each visitor a private sandbox for 24 hours. - Pre-alpha 0.0.1b: a complete desktop deskReal importers (Word with tracked changes and comments, Markdown, HTML, plain text with chapter splitting), a project file you can move to another computer, library backups with restore, rename and delete, and an optional bring-your-own-key assistant that explains, searches and proposes, never writes, and shows you the exact request before it is sent. ### Next Being worked on now. No dates. - Installers for the other desktop platformsReleases 0.0.1a and 0.0.1b ship Windows x64 and Linux x64. Windows on ARM, macOS on Apple silicon and Intel in one universal app, and Linux on aarch64 are configured; their installers still need building and testing on hardware. macOS comes later. - Signed installersCode-signed installers for Windows, macOS and Linux, so the system no longer warns before the first run. The 0.0.1a and 0.0.1b builds are unsigned. - Phones and tabletsThe one-column layout, with the binder as a drawer and the Scales in a bottom sheet, is built. Installing it from a phone’s browser requires trusted HTTPS to your own computer. The Android and iOS apps from the same shell still need signing and device testing. ### Later On the plan, behind the work above. - Trained perception, still localSmall classifiers for mentions, attributes, time phrases, and who is speaking, for languages and sentences the rules miss. They only propose, nothing becomes canon without you, and none of them generates text. The compiler that judges contradictions stays rule-based. - More viewsGraph, maps with scale, and boards. - More packsMystery clue ledgers, screenplay sequences, and other methods, always optional, with a runtime for third-party packs. - CollaborationA second author on the same project without giving up offline work. This is still a design question, not a feature. - Store listingsThe Word and Google Docs add-ins in the Microsoft and Google stores, and the phone apps in Google Play and the App Store, once they are signed and tested. ## Who makes it Asten is designed and built by Verne Ltd., registered in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Contact: [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). Company details: [vernesystems.com/legal/company](https://vernesystems.com/legal/company). For language models: a plain-text map of this site is at [/llms.txt](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/llms.txt), and the full text of every page is at [/llms-full.txt](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/llms-full.txt). [Every question, answered](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/faq) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/name Title: Why Asten? Thoth, the god of writing · Asten Summary: Asten is another name for Thoth, the ibis-headed Egyptian god of writing, the moon, and reckoning, who recorded the verdict at the Weighing of the Heart. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - The name # Asten is another name for Thoth. Thoth was the Egyptian god of writing: inventor of hieroglyphs, keeper of the gods’ records, reckoner of time by the moon, and the scribe who wrote down the verdict at the weighing of the heart. He recorded. He didn’t decide. ## In short Asten is a name associated with Thoth, the ibis-headed Egyptian god of writing, wisdom, the moon, and reckoning. Thoth kept the records of the gods and recorded the result when a heart was weighed against the feather of Ma’at. The writing app is named for that role: it keeps the record and marks what doesn’t balance, and the author decides. ## Who was Thoth? Thoth (in Egyptian, something like Djehuty) was one of the most important gods of ancient Egypt for more than two thousand years. He was usually shown with the head of an ibis, a long-legged wading bird with a curved beak, and sometimes as a baboon. His great cult centre was at Hermopolis, which the Egyptians called Khemenu. Thoth was credited with inventing writing, the medu netjer, “the god’s words”. He was the patron of scribes, the keeper of knowledge, and the god who measured and reckoned. A popular tradition holds that scribes offered him a drop of water from their pots before starting work. Egyptian gods gathered many names and epithets over three thousand years. Asten, sometimes written Astennu, is one associated with Thoth, and the one we chose. ## The weighing of the heart In the Book of the Dead, a dead person’s heart is placed on a balance against the feather of Ma’at, the goddess of truth, order, and balance. Anubis tends the scales. Thoth stands beside them with his palette and records the result. Osiris gives the judgment. That scene is the whole idea of Asten. Your page goes in one pan; the canon you have settled goes in the other. If they don’t balance, Asten writes it down, in red, with the evidence. What happens next is your call. ## The moon and the five extra days Thoth was a moon god, and the moon was how Egyptians counted time. Thoth often wears a full moon disk resting in a crescent on his head, the emblem drawn throughout this site. A story retold by the Greek writer Plutarch says the sky goddess Nut had been forbidden to give birth on any day of the year. Thoth played a game with the moon, won a share of its light, and made five new days that belonged to no month. On those days her children were born. A god who makes room in the calendar so a story can happen is a fair patron for a timeline. ## Two inks on one palette Egyptian scribes carried a wooden palette with two cakes of ink: carbon black for the text, and red ochre for headings, dates, verse points, and marks. Our word rubric comes from the Latin for red ochre, after the red headings of later manuscripts. The Asten logo is that palette, after the hieroglyph that means scribe and writing: one black well for the writer, one red well for the editor. The rule it carries runs through the product. Your words are black. Asten only ever writes in red. ## Names in cartouches A cartouche is the oval ring Egyptians drew around royal names. The word is French for a cartridge; the story goes that Napoleon’s soldiers thought the shape resembled one. Asten draws your characters’ names in cartouches. 𓅓m𓇋i𓂋r𓄿a A playful alphabet using uniliteral signs. Real Middle Egyptian spelled names differently and mostly left out vowels. ## How we use Egyptian art Egyptian art is the heritage of Egypt and of everyone who has learned from it. We try to use it with care. The painted plates are public-domain works from museum collections, credited on the [credits page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/credits); the ornaments and icons are original drawings in the flat, outlined style of tomb painting and papyrus, made for Asten. We don’t invent fake hieroglyphic “text”: where real signs appear, we say what they are, and the name toy above is labeled as a playful alphabet. And no mummy jokes. [Read the brand guidelines](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/brand) ## Keep reading [AI stance](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai)[Brand](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/brand)[About](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/about)[Two clocks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/about Title: About Asten and Verne · Asten Summary: Asten is made by Verne, an AI engineering company in Dhaka. Why we built a writing app where AI is the editor and never the writer. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - About # About Asten and Verne Asten is designed and built by Verne, an AI engineering company in Dhaka, Bangladesh. ## In short Asten is designed and built by Verne Ltd., a company registered in Dhaka, Bangladesh, that builds AI systems under human review. Asten applies the same principle to writing: software can remember, compare, and point at evidence, but the author writes and decides. ## Why Asten exists Writing a long story has two halves. One is remembering: hundreds of small decisions about who has which scar, who is dead, what day it is, and which side of the reef the harbor sits on. The other half is everything that makes the book yours. Most AI writing tools reach for the second half. We think software belongs in the first. So Asten is a writing desk that keeps a record of your story, weighs each new page against it, and marks what doesn’t balance. It never writes a sentence. Verne also builds AI systems for other organizations, with evaluation and human review. Asten applies the same principle to writing software. ## Principles - ### The pen stays yours Asten never generates prose. Anything AI touches in the future is a proposal you confirm. - ### Every mark shows its evidence A mark names the rule, the sentence, and the settled fact it disagrees with. - ### The house is yours Local-first. No account, no sync, no telemetry, no training on your words. - ### Quiet craft No doctrine, no nagging. Packs are optional and craft hints start switched off. - ### Honest about the work We say what ships today and what is planned, and we never blur the two. ## Company details | Product | Asten, a local-first writing environment | Publisher | Verne Ltd. | Based in | Dhaka, Bangladesh | Status | Pre-alpha (release 0.0.1b, Windows and Linux) | Contact | [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com) | Verne | [vernesystems.com](https://vernesystems.com) ## Keep reading [The name](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/name)[AI stance](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai)[Brand](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/brand)[Contact](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/contact) ## Try the pre-alpha Open the workbench in your browser on a sample novel, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/)[Download for Windows or Linux](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/brand Title: Brand guidelines and press kit · Asten Summary: The Asten brand: the Palette mark, the scribe’s pigments, typography, registers, motion, voice, and downloadable logo files for press. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - Brand # Brand guidelines and press kit The Asten brand in one page: the idea, the mark, the scribe’s pigments, the type, the registers, the art, the motion, and the voice. Press can download the logo files at the bottom. [Jump to downloads](#downloads) Asten ## The idea Asten is another name for Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing, who recorded the verdict at the weighing of the heart without deciding it. Egyptian scribes wrote in black and marked in red. So: the writer’s words are black ink, Asten only ever writes in red, and the author always decides. Every brand choice follows from that. ## Logo: the Palette mark A scribe’s palette seen from above, after the hieroglyph for scribe and writing (Y3): one black well for the writer, one red well for the editor, and a reed pen at rest in its slot. Mark Asten Horizontal lockup (default) Asten On lapis Asten Cartouche (ceremonial) ### Do - Keep the right-hand well red in full-colour use. - Give the mark one well-diameter of clear space. - Use the cartouche only for ceremonial places: footer, social cards, press, splash. ### Don’t - Swap the wells, or make both red. - Add gradients, gold foil, bevels, or shadows. - Set “Asten” in Papyrus, Cinzel, or any faux-Egyptian face. - Put the mark inside a pyramid, an ankh, or an eye. ## Colour Egyptian painters used a small mineral palette: carbon, red and yellow ochre, Egyptian blue, malachite, gypsum white, and gold. So do we, always flat. Red is reserved: it means Asten is speaking. Papyrus#F5EEDFPage background Papyrus raised#FBF7EECards and the writing page Papyrus sunk#ECE2CCAlternating registers Carbon ink#1E1A15Text: the writer’s voice Rubric red#B0351FAsten’s voice: marks and the primary action Lapis#1F3F77Links, focus, interactive state Malachite#2E6B4ESettled canon and success Gold#B98419Stars and ornament ### Illustration pigments Egyptian blue #2B62B0Turquoise #3D9A94Yellow ochre #C98A2EGold #D9A631Flesh #A9532ENatron #FFFCF5Sand #DCC597Night #0F1A2E Rough ratio: 70% papyrus, 15% carbon, 7% blue, 5% red, 3% gold and green. Every text pair meets WCAG 2.2 AA in both the day (papyrus) and night (lapis) themes. Red never carries meaning alone: every mark also has a code and words. ## Typography All self-hosted, all under the SIL Open Font License. The god · Fraunces Let AI be your editor. The page · Literata The tide came in grey over the harbor at Veld. Mira pushed her auburn hair out of her eyes and listened for the bell. The scribe’s notation · IBM Plex Mono CANON-E013 Mira · hair_color · auburn ## Layout and ornament Egyptian walls are organised in horizontal registers, each standing on a ground line. Our pages are too. Ornament frames content and never sits behind running text. Block border Khekher Lotus and bud Star band Water ## Illustration Two kinds of picture. The painted plates are public-domain works from museum collections, cut and graded to one warm light and laid on the paper, credited on the credits page. The ornaments, icons and diagrams below are original SVG drawings in the Egyptian composite view: head and legs in profile, shoulders and eye frontal, flat pigment fills, carbon outlines, ground lines. ### Painted plates One light for all of them: highlights gained toward warm paper, saturation eased, the blacks lifted a little, a fine grain over everything. A painting or a print is a torn sheet; a window is a round arch with a torn foot; an object is cut from its studio backdrop and stands on the paper alone; a frieze runs as a band across the page. No picture carries a caption: every work is credited, with its holder, its licence and a link, on the [credits page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/credits). ### Drawn ornaments Thoth the scribe The scales of Ma’at Ibis on a standard Wedjat (protection) The world below the sand Lunar emblem Blue lotus Papyrus ## Icons Each icon is drawn from a hieroglyph that already meant the thing: the papyrus roll for writing, the feather for truth, the house plan for home. 32-unit grid, round joins, one optional flat fill. Desk Canon Cast Time World Compiler Packs Guests Local Privacy Diagnostics Dialogue Fandom Thoth Ornament Night ## Motion Motion should feel like a hand: deliberate, a little uneven, then still. Black first, red after a beat, because Asten never interrupts. - DrawThe red pencil goes down with a hand’s unevenness: a wobble, a pressure that swells and thins, a small overshoot, no two strokes at the same pace. It is drawn once, and drawn again when the words under it change. - RiseRegisters rise 16 px and fade in as you reach them. Sheets lift over one another the way pages turn. - WeighThe scales are a spring. A heavier claim tips the beam, it overshoots, and it settles. - LampAt night the page is lit by a lamp that flickers a little. The flicker is noise, not a timer. - StillNothing loops on a clock. Motion comes from a spring, from noise or from a hand, and it stops when it is off screen or the tab is hidden. Reduced-motion settings remove all of it: every drawing arrives complete and every state has a still twin. ## Voice Calm, precise, and plain. Asten speaks like a careful reader, not a salesperson. | We say | We don’t say | “Mira’s hair was settled as auburn.” | “Error: inconsistency detected in character profile.” | “Keep my sentence.” | “Ignore warning.” | “No model runs in Asten today.” | “AI-powered continuity magic.” | “It’s a pre-alpha, and the installers are unsigned.” | “Coming soon to revolutionize your writing!” Words we use: notice, mark, weigh, record, settle, canon, your call. Words we avoid: generate, supercharge, unleash, magic, seamless, effortless, game-changing. Headings describe what follows, in plain words: no kicker labels or numbering above them, no slogan or punchline headings, and no copy that tells the reader to hover, click, or try something. ## In the product Inside the desk, ornament steps back. The page is plain papyrus and carbon ink. Asten’s voice is red, in the margin. Settled canon is green. Names sit in cartouches. Art lives at the edges: empty states, onboarding, the splash. ## Using Egyptian art with care No mummy jokes, curses, or pharaoh kitsch. No invented hieroglyphic “text”: when we show real signs, we name them, and the cartouche name toy is labeled as a playful alphabet. Thoth is drawn with dignity, with his ibis head, lunar disk, palette, and pen. The painted plates are credited on the [credits page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/credits); the drawings are original, made for Asten, in the spirit of the tradition. See [the name](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/name). ## Press kit downloads Use these files unaltered when writing about Asten. For anything else, see the trademark policy or write to us. [Palette mark SVG, day](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/brand/asten-mark.svg)[Palette mark SVG, night](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/brand/asten-mark-night.svg)[Horizontal logo SVG, day](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/brand/asten-logo.svg)[Horizontal logo SVG, night](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/brand/asten-logo-night.svg)[Cartouche lockup SVG](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/brand/asten-cartouche.svg)[App icon PNG, 512 px](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/icon-512.png)[Social card PNG, 1200 × 630](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/og/home.png) Boilerplate: “Asten is a local-first writing app from Verne that remembers the facts of a story and marks contradictions in red, without ever writing prose. Its rule: let AI be your editor, not your writer.” See also the [trademark policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/trademark). --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/contact Title: Contact Verne about Asten · Asten Summary: Write to Verne about Asten: pre-alpha feedback, press, partnerships, security reports, accessibility problems, or legal notices. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - Contact # Contact One address reaches the people who build Asten. Choosing a subject below helps route your message. [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com) ## Subjects [Pre-alpha feedbackWhat worked, what broke, and which computer you use.Subject: Asten pre-alpha](mailto:info@vernesystems.com?subject=Asten%20pre-alpha)[PressInterviews, review builds, and brand assets beyond the press kit.Subject: Asten press](mailto:info@vernesystems.com?subject=Asten%20press)[PartnershipsWriting programs, schools, and publishers.Subject: Asten partnership](mailto:info@vernesystems.com?subject=Asten%20partnership)[PrivacyQuestions about your data, or a request under privacy law.Subject: Asten privacy](mailto:info@vernesystems.com?subject=Asten%20privacy)[AccessibilityA page or feature that gets in your way. Tell us which and how.Subject: Asten accessibility](mailto:info@vernesystems.com?subject=Asten%20accessibility)[Legal and copyrightNotices, takedowns, trademark questions.Subject: Asten legal](mailto:info@vernesystems.com?subject=Asten%20legal)[SecurityFound a vulnerability? Read the disclosure policy first, then write with “Security” in the subject.Disclosure policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/security) ## Postal address Verne Ltd. 8/A, Sher-e-Bangla Road, Zighatola, Dhaka-1209, Bangladesh Registration and procurement details are published at [vernesystems.com/legal/company](https://vernesystems.com/legal/company). Verne is also on [X](https://x.com/VerneOf) and [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/verneoff). What happens to your email is in the [privacy policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy): we use it to reply, and that’s all. ## Try the pre-alpha Open it in your browser, or download release 0.0.1b for Windows or Linux. No form to fill in. [Try the pre-alpha](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/) --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal Title: Legal: policies and notices · Asten Summary: Every Asten policy in one place: privacy, terms, cookies, license, acceptable use, AI policy, accessibility, copyright, trademark, security, and the imprint. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - Legal # Legal Every Asten policy in one place. Each starts with a plain-language summary. If something you need is missing, write to us. [Privacy policyHow Verne handles personal data for Asten: your manuscript stays on your computer, this site sets no cookies, hosted sandboxes are deleted after 24 hours, and email is used only to reply.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy)[Terms of useThe terms for this website and for Asten builds: you own your writing, a diagnostic is a notice rather than a verdict, and the pre-alpha is provided as is.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/terms)[Cookie noticeThis website sets no cookies and runs no trackers; one optional localStorage key remembers your theme. The hosted pre-alpha sets one strictly necessary cookie for 24 hours.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/cookies)[Asten’s licenseAsten is open source under the MIT License. Your manuscripts are never licensed to Verne, and the Asten and Verne names and logos are not part of the license.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/license)[Acceptable use policyWhat not to do with Asten and this website: work only with texts you may hold, leave other people’s computers alone, and never attack or overload the site.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/acceptable-use)[AI policyAsten’s checks run no AI model. The optional assistant only proposes, runs locally first, needs your own key and consent for a cloud provider, switches off completely, and never trains on your manuscript.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy)[Accessibility statementHow the Asten website aims to meet WCAG 2.2 AA, what has been done so far, what is still limited, and how to tell Verne when something gets in your way.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/accessibility)[Copyright and takedownYou own what you write in Asten. Verne owns this website’s text and original artwork. Here is how to report anything on this site you believe infringes.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/copyright)[Trademark and brand useHow to refer to Asten and Verne: what you can say, how to use the logo and press assets from the brand page, and what needs Verne’s written permission first.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/trademark)[Security and vulnerability disclosureHow to report a security problem in Asten or this website: what to include, what is in scope, the safe harbor for good-faith research, and what happens next.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/security)[Subprocessors and third partiesWho else handles data when you use Asten: no one, for your manuscript. Vercel hosts this website, and an email provider carries the messages you send Verne.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/subprocessors)[Credits and open-source noticesThe fonts, open-source software, and artistic sources behind the Asten website, with their licenses, plus a note on the hieroglyphs and the cartouche name toy.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/credits)[Legal noticeWho publishes Asten and this website: Verne Ltd., registered in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with its registered address, registration, and contact.](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/notice) Updated 25 October 2026. Publisher: Verne Ltd., 8/A, Sher-e-Bangla Road, Zighatola, Dhaka-1209, Bangladesh. --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy Title: Privacy policy: your manuscript stays on your computer · Asten Summary: How Verne handles personal data for Asten: your manuscript stays on your computer, this site sets no cookies, hosted sandboxes are deleted after 24 hours, and email is used only to reply. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal) - Privacy # Privacy policy Updated 25 October 2026Verne Ltd. ## The short version - In the desktop app, your manuscript stays in a SQLite file on your computer. Verne never receives it, and Asten has no account, no sync, and no telemetry. - The desktop app has an optional assistant, off by default. If you switch it on, choose a provider and consent, each message you send goes from your computer straight to that provider and nowhere else. See What the assistant sends. - This website sets no cookies and runs no analytics or ads. Vercel, the host, processes ordinary request data to deliver pages and keep the site safe. - The hosted pre-alpha, if you open it, keeps what you type in a private sandbox on a server Verne runs, under one session cookie, and deletes it all 24 hours after your first visit. - If you email Verne, your address and message are used to reply, then deleted within 24 months unless the conversation continues. - Verne does not sell personal information, does not run a mailing list, and will tell you in the interface before any feature sends data anywhere. ## Sections - [Who is responsible](#who-is-responsible) - [What the assistant sends](#the-assistant) - [Your manuscript and the desk](#the-desk) - [This website](#the-website) - [The hosted pre-alpha](#hosted-pre-alpha) - [When you email Verne](#email) - [The Word and Google Docs add-ins](#add-ins) - [Legal bases under the GDPR and UK GDPR](#legal-bases) - [International transfers](#international-transfers) - [Your rights](#your-rights) - [Children](#children) - [Security](#security) - [Changes to this policy](#changes) - [Contact](#contact) ## Who is responsible This policy explains how personal information is handled when you use Asten, visit this website, or write to Verne. Asten and this website are published by Verne Ltd. (“Verne”), registered in Bangladesh under company registration C-201411-1, at 8/A, Sher-e-Bangla Road, Zighatola, Dhaka-1209, Bangladesh. For this website and for emails you send, Verne is the controller: the organization that decides why and how that information is used. For a manuscript in the desktop app, Verne is neither a controller nor a processor, because it never reaches Verne. For what you type into the hosted pre-alpha, Verne is the controller for the 24 hours it is kept. Verne has not appointed an EU or UK representative. You can reach Verne about anything in this policy at [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). Company details are published at [vernesystems.com/legal/company](https://vernesystems.com/legal/company). ## What the assistant sends Release 0.0.1b has an optional assistant in the desktop app. It is off by default, and with it off the desktop app sends nothing to any AI service. The hosted pre-alpha and the browser desk have no such feature and call no provider. When. Only when you press send in the assistant panel, and only after you have turned on AI providers, enabled one provider, entered your own key (for a cloud provider), and consented to that provider. Consent is tied to the provider’s address: if the address changes, Asten asks again. A cap of zero means no call, and offline mode allows only a model on your own machine. To whom. Only to the provider you chose, directly from your computer over an encrypted connection (plain HTTP only to a model on your own machine). The built-in choices are OpenAI (api.openai.com), Anthropic (api.anthropic.com), Google Gemini (generativelanguage.googleapis.com), Mistral (api.mistral.ai), DeepSeek (api.deepseek.com), Qwen (dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com), Kimi (api.moonshot.ai), GLM (open.bigmodel.cn), Ollama on your machine (127.0.0.1), or an OpenAI-compatible address you enter. Nothing goes to Verne, and Asten refuses redirects so a key cannot follow one to another site. What. Your question and the conversation so far, the assistant’s fixed instructions, the names of the tools it may use, and what those tools return when it uses them: a mark’s code and explanation, settled facts, cast entries, page titles, source summaries. Your manuscript’s wording is left out unless you pick a passage to share, and wording quoted inside a mark is left out unless you attach that mark. Your key is never part of what is sent to a model; it travels only as the provider’s authentication header. See it first. Before sending, you can open the exact request, with your key shown as a placeholder. Every call is also written to a spend ledger on your computer (time, provider, model, token counts, cost estimate), which Verne never sees. Your key. Asten keeps it in your operating system’s credential store (Windows Credential Manager, the Secret Service, the Keychain) or, where there is none, in an encrypted file you unlock with a passphrase. The page you see never receives it back, and it does not appear in logs, errors, exports or the ledger. What the provider does with itOnce a request reaches a provider you chose, that provider’s own terms and privacy policy govern it. Verne is not a party to that and cannot see it. Read the provider’s terms before you switch it on, and use a provider whose terms you accept for the passages you choose to share. ## Your manuscript and the desk The desk keeps your projects, scenes, notes, facts, comments, snapshots, tracked changes, and diagnostics in a SQLite database on the computer where Asten runs. In the desktop app, that file is asten.db in your operating system’s application-data folder. If you run the local API yourself, it uses data/asten.db unless you point ASTEN_DATABASE_PATH somewhere else. Asten has no account, no sync, and no telemetry. The desktop app and the local API do not upload your manuscript, your world notes, or your diagnostics to Verne or to anyone else. Verne never receives a manuscript you keep there, so Verne cannot read it, share it, or train anything on it. The hosted pre-alpha is different: what you type there is kept on Verne’s server for up to 24 hours (see [the hosted pre-alpha](#hosted-pre-alpha)), and it is never used to train anything either. If you copy the database, export a file, or take your work into Word or Google Docs, that copy goes where you send it and is governed by the terms of that place. Deleting or exporting your workBecause Verne holds no copy, Verne cannot delete or export your manuscript for you. Delete a project in the desk, or delete the database file. Export it from the desk whenever you like. Both are entirely under your control. ## This website This website describes Asten. It has no sign-in and stores no projects. - No cookies. The site sets none. See the [cookie notice](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/cookies). - No analytics and no ads. There are no tracking scripts, pixels, or advertising partners. - Self-hosted fonts. Typefaces are served from this site, so loading a page sends no request to a font service. - One optional preference. If you use the light/dark toggle, your browser saves the choice in a localStorage key named asten-theme. It stays in your browser and is never sent to Verne or anyone else. ### Hosting by Vercel The site is hosted by Vercel Inc. When your browser asks for a page, Vercel’s servers process ordinary request data: your IP address, your browser’s user agent, the time, the path requested, and the referring page if your browser sends one. Vercel uses this to deliver pages and to protect the site against abuse, such as attacks and floods of automated traffic. Vercel handles that data under its own terms and privacy policy, including its own retention periods. Verne adds no tracking on top of it and does not use it to profile visitors. ## The hosted pre-alpha The hosted pre-alpha at [asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/) lets you try the Asten workbench without installing anything. Unlike the desktop app, it runs on a server that Verne rents and operates, so what you type there does reach Verne’s server. Use it with the sample novel or with text you do not mind leaving your computer; keep your manuscript in the desktop app. - A private sandbox. Your first visit creates a sandbox of your own: a separate project database that no other visitor can see. It holds the projects, documents, facts and settings you create there. - One cookie. The sandbox is tied to a strictly necessary session cookie, asten_visitor: a random value, HttpOnly, Secure, SameSite=Strict, lasting 24 hours. The server stores only a hash of it. See the [cookie notice](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/cookies). - Deleted after 24 hours. The sandbox, its settings and the cookie’s hash are deleted 24 hours after your first visit, or sooner if you choose About, Start over. There are no backups of sandboxes. - Provider keys stay in your tab. If you type an AI provider key into Settings, it is held in that browser tab’s memory only. It is never sent to the server, and no provider is called in this release. - Request data. The server’s web logs record your IP address, the time, the path requested and your browser’s user agent, to keep the service working and to limit abuse. They are rotated and kept no longer than 14 days. Your IP address is also used, for one hour, to limit how many sandboxes one address can create. - No analytics. The hosted copy runs no analytics, advertising or tracking scripts, and loads nothing from other sites. The host name ends in sslip.io, a public DNS service that turns the name into the server’s address. Your DNS resolver asks it for that address; it receives no cookies and nothing you type. ## When you email Verne If you write to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com), Verne receives your email address, your name if you include it, your message and any attachments, and the technical details that travel with every email, such as the date and the sending server. Verne uses this to read and answer your message. Verne does not add you to a mailing list, does not send you marketing you did not ask for, and never sells or rents your address. Verne keeps your correspondence for as long as it needs to handle your request, then deletes it within 24 months of your last message, unless the conversation continues. Messages are stored with Verne’s business email provider, which handles them on Verne’s behalf; see [subprocessors](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/subprocessors). Please do not email your manuscript. If you need to show Verne a problem, a short passage is almost always enough. ## The Word and Google Docs add-ins The Word task pane and the Google Docs sidebar are optional, and you install them yourself by sideloading. Both talk only to the Asten local API at 127.0.0.1:4317 on your own computer. A passage you file is written into your local project. It is not sent to Verne. The Word task pane loads Office.js from Microsoft, because Word requires that library. That request is between your computer and Microsoft, under Microsoft’s terms. The Docs sidebar runs in Google Apps Script, inside Google’s own service, next to a document Google already holds for you. Asten makes no extra copy of that document on any Verne server. Google’s terms govern Docs and Apps Script. ## Legal bases under the GDPR and UK GDPR If the EU General Data Protection Regulation or the UK GDPR applies to you, these are the legal bases Verne relies on: | Activity | Information | Legal basis | Delivering this website and keeping it secure | Request data processed by Vercel: IP address, user agent, time, path, referrer | Legitimate interests in running a working, secure website | Replying to your email | Your address, your message, and anything you include | Your consent; steps you ask Verne to take before an agreement; or Verne’s legitimate interest in answering correspondence | Running the hosted pre-alpha you open | The asten_visitor cookie’s hash, what you create in your sandbox, and web-server request data | Providing the service you asked for, and legitimate interests in keeping it secure | Remembering your theme | The asten-theme value in your browser | None needed: it never leaves your browser, so Verne does not process it Where Verne relies on legitimate interests, it has weighed them against your rights, and you can object at any time. Where Verne relies on consent, you can withdraw it at any time by writing to Verne. Withdrawing does not affect anything that happened before. ## International transfers Verne is based in Bangladesh. If you email Verne from another country, your message travels to Verne in Bangladesh and is stored by Verne’s business email provider, which may process it in other countries too. Vercel runs a global network, so request data from your visit may be processed in a country other than yours. Vercel’s own terms describe how it protects data it transfers between countries. Bangladesh and some of those countries may not have data protection laws equivalent to those where you live. Verne keeps what it receives to what this policy describes and handles it as described here. ## Your rights Depending on where you live, you may have the right to: - access the personal information Verne holds about you; - have it corrected if it is wrong; - have it deleted; - object to processing based on legitimate interests; - restrict processing while a question about it is resolved; - receive it in a portable format; - withdraw consent, where processing is based on consent; and - complain to a data protection supervisory authority, for example in the country where you live or work. To use any of these rights, write to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). Verne may ask you to confirm the request is yours, for example by replying from the address you originally wrote from. Verne will respond within the time the applicable law allows. In practice, the personal information Verne holds is email correspondence. There is no manuscript on Verne’s side to access, export, or delete; that stays with you. For questions about request data from a visit to this site, write to Verne and Verne will help as far as it can, or contact Vercel directly. ### United States privacy rights If you live in a US state with a consumer privacy law, such as California, you may have the right to know, access, correct, and delete personal information, and to opt out of its sale or sharing. Verne does not sell personal information. Verne does not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. Verne does not collect sensitive personal information. Verne will not treat you differently for exercising your rights. You, or an agent you authorize, can send requests to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). ## Children Asten and this website are not directed at children under 16, and Verne does not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has written to Verne, let Verne know and the correspondence will be deleted. ## Security Your manuscript lives on your computer, so its safety is mostly in your hands. Protect your device and your backups the way you would any private file. The Asten local API binds to the loopback address, 127.0.0.1, by default, so other computers on your network cannot reach it unless you change that setting. This website is served over HTTPS, and its Content Security Policy allows scripts, styles, and fonts only from the site itself. No system is perfectly secure. If you find a weakness, please report it as described on the [security page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/security). ## Changes to this policy The “last updated” date on this page shows when this policy last changed. If Verne changes how personal information is handled, this page will be updated before the change takes effect. Apart from the Office.js request the Word task pane must make, the update check when you press it, and the assistant’s requests to a provider you chose and consented to (see [what the assistant sends](#the-assistant)), Asten sends nothing off your computer. If a future feature would send any other data anywhere, the product will say so in the interface before that feature sends anything. Updating this page alone will never be treated as enough. See the [AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy). ## Contact Questions, requests, and complaints about privacy: [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). By post: Verne Ltd., 8/A, Sher-e-Bangla Road, Zighatola, Dhaka-1209, Bangladesh. The [legal notice](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/notice) has full company details. Questions about this page? Write to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). All policies: [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal). --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/terms Title: Terms of use for the Asten website and builds · Asten Summary: The terms for this website and for Asten builds: you own your writing, a diagnostic is a notice rather than a verdict, and the pre-alpha is provided as is. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal) - Terms # Terms of use Updated 25 October 2026Verne Ltd. ## The short version - You may use this website and run the Asten builds Verne gives you for your own writing. - You own everything you write. Verne claims no rights in it, and Asten never trains on it. - Asten is pre-alpha software, provided as is. Features can change, the hosted copy deletes everything after 24 hours, and a diagnostic is a notice, not a verdict. - These terms are governed by the laws of Bangladesh, but the consumer protections where you live still apply. ## Sections - [About these terms](#about-these-terms) - [What Asten is](#what-asten-is) - [Pre-alpha](#pre-alpha) - [Your writing](#your-writing) - [Diagnostics are notices, not verdicts](#diagnostics) - [Acceptable use](#acceptable-use) - [Verne’s intellectual property](#intellectual-property) - [Feedback](#feedback) - [Third-party services](#third-party-services) - [Disclaimers](#disclaimers) - [Limitation of liability](#limitation-of-liability) - [Governing law](#governing-law) - [Changes to these terms](#changes) - [General](#general) - [Contact](#contact) ## About these terms These terms apply to this website and to any Asten build that Verne Ltd. (“Verne”), gives you. By using the site or running a build, you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use the site or the builds. Two other pages form part of these terms: the [acceptable use policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/acceptable-use), which says what you may not do on this website and the hosted pre-alpha, and the [privacy policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy), which explains how personal information is handled. The Asten software itself is released under the MIT License; the [license page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/license) has its text. If you use Asten for an organization, you confirm that you are allowed to accept these terms on its behalf. ## What Asten is Asten is a local-first writing environment. The desk stores your project in a SQLite file on your computer, and a rule engine marks contradictions in your story’s canon, such as Mira’s hair turning black after chapter 2 settled it as auburn. Asten does not write prose, and it does not run an AI model. This website describes Asten. The hosted pre-alpha keeps a sandbox for 24 hours so you can try Asten; it is not an offer to host your work. Describing a planned feature is not a promise to build it. The [roadmap](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap) says what is planned; only what ships is real. ## Pre-alpha Asten is in early development. Release 0.0.1b is a public pre-alpha: anyone may download the desktop builds or open the hosted copy. - Builds and the hosted copy are provided as is and as available. - Features may be added, changed, or removed, and a pre-alpha build may stop working or be withdrawn. - The hosted copy deletes each sandbox 24 hours after the first visit, keeps no backups, and may be reset or taken offline at any time. Do not keep work there. - There is no service level, uptime promise, or support commitment. - Keep your own backups. Asten keeps snapshots and a history, but a copy on another disk is still the best protection a manuscript can have. ## Your writing You own what you write in Asten: manuscripts, notes, facts, comments, and exports. Verne claims no rights in any of it. These terms give Verne no license to your work, and none is needed, because your work never reaches Verne. Asten never trains any model on your writing, and Verne will never use it to train one. See the [AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy). You are responsible for having the right to hold and use what you import. Importing a file does not change who owns it. ## Diagnostics are notices, not verdicts A diagnostic, such as a mark that Captain Oren gives an order after his settled death in chapter 9, points at a passage and names the rule and the fact it disagrees with. It is a notice for you to weigh. Asten checks only the facts you have confirmed, so it can miss things, and it can flag things you meant on purpose. You decide what to change. You can suppress any rule. You remain the author of your work and the person responsible for what you publish. ## Acceptable use Use the site and Asten lawfully and in line with the [acceptable use policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/acceptable-use). In short: work with texts you have a right to hold, leave other people’s computers alone, and do not attack or overload this website. ## Verne’s intellectual property Verne owns the Asten software, the names “Asten” and “Verne”, the Palette mark, the text of this website, and its original artwork. These terms do not transfer any of that to you. The Asten software is released under the [MIT License](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/license). The [trademark page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/trademark) explains how you may refer to the names and use the logo. The [credits](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/credits) list the third-party fonts and software, which keep their own licenses. ## Feedback If you send Verne ideas, suggestions, or bug reports, Verne may use them to improve Asten without owing you anything, and without any obligation to use them. Please do not send material you need kept confidential as feedback, and please do not send a manuscript. ## Third-party services Some parts of Asten work alongside services Verne does not control: Microsoft Word and Office.js for the Word task pane, Google Docs and Apps Script for the Docs sidebar, any AI provider you connect to the assistant with your own key, and Vercel, which hosts this website. Your use of those services is governed by their own terms and privacy policies, and Verne is not responsible for them. ## Disclaimers To the extent the law allows, this website and Asten are provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, non-infringement, and uninterrupted or error-free operation. In particular, Verne does not promise that Asten will find every contradiction, that every diagnostic is correct, or that a build will never lose data. ## Limitation of liability To the extent permitted by law, Verne is not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential loss arising from your use of this website or Asten, including the loss of a draft that existed only on your computer. To the extent permitted by law, Verne’s total liability for all claims relating to this website or Asten is limited to USD 100. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes any liability that cannot be limited or excluded by law. If you use Asten as a consumer, nothing in these terms affects the protections you have under the consumer laws of the place where you live. ## Governing law These terms are governed by the laws of Bangladesh, and the courts of Dhaka have jurisdiction over any dispute about them. If you are a consumer, the mandatory consumer laws of the country where you live still apply to you, and this choice of law does not take those protections away. Before anything formal, please write to Verne. Most problems are easier to solve in an email. ## Changes to these terms Verne may update these terms as Asten develops. The “last updated” date on this page shows the current version. Changes apply from that date and do not reach back to earlier use. If you keep using the site or a build after a change, the updated terms apply; if you do not accept them, stop using the site and the builds. ## General If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest still applies. If Verne does not enforce a term straight away, it has not given up the right to enforce it later. You may not transfer your rights under these terms to someone else without Verne’s written agreement. ## Contact Questions about these terms: [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). The [legal notice](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/notice) has Verne’s registered address and company details. Questions about this page? Write to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). All policies: [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal). --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/cookies Title: Cookie notice: none here, one in the hosted pre-alpha · Asten Summary: This website sets no cookies and runs no trackers; one optional localStorage key remembers your theme. The hosted pre-alpha sets one strictly necessary cookie for 24 hours. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal) - Cookies # Cookie notice Updated 25 October 2026Verne Ltd. ## The short version - This website sets no cookies and uses no analytics, advertising, or tracking technology. - The hosted pre-alpha, a separate site, sets one strictly necessary session cookie, `asten_visitor`, for 24 hours. - If you switch between the light and dark themes, your browser remembers the choice in one local setting. It never leaves your browser. - There is no consent banner, because nothing here needs your consent. ## Sections - [No cookies](#no-cookies) - [The hosted pre-alpha’s one cookie](#hosted-pre-alpha) - [The one thing stored: your theme](#theme-preference) - [Hosting infrastructure](#hosting) - [Why there is no consent banner](#no-consent-banner) - [How to clear it](#clearing-it) - [Changes](#changes) ## No cookies This website does not set any cookies, its own or anyone else’s. It loads no analytics, advertising, social media, or tracking scripts, and its fonts are served from the site itself rather than from a font service. The Asten desktop app does not use cookies either. There is no sign-in. Your project is a SQLite file on your computer, which is not a cookie and is not sent to Verne. ## The hosted pre-alpha’s one cookie The hosted pre-alpha at [asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io](https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/) is a separate site from this one. It needs one cookie to know which private sandbox is yours. It stores nothing in your browser’s localStorage; your settings are kept with the sandbox on the server. | Name | Purpose | Set by | How long | Sent to anyone? | asten_visitor | Ties your browser to your private sandbox (strictly necessary) | The hosted pre-alpha, HttpOnly, Secure, SameSite=Strict | 24 hours from your first visit | Only to that site. The server keeps a hash of it and deletes it with the sandbox. ## The one thing stored: your theme The site has a light/dark toggle. If you use it, your browser saves the choice in localStorage, a small storage area that belongs to your browser. Unlike a cookie, it is not sent to the server with your requests. | Name | Purpose | Where it is stored | How long | Sent to anyone? | asten-theme | Remembers whether you chose the light or the dark theme | Your browser’s localStorage for this site | Until you clear it | No. It never leaves your browser. If you never use the toggle, nothing is stored. The value holds a theme name and nothing that identifies you. ## Hosting infrastructure The site is hosted by Vercel. Like any host, Vercel may rely on strictly necessary infrastructure mechanisms to deliver pages and protect the site against abuse. For example, if the site is under attack, Vercel may briefly show a browser check that stores a short-lived security token, used only to tell visitors apart from automated traffic. These mechanisms are not used for analytics, advertising, or tracking you across sites. The [privacy policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy#the-website) explains what request data Vercel processes. ## Why there is no consent banner Consent banners exist to ask permission for cookies and trackers that are not strictly necessary. This site sets none, the hosted pre-alpha’s one cookie is strictly necessary for the sandbox you opened, and any security mechanism used by the host is strictly necessary. The theme setting is stored only because you asked for it by pressing the toggle, and it never leaves your browser. There is nothing to consent to, so there is no banner to dismiss. ## How to clear it - Clear site data for this website in your browser’s privacy or site settings. This removes asten-theme and anything else stored for the site. - Or open your browser’s developer tools, find Local Storage for this site, and delete the asten-theme entry. - Private or incognito windows discard it when you close them. ## Changes If this site ever needs a cookie or another stored value, this page will name it, say who sets it and how long it lasts, and be updated before it is used. Questions: [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). Questions about this page? Write to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). All policies: [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal). --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/license Title: Asten is released under the MIT License · Asten Summary: Asten is open source under the MIT License. Your manuscripts are never licensed to Verne, and the Asten and Verne names and logos are not part of the license. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal) - License # Asten’s license Updated 25 October 2026Verne Ltd. ## The short version - Asten is open source under the MIT License: you may use, copy, change, and redistribute it, including commercially. - Keep the copyright and license notice with any copy you pass on. - Your manuscripts are yours. The license gives Verne no rights in them. - The MIT License does not cover the Asten and Verne names or logos. ## Sections - [The MIT License](#mit-license) - [Your work is not licensed to Verne](#your-work) - [Names and logos](#names-and-logos) - [Pre-alpha builds](#pre-alpha-builds) - [Third-party components](#third-party-components) - [How this fits with the terms](#relationship-to-terms) ## The MIT License The Asten source code on [GitHub](https://github.com/ArefinAlter/asten) and the builds Verne publishes, including the desk, the desktop app, the local API, and the Word and Google Docs add-ins, are released under the MIT License. Its full text, which is also the LICENSE file in the repository, follows. Copyright (c) 2026 Verne Ltd. Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. ## Your work is not licensed to Verne Your manuscripts, notes, facts, comments, snapshots, exports, and the local database are yours. The license runs one way, from Verne to you. You grant Verne nothing in your writing, and Asten never trains on it. You may keep, copy, export, publish, and sell what you write with Asten, without credit or payment to Verne. ## Names and logos The MIT License covers the software, not Verne’s trademarks. You may say that your work is based on Asten, but a modified version or a hosted service must not present itself as Asten or as a Verne product. See the [trademark page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/trademark). ## Pre-alpha builds Asten is in early development, and release 0.0.1b is a pre-alpha. A build may stop running, may change between versions, and may be replaced or withdrawn. Verne has no obligation to provide updates, support, or any particular feature. Your project file does not depend on a build. Before a build is replaced or withdrawn, keep the database, or export your work, and you will lose nothing. ## Third-party components Asten and this website include components made by others, such as fonts and open-source libraries. Each keeps its own license, and nothing in this license limits the rights those licenses give you. The [credits](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/credits) list them. ## How this fits with the terms The MIT License governs the software. The [terms of use](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/terms) and the [acceptable use policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/acceptable-use) govern this website and the hosted pre-alpha that Verne runs. Questions: [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). Questions about this page? Write to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). All policies: [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal). --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/acceptable-use Title: Acceptable use policy for Asten · Asten Summary: What not to do with Asten and this website: work only with texts you may hold, leave other people’s computers alone, and never attack or overload the site. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal) - Acceptable use # Acceptable use policy Updated 25 October 2026Verne Ltd. ## The short version - Use Asten with texts you have the right to hold and use. - Do not use Asten’s local API to reach a computer you do not control, and do not attack or overload this website. - Do not impersonate Verne or send false notices. ## Sections - [Who this applies to](#scope) - [Your texts](#your-texts) - [Other people’s computers](#other-computers) - [This website](#this-website) - [Names and notices](#honesty) - [Research tools](#research-tools) - [If this policy is broken](#enforcement) ## Who this applies to This policy applies to anyone who uses this website or the hosted pre-alpha that Verne runs. It is part of the [terms of use](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/terms), and breaking it can end your access to the hosted pre-alpha. Copies of Asten you run yourself are governed by the [MIT License](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/license). ## Your texts Import, file, index, and compile only works you have the right to hold and use: your own writing, works you have permission to use, and material the law where you are lets you use, such as public-domain texts. Asten does not check this for you. Calling a file a research note or a source does not change who owns it. ## Other people’s computers The Asten local API listens on 127.0.0.1:4317, the loopback address, so that only programs on your own computer can reach it. Do not: - scan for, connect to, read, or change an Asten project or local API on a computer you do not control, without its owner’s permission; - trick anyone into exposing their local API, or into installing a modified build or add-in; or - use an Asten add-in to read or file text from a document you are not allowed to access. If you change the address your own local API listens on, you are responsible for who can reach it. ## This website - Do not probe, scan, or test the site for vulnerabilities, except for good-faith research under the [security policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/security). - Do not overload the site with automated requests or try to disrupt it. - Do not try to get around its security measures or reach anything not meant to be public. ## Names and notices - Do not impersonate Verne, or claim to speak for Verne or Asten. - Do not suggest that Verne endorses you or your work; see the [trademark page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/trademark). - Do not send false or misleading copyright, trademark, or security notices. ## Research tools Verne also builds separate research tools. They are not part of Asten, and they are not a license to scrape websites, get around paywalls or access controls, or copy or redistribute copyrighted books. If you use them, follow the law and each source’s own terms. ## If this policy is broken Verne may refuse or end your access to builds, block abusive traffic to this website, or report unlawful activity to the authorities. Verne cannot reach into your computer, and it cannot switch off a database on your disk. To report misuse, write to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). Questions about this page? Write to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). All policies: [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal). --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy Title: AI policy: an editor, never a writer · Asten Summary: Asten’s checks run no AI model. The optional assistant only proposes, runs locally first, needs your own key and consent for a cloud provider, switches off completely, and never trains on your manuscript. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal) - AI policy # AI policy Updated 25 October 2026Verne Ltd. ## The short version - Asten’s checks run no AI model, local or cloud. They are deterministic rules over facts you confirm. - Release 0.0.1b adds an optional assistant to the desktop app. It is off by default, local models come first, a cloud provider needs your own key and your consent, and one switch turns it all off. It only explains, searches and proposes. It never writes your prose or changes your canon without you. - What is sent, when, and to whom is stated below. Your manuscript is never used to train a model, by Verne or by any provider Verne chooses. - Asten will tell you in the interface before this policy changes. ## Sections - [Asten today](#today) - [Principles every AI feature meets](#principles) - [How Verne builds Asten](#how-verne-builds-asten) - [How this policy changes](#changes) ## Asten today Asten’s checks do not run any AI model, on your computer or in the cloud. When Asten marks that Mira’s hair is black in chapter 14 after chapter 2 settled it as auburn, that mark comes from a deterministic rule comparing facts you confirmed. The same project gives the same result every time. Release 0.0.1b adds an optional assistant to the desktop app. The assistant panel answers from Asten’s own tools by default. If you turn on AI providers, choose one, and consent, it can also call that provider’s model to explain a mark, search your canon, summarise a source, or propose a fact for you to confirm. It has ten tools that read or prepare and no tool that edits your manuscript; a request to write, rewrite or continue prose is refused before any provider is contacted, and a reply that reads like new narrative is withheld. [What the assistant sends](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy#the-assistant) lists exactly what leaves your computer, when, and to whom. Asten does not generate prose, and it never will. The tagline is a design rule: let AI be your editor, not your writer. Your words are black ink; Asten only ever writes in red. ## Principles every AI feature meets The assistant in release 0.0.1b is the first optional assisted feature. Further ones, such as proposing facts from your prose for you to confirm, are plans, not promises, and none has a date; see the [roadmap](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap). Every AI feature follows these principles: - Editor, not writer. AI in Asten never writes, rewrites, or continues your prose. - Proposals only. AI output arrives as a proposal: a suggested fact, a possible contradiction, a question. Nothing takes effect until you accept it. - Never silent canon. An AI proposal never becomes a confirmed fact on its own. Only you can confirm it; the assistant has no tool that does. - Local first. Deterministic rules come first, then models that run on your computer (through Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible address on your machine). Nothing leaves your computer unless you decide it should. - Your provider, your key, your consent. Asten sends text to a cloud AI provider only if you choose that provider, use your own account and key, and consent to that provider. Consent is tied to the provider’s address, and the interface shows which provider a request goes to. - A complete switch-off. You can turn every AI feature off in one place (Settings, AI providers, Allow AI providers). Off means no model runs and nothing is sent. Offline mode allows only a model on your own machine, and a spending cap of zero means no call. - No training on manuscripts, ever. Your manuscript will never be used to train or improve a model, by Verne or by any provider Verne chooses. - You can see what is sent. Before a request leaves, you can open it exactly as the provider will receive it, with your key replaced by a placeholder. A local ledger records each call: when, which provider and model, how many tokens, and an estimated cost. If you bring your own providerWhen you connect a provider with your own account, that provider’s terms govern what it does with the text you send. Read them before you turn the feature on. ## How Verne builds Asten Verne may use AI tools in its own work, such as writing code or drafting text. That is outside this policy, with one firm exception: your manuscripts are never part of it. Verne never receives your manuscript, so it cannot be fed into any tool Verne uses. ## How this policy changes If this policy changes, Asten will tell you in the interface first, and this page will show the new date. Consent you gave is tied to a version of the notice: a new version asks again. Turning on any AI feature is always your choice. For the thinking behind this policy, see [Asten and AI](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai) and [AI as editor, not writer](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/ai-editor-not-writer). Questions: [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). Questions about this page? Write to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). All policies: [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal). --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/accessibility Title: Accessibility statement · Asten Summary: How the Asten website aims to meet WCAG 2.2 AA, what has been done so far, what is still limited, and how to tell Verne when something gets in your way. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal) - Accessibility # Accessibility statement Updated 25 October 2026Verne Ltd. ## The short version - Verne aims for this website to meet WCAG 2.2 at level AA. - Pages use real headings, work with a keyboard, show focus clearly, and respect reduced-motion settings. - There has been no independent audit yet. If something blocks you, email Verne; the aim is to reply within 10 business days. ## Sections - [The aim](#our-aim) - [What has been done](#measures) - [Known limitations](#known-limitations) - [The desk](#the-desk) - [Tell Verne about a problem](#feedback) ## The aim Anyone should be able to read about Asten. For this website, Verne’s target is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at level AA. This statement covers the website and describes the goals for the desk. ## What has been done - Structure. Each page has one main heading and real subheadings in order, so you can move through a page by heading. Pages declare English as their language. - Keyboard. Navigation, links, the theme toggle, and the interactive examples can be used with a keyboard alone. - Visible focus. Whatever has keyboard focus is clearly outlined. - Reduced motion. When your system asks for reduced motion, animations stop or are kept to a minimum. - Contrast. Text and controls are designed to meet AA contrast in both the light and the dark theme. - Text alternatives. Meaningful images have text alternatives. Purely decorative artwork is hidden from assistive technology. - Not color alone. Color never carries meaning by itself. Asten’s red-ink marks always come with words or a code. ## Known limitations - Decorative animation. Some pages animate Egyptian motifs when reduced motion is not requested. The animations carry no information, but some visitors may find them distracting; turning on reduced motion in your system settings stops them. - Examples are illustrations. The interactive examples show how Asten behaves, in simplified form. They may not convey everything to a screen reader as well as plain text does. The same ideas are explained in prose on [How it works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works) and the [feature pages](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features). - No independent audit. The site has been checked by Verne, not by an independent auditor, so this statement is a self-assessment. ## The desk The desk is a separate application in early development. Verne’s goals for it are full keyboard operation, a sensible focus order, standard controls that work with screen readers, readable contrast in both themes, and diagnostics that use words and codes, never color alone. Verne does not yet claim a conformance level for the desk. ## Tell Verne about a problem If something on this website or in Asten gets in your way, write to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com) with “Accessibility” in the subject. Please include: - the page address, or the part of Asten you were using; - what you were trying to do, and what happened instead; and - if you are comfortable sharing it, your browser, device, and any assistive technology you use. Verne aims to reply within 10 business days. Questions about this page? Write to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). All policies: [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal). --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/copyright Title: Copyright and takedown notices · Asten Summary: You own what you write in Asten. Verne owns this website’s text and original artwork. Here is how to report anything on this site you believe infringes. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal) - Copyright # Copyright and takedown Updated 25 October 2026Verne Ltd. ## The short version - You own your writing. Asten and Verne claim no copyright in it. - Verne owns the text and the original artwork on this website. - If you believe something on this site infringes your copyright, email Verne with the details listed below. ## Sections - [Your writing](#your-writing) - [Verne’s content](#verne-content) - [The Egyptian artwork](#egyptian-artwork) - [Reporting infringement](#notices) - [Counter-notices](#counter-notices) - [Repeat infringers](#repeat-infringers) ## Your writing Copyright in your manuscripts, notes, and exports stays with you, or with whoever already owned it. A diagnostic that points at your sentence, a fact you confirm, or a passage you file through an add-in gives Verne no claim on your work. Verne never receives it. ## Verne’s content The text, design, illustrations, and logos on this website, and the Asten software, belong to Verne Ltd., except where the [credits](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/credits) say otherwise. All rights are reserved. You may quote short passages with a link back, as the law on quotation and fair use allows. For logos and press assets, see the [brand page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/brand) and the [trademark page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/trademark). ## The Egyptian artwork The ornaments, icons and diagrams on this site are original drawings made by Verne, inspired by Egyptian art of the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms, which is public-domain heritage. The painted plates are public-domain works and CC0 Open Access images from museum collections; Verne cut, graded and arranged them, and claims no rights in the works themselves. Verne’s copyright covers its own drawings, not the ancient works or the motifs themselves. Anyone is free to draw on the same heritage. ## Reporting infringement This website hosts no uploads from visitors, so a notice will usually concern Verne’s own text or artwork. Asten keeps manuscripts only on its users’ computers, which Verne cannot see or change. If you believe material on this site infringes your copyright, email [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com) with “Copyright notice” in the subject, and include: - the URL of the page, and a description of the material; - the copyrighted work you say is infringed, or a representative list if there are several; - your name, postal address, and email address, and, if you act for someone else, whom you represent; - a statement that you believe in good faith that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; - a statement that the information in your notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the owner or are authorized to act for the owner; and - your physical or electronic signature. Typing your full name is enough. Verne will review each notice and, where it is valid, remove or change the material and tell you what was done. ## Counter-notices If material was removed after a notice and you believe that was a mistake, for example because you wrote the quoted text or hold a license to it, email [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com) with “Counter-notice” in the subject. Include the URL, why you believe the removal was a mistake, your contact details, a statement made in good faith, and your signature. Verne will review it and may restore the material. ## Repeat infringers Repeat-infringer policies apply to services that host user content. This website hosts none, and Asten keeps manuscripts on your own computer, so there are no accounts to suspend. If that ever changes, this page will explain how repeat infringement is handled before it does. Please do not send false notices. Knowingly misrepresenting infringement can make you liable, and it breaks the [acceptable use policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/acceptable-use). Questions about this page? Write to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). All policies: [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal). --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/trademark Title: Trademark and brand use guidelines · Asten Summary: How to refer to Asten and Verne: what you can say, how to use the logo and press assets from the brand page, and what needs Verne’s written permission first. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal) - Trademarks # Trademark and brand use Updated 25 October 2026Verne Ltd. ## The short version - “Asten”, the Palette mark, and “Verne” are Verne’s trademarks. - You can refer to Asten accurately, use the press assets from the brand page unaltered, and say your work was written with Asten. - Do not imply that Verne endorses you, put the marks in your own product names or domains, or alter the logo. ## Sections - [Verne’s marks](#marks) - [What is fine without asking](#what-is-fine) - [What needs permission](#what-needs-permission) - [Writing the name](#writing-the-name) - [Asking for permission](#requests) ## Verne’s marks These are trademarks of Verne Ltd.: - the name Asten; - the Palette mark, Asten’s logo; and - the name Verne and Verne’s logo. This page explains how you may use them without asking. It does not grant any license beyond what it describes. ## What is fine without asking - Referring to Asten by name in reviews, articles, tutorials, videos, and conversation, as long as what you say is accurate. - Saying that your book, script, or story was written with Asten. - Using the logos and screenshots from the [brand page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/brand), unaltered, in press coverage and articles about Asten. - Linking to this website using the name Asten. ## What needs permission - Suggesting that Verne sponsors, endorses, or is connected with you, your product, or your work. - Using “Asten”, the Palette mark, or “Verne”, or anything confusingly similar, in the name of your product, company, app, add-in, domain name, or social media account. - Changing the logo: recoloring, stretching, cropping, animating, adding to it, or combining it with another mark. - Using the marks on merchandise, or in advertising for anything other than Asten. - Using the Egyptian artwork from this site as your own branding. ## Writing the name Write “Asten” with a capital A and the rest in lowercase. It is a name, not a verb: your novel was written with Asten; it was not “Astened”. ## Asking for permission For anything this page does not cover, write to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com) with “Trademark” in the subject. Say what you want to do and where. Permission is given only in writing. If you see the marks being misused, Verne would like to hear about it at the same address. Questions about this page? Write to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). All policies: [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal). --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/security Title: Security and vulnerability disclosure · Asten Summary: How to report a security problem in Asten or this website: what to include, what is in scope, the safe harbor for good-faith research, and what happens next. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal) - Security # Security and vulnerability disclosure Updated 25 October 2026Verne Ltd. ## The short version - Report security problems to info@vernesystems.com with “Security” in the subject. - Verne will acknowledge your report within 5 business days and asks for 90 days before public disclosure. - Good-faith research within this policy is welcome, and Verne will not pursue legal action over it. - There is no bug bounty at present. ## Sections - [How to report](#how-to-report) - [In scope](#in-scope) - [Out of scope](#out-of-scope) - [About the local API](#local-api) - [Safe harbor](#safe-harbor) - [What happens next](#disclosure) - [Rewards](#rewards) - [Machine-readable contact](#security-txt) ## How to report Email [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com) with “Security” in the subject line. Please include: - a description of the problem and its likely impact; - the steps to reproduce it, with any proof-of-concept code or screenshots; - the affected URL, or the affected part of Asten with its version or build date and your operating system; and - whether, and how, you would like to be credited. Please do not include anyone else’s personal data or manuscript. If you need to send something sensitive, say so in your first message, and Verne will reply with how to send it. ## In scope - This website. - Asten builds distributed by Verne, including the desk and the desktop app. - The Asten local API. - The Word task pane and the Google Docs sidebar. ## Out of scope - Social engineering, phishing, or physical attacks against Verne or its people. - Denial-of-service attacks, or any test that degrades the website for others. - Services run by third parties, such as Vercel, Microsoft, and Google. Please report those to them. ## About the local API The Asten local API binds to the loopback address, 127.0.0.1:4317, by default, so only software on the same computer can reach it. It can be configured to listen elsewhere; if you do that, put it behind your own access controls. Problems with how the API behaves on loopback, including how it treats requests from web pages open in your browser, are in scope. ## Safe harbor If you research and report in good faith under this policy, Verne will treat your research as authorized, will not pursue or support legal action against you for it, and will work with you to understand and fix the problem. Good faith means you: - test only against your own installation and data, or systems you are authorized to test; - avoid privacy violations, destruction of data, and interruption of service; - access only what you need to show the problem, and stop and report as soon as you have; - do not disclose the problem before Verne has had a reasonable chance to fix it; and - follow the law. This safe harbor covers Verne’s own claims. It cannot bind third parties such as Vercel, Microsoft, or Google. If you are unsure whether something is allowed, ask first. ## What happens next Verne will acknowledge your report within 5 business days, keep you informed, and tell you when the problem is fixed. Please give Verne 90 days from your report before disclosing it publicly, so a fix can reach people first. If a fix needs longer, Verne will explain why and agree a date with you. If a fix ships sooner, Verne is happy to coordinate an earlier disclosure. ## Rewards Verne does not run a bug bounty and does not currently pay for reports. Your help is appreciated all the same. ## Machine-readable contact The contact details in this policy are also published at /.well-known/security.txt on this site, in the standard security.txt format. Questions about this page? Write to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). All policies: [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal). --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/subprocessors Title: Subprocessors and third-party services · Asten Summary: Who else handles data when you use Asten: no one, for your manuscript. Vercel hosts this website, and an email provider carries the messages you send Verne. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal) - Subprocessors # Subprocessors and third parties Updated 25 October 2026Verne Ltd. ## The short version - No third party processes your manuscript for Verne, because Verne never receives it. - Vercel hosts this website. A server Verne rents runs the hosted pre-alpha. Verne’s business email provider carries the messages you send to Verne. - Microsoft and Google are involved only if you choose to use the Word or Google Docs add-ins. - Verne uses no analytics, advertising, payment, or customer-relationship vendors. ## Sections - [The desk](#the-desk) - [Website and email](#website-and-email) - [Only if you choose them](#only-if-you-choose) - [What Verne does not use](#not-used) - [Changes](#changes) ## The desk None. Your manuscript is stored in SQLite on your computer and is never sent to Verne, so no vendor processes it on Verne’s behalf. The optional assistant in release 0.0.1b can send requests to an AI provider you choose with your own key and consent; that provider acts for you, under your own agreement with it, and Verne receives nothing through it. If a future build would send data to any other third party, the interface will say so first, and this page will be updated. ## Website and email | Name | Purpose | Data | Location | Vercel Inc. | Hosting and edge delivery of this website, and protection against abuse | Request data: IP address, user agent, time, path, referrer | United States company with a global edge network | The server provider for the hosted pre-alpha | A virtual server Verne rents and operates, which runs the hosted pre-alpha and its sandboxes | What you create in a sandbox (deleted after 24 hours), the asten_visitor cookie’s hash, web-server request data | May be outside your country; see [international transfers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy#international-transfers) | Verne’s business email provider | Receiving, storing, and sending mail for info@vernesystems.com | Your email address, name, message, attachments, and email metadata | May be outside your country; see [international transfers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy#international-transfers) Each works under its own terms and data protection commitments. The [privacy policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy) explains what is collected and why. ## Only if you choose them | Name | Purpose | Data | Location | Microsoft | Supplies Office.js, which the Word task pane must load, and runs Word itself | Ordinary request data for Office.js; your Word document, under your own agreement with Microsoft | Microsoft’s infrastructure | Google | Runs the Docs sidebar in Google Apps Script, and Google Docs itself | Your document and Apps Script usage, under your own agreement with Google | Google’s infrastructure These are not Verne’s subprocessors in the usual sense. You use them under your own agreements with Microsoft and Google, and Verne receives nothing through them. The add-ins send the passages you file only to the Asten local API on your computer. ## What Verne does not use No analytics, advertising, payment, or customer-relationship (CRM) vendors. No font services, tag managers, or social media widgets. This website’s Content Security Policy allows scripts, styles, and fonts only from the site itself. ## Changes If Verne adds a service that processes personal information, this page will be updated before that service starts. Questions: [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). Questions about this page? Write to [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com). All policies: [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal). --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/credits Title: Credits and open-source notices · Asten Summary: The fonts, open-source software, and artistic sources behind the Asten website, with their licenses, plus a note on the hieroglyphs and the cartouche name toy. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal) - Credits # Credits and open-source notices Updated 25 October 2026Verne Ltd. ## The short version - This website is set in Fraunces, Literata, IBM Plex Mono, Caveat, and Noto Sans Egyptian Hieroglyphs, all under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. - It is built with React, React Router, Vite, and TypeScript. Its social images are rendered at build time with Satori and resvg-js. - The painted plates are public-domain or CC0 works from museum and library collections, credited in the table below. The ornaments and icons are original drawings by Verne. ## Sections - [Fonts](#fonts) - [Software](#software) - [In Asten builds](#in-asten) - [Artwork](#artwork) - [Hieroglyphs and the cartouche toy](#hieroglyphs) ## Fonts | Font | Designer and copyright | License | Fraunces | Undercase Type. © 2020 The Fraunces Project Authors | SIL Open Font License 1.1 | Literata | TypeTogether for Google. © 2017 The Literata Project Authors | SIL Open Font License 1.1 | IBM Plex Mono | IBM. © 2017 IBM Corp. | SIL Open Font License 1.1 | Caveat | Impallari Type, for Google Fonts. © 2014 The Caveat Project Authors | SIL Open Font License 1.1 | Noto Sans Egyptian Hieroglyphs | Google. © 2022 The Noto Project Authors | SIL Open Font License 1.1 The font files are served from this website, packaged by the Fontsource project. The SIL Open Font License allows fonts to be used, studied, modified, and redistributed freely, as long as they are not sold on their own. Its full text is at [openfontlicense.org](https://openfontlicense.org). ## Software | Software | Copyright | License | React and React DOM | Meta Platforms, Inc. and affiliates | MIT | React Router | React Training LLC, Remix Software Inc., and Shopify Inc. | MIT | Vite | VoidZero Inc. and Vite contributors | MIT | TypeScript | Microsoft Corporation | Apache License 2.0 | Satori | Vercel | Mozilla Public License 2.0 | resvg-js | The resvg-js contributors | Mozilla Public License 2.0 Satori and resvg-js run only at build time, to render the images shown when a page is shared. They are not sent to your browser. License texts: [MIT](https://opensource.org/license/mit), [Apache 2.0](https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0), and [MPL 2.0](https://www.mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/). Each package also ships its own copy. ## In Asten builds The desk is built on open-source work too. The main components include SQLite (public domain), Tauri (MIT or Apache 2.0), Axum and Tokio (MIT), SQLx (MIT or Apache 2.0), Tiptap and ProseMirror (MIT), and React (MIT). The assistant adds rustls and ring (Apache 2.0, MIT and ISC-style), reqwest (MIT or Apache 2.0), keyring (MIT or Apache 2.0), and the RustCrypto implementations of Argon2 and ChaCha20-Poly1305 (MIT or Apache 2.0). Importing and exporting Word and Open Packaging files uses quick-xml and zip (MIT). This is not a complete list, and each component’s own license applies. ## Artwork The painted plates on this site are works in the public domain, or images that their holders release under Creative Commons Zero: the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Open Access), the National Gallery of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Yale Center for British Art and the British Library. The others are old enough that no right remains in them, and the libraries and museums that scanned them make no claim over a faithful photograph. Each is cropped, cut from its backdrop where it is an object, graded to one warm light and set on the paper by Verne; nothing is redrawn or generated. The table gives the holder’s own title, date and object number, and the build that makes the files (art/build.py, with art/works.json and art/plates.json) is in the source repository. | Work | Holding institution | Licence | Appears on | [Harvest Scenes, Tomb of Menna](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/548574), facsimile by Charles K. Wilkinson, after a tomb painting of about 1396–1347 BCE, 1930, tempera on paper | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 30.4.44 | Open Access, CC0 | Home, /privacy, /terms and 11 more pages | [Scribe’s Palette and Brushes](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544302), Egyptian, Late Period, 664–332 BCE, wood, ink, reed | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 14.1.393a–d | Open Access, CC0 | Home | [The judgement of the dead in the presence of Osiris, from the Book of the Dead of Hunefer](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_judgement_of_the_dead_in_the_presence_of_Osiris.jpg), Hunefer, scribe, about 1275 BCE, painted papyrus | The British Museum, EA 9901 (photograph via Wikimedia Commons) | Public domain | Home, /legal | [Cloud Study (Early Evening)](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/438642), Simon Denis, about 1786–1806, oil on paper | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003.42.18 | Open Access, CC0 | Home | [Cliffs at Deir el Bahri, Egypt](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/12061), John Singer Sargent, 1890–91, oil on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 50.130.24 | Open Access, CC0 | Home | [Bronze lamp](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/246975), Roman, about 4th century CE, bronze | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 01.17.1 | Open Access, CC0 | Home | [Haremhab as a Scribe of the King](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544692), Egyptian, New Kingdom, about 1328–1314 BCE, granodiorite | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 23.10.1 | Open Access, CC0 | Home | [Ibis blanc ou sacré (Ibis religiosa), plate 7 of Histoire naturelle, Oiseaux](https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-bda9-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99), after Jules-César Savigny, in the Description de l’Égypte, 1809, engraving | Imprimerie impériale, Paris (scan: New York Public Library, via Wikimedia Commons) | Public domain | Home | [Astrolabe](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/923639), Regiomontanus, 1462, copper alloy | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2025.347a–j | Open Access, CC0 | /how-it-works | [Ceiling Decoration](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544554), facsimile by Charles K. Wilkinson, after a tomb ceiling of about 1550–1525 BCE, 1924, tempera on paper | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 30.4.4 | Open Access, CC0 | /features | [Manuscript Illumination with the Evangelist Luke](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/473633), Byzantine, late 13th–early 14th century, tempera and gold on parchment | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.633 | Open Access, CC0 | /features/desk | [Woman Holding a Balance](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johannes_Vermeer,_Woman_Holding_a_Balance,_c._1664,_NGA_1236.jpg), Johannes Vermeer, about 1664, oil on canvas | National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942.9.97 | Open Access, CC0 | /features/canon | [Portrait of a young woman in red](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/547860), Egyptian, Roman Period, 90–120 CE, encaustic on limewood with gold leaf | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 09.181.6 | Open Access, CC0 | /features/cast | [Water Clock Decorated with a Baboon](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/572126), Egyptian, Late Period–Ptolemaic Period, 664–30 BCE, faience | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 17.194.2341 | Open Access, CC0 | /features/time | [General View of the Island of Philae, Nubia, from Egypt and Nubia, volume I](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Louis_Haghe_-_Egypt_and_Nubia,_Volume_I-_General_View_of_the_Island_of_Philae,_Nubia_-_2012.259_-_Cleveland_Museum_of_Art.tif), Louis Haghe, after David Roberts, 1846, tinted lithograph | The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012.259 | Open Access, CC0 | /features/world | [Two men threshing a sheaf, margin of the Luttrell Psalter, folio 74 verso](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Two_men_threshing_sheaf_-_Luttrell_Psalter_%28c.1325-1335%29,_f.74v_-_BL_Add_MS_42130.jpg), English illuminator, about 1325–35, tempera and gold on parchment | The British Library, Add MS 42130 | Open Access, CC0 | /features/compiler | [Pocket set of drawing instruments](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/198857), Peter Dollond, about 1755–60, shagreen case with silver mounts; brass, steel and ivory instruments | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 41.160.67a–l | Open Access, CC0 | /features/packs | [Portrait of a man with a mole on his nose](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/547857), Egyptian, Roman Period, 130–150 CE, encaustic on limewood | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 09.181.2 | Open Access, CC0 | /features/word-and-google-docs | [Interior with Young Woman from Behind](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vilhelm_Hammershoi_-_Interieur_mit_Rueckenansicht_einer_Frau_-_1903-1904_-_Randers_Kunstmuseum.jpg), Vilhelm Hammershøi, 1904, oil on canvas | Randers Kunstmuseum (photograph via Wikimedia Commons) | Public domain | /features/local-first | [Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435904), Pieter Claesz, 1628, oil on wood | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 49.107 | Open Access, CC0 | /ai | [A Lady Writing](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johannes_Vermeer,_A_Lady_Writing,_c._1665,_NGA_46437.jpg), Johannes Vermeer, about 1665, oil on canvas | National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1962.10.1 | Open Access, CC0 | /for/novelists | [Atlas sheet from the Description de l’Égypte](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Description_de_l%27Egypte_-_Atlas_-Flle_4.jpg), after Pierre Jacotin and the Commission des sciences et des arts d’Égypte, about 1800, engraved map | scan: Heidelberg University Library, via Wikimedia Commons | Public domain | /for/worldbuilders | [The Dance Class](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/438817), Edgar Degas, 1874, oil on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987.47.1 | Open Access, CC0 | /for/screenwriters | [Lisbeth Reading](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lisbeth_Reading_%28Carl_Larsson%29_-_Nationalmuseum_-_26295.tif), Carl Larsson, 1904, watercolour, charcoal and tempera on paper mounted on canvas | Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, NMB 2342 | Public domain | /for/fan-fiction | [Barges at Pontoise](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437302), Camille Pissarro, 1876, oil on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979.135.16 | Open Access, CC0 | /for/ai-tinkerers | [Melencolia I](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/360018), Albrecht Dürer, 1514, engraving | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 19.73.85 | Open Access, CC0 | /guide | [The Moneylender and His Wife (detail)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quinten_Massijs_%28I%29_-_The_Moneylender_and_his_Wife_%28detail%29_-_WGA14282.jpg), Quinten Metsys, 1514, oil on wood | Musée du Louvre (reproduction: Web Gallery of Art, via Wikimedia Commons) | Public domain | /compare | [The Garden of the Tuileries on a Spring Morning](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437313), Camille Pissarro, 1899, oil on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992.103.3 | Open Access, CC0 | /download | [The Road from Versailles to Louveciennes](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437685), Alfred Sisley, probably 1879, oil on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 64.154.2 | Open Access, CC0 | /roadmap | [Cyperus papyrus L. (Papyrus Sedge): finished drawing of inflorescence](https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:15547), James Bruce, 18th century, watercolour and gouache over graphite on paper | Yale Center for British Art, B1977.14.9119 | Open Access, CC0 | /journal | [The Bookworm](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carl_Spitzweg_-_%22The_Bookworm%22.jpg), Carl Spitzweg, about 1850, oil on canvas | Museum Georg Schäfer, Schweinfurt (photograph via Wikimedia Commons) | Public domain | /journal/ai-editor-not-writer | [The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437310), Camille Pissarro, 1897, oil on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 60.174 | Open Access, CC0 | /journal/continuity-in-a-long-novel | [Portable diptych sundial](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/188849), Hans Tröschel the Elder, about 1598, ivory, brass | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 03.21.38 | Open Access, CC0 | /journal/story-time-and-reading-order | [Miniature Relief of a Saint Luke at His Writing Table](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/467970), German, 1200–1225, wood, polychromy, gilding | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 41.190.237 | Open Access, CC0 | /journal/do-you-need-a-story-bible | [The Bedroom](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vincent_van_Gogh_-_The_Bedroom_-_1926.417_-_Art_Institute_of_Chicago.jpg), Vincent van Gogh, 1889, oil on canvas | The Art Institute of Chicago, 1926.417 | Public domain | /journal/local-first-writing | [Glossy Ibis, plate 387 of The Birds of America](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:387_Glossy_Ibis.jpg), John James Audubon, 1827–38, hand-coloured aquatint and engraving | scan: University of Pittsburgh, via Wikimedia Commons | Public domain | /glossary | [Portrait of the Boy Eutyches](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/547951), Egyptian, Roman Period, 100–150 CE, encaustic on wood | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 18.9.2 | Open Access, CC0 | /faq | [Thot Ibiocéphale (Dieu des Lettres) à Philae](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/287180), Maxime Du Camp, April 1850, salted paper print from a paper negative | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005.100.376.117 | Open Access, CC0 | /name | [Morning, An Overcast Day, Rouen](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437308), Camille Pissarro, 1896, oil on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980.21.1 | Open Access, CC0 | /about | [Portrait of an elderly lady with a gold wreath](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/547859), Egyptian, Roman Period, 100–125 CE, encaustic on limewood | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 09.181.5 | Open Access, CC0 | /contact | [Inkwell](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/556693), Egyptian, Middle Kingdom, about 2051–1981 BCE, wood | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 31.3.59 | Open Access, CC0 | /brand | [Cloud study](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/727706), John Constable, 1830–35, watercolor over graphite | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016.589 | Open Access, CC0 | /404 | [Sunset Sky](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/11326), John Frederick Kensett, 1872, oil on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 74.30 | Open Access, CC0 | Home The ornaments, icons, friezes and diagrams are original SVG drawings by Verne. 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All policies: [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal). --- URL: https://asten-writing.vercel.app/notice Title: Legal notice (imprint) for Asten · Asten Summary: Who publishes Asten and this website: Verne Ltd., registered in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with its registered address, registration, and contact. - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/) - [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal) - Legal notice # Legal notice Updated 25 October 2026Verne Ltd. ## The short version - Asten and this website are published by Verne Ltd., registered in Dhaka, Bangladesh. - The quickest way to reach Verne is info@vernesystems.com. ## Sections - [Publisher](#publisher) - [Responsible for content](#responsible-for-content) - [Dispute resolution](#dispute-resolution) - [Hosting](#hosting) - [Other legal pages](#other-pages) ## Publisher - Product: Asten, a local-first writing environment - Publisher: Verne Ltd. - Registered address: 8/A, Sher-e-Bangla Road, Zighatola, Dhaka-1209, Bangladesh - Company registration: C-201411-1 - Email: [info@vernesystems.com](mailto:info@vernesystems.com) - Website: [vernesystems.com](https://vernesystems.com) - Company details: [vernesystems.com/legal/company](https://vernesystems.com/legal/company) - Asten website: [asten-writing.vercel.app](https://asten-writing.vercel.app) ## Responsible for content Verne Ltd., at the address above, is responsible for the content of this website. 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