# Asten > 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. Key facts: - Asten is a writing environment for novels, screenplays, and other long fiction. Its slogan is “Let AI be your editor, not your writer.” - It never generates prose. Its checks run no AI model: they are fifteen deterministic rules over facts the author confirms and plain attributes read from the page (for example CANON-E013 attribute contradiction, CANON-E101 life after a settled death, CANON-E201 story time stepping backward inside a continuous run). - It is local-first: the project is a SQLite file on the author’s computer. No account, no sync, no telemetry. Manuscripts are never used to train models. Release 0.0.1b adds an optional, off-by-default assistant in the desktop app that can call a model the author chooses, with their own key and consent, and never writes prose. - Asten 0.0.1b is a public pre-alpha: unsigned desktop builds for Windows x64 and Linux x64 at https://github.com/ArefinAlter/asten/releases/tag/v0.0.1b, and a hosted copy at https://asten.103.191.50.32.sslip.io/ that keeps a private sandbox per visitor for 24 hours. macOS comes later. - Asten is published by Verne (Verne Ltd., Dhaka, Bangladesh): https://vernesystems.com - The name Asten is another name for Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing. ## Product - [Home](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/): 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. - [How it works](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/how-it-works): 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. - [Features](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features): The desk, canon checks, cast, two clocks, an optional world, method packs, Word and Google Docs guests, and local-first files. - [AI stance](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai): 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. - [Compare](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/compare): How Asten differs from AI story generators, word processors, manuscript organizers, and worldbuilding wikis, and when you might want one of those instead. - [Get Asten](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/download): 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. - [Roadmap](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/roadmap): What Asten does today, what is planned next, what comes later, and the things it will never do. No dates are given. ## Features - [The desk](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/desk): 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. - [Canon checks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/canon): 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. - [Cast](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/cast): 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. - [Two clocks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/time): 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. - [World](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/world): 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. - [The compiler](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/compiler): 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. - [Method packs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/packs): 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. - [Word & Google Docs](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/word-and-google-docs): 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. - [Local-first](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/features/local-first): 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. ## Who it is for - [Novelists](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/novelists): 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. - [Worldbuilders](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/worldbuilders): 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. - [Screenwriters](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/screenwriters): 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. - [Fan-fiction writers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/fan-fiction): 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. - [AI tinkerers](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/for/ai-tinkerers): 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. ## Journal - [Journal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal): Essays and guides on keeping a long story consistent, flashbacks and story time, story bibles, local-first writing, and using AI as an editor. - [Let AI be your editor, not your writer](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/ai-editor-not-writer): 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. - [How to keep continuity in a long novel](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/continuity-in-a-long-novel): 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. - [Story time vs. reading order: flashbacks without contradictions](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/story-time-and-reading-order): Every story has two clocks: when things happen and when the reader learns them. How to use flashbacks, frames, and parallel timelines without contradictions. - [Do you need a story bible? Gardeners, architects, and the space between](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/do-you-need-a-story-bible): 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. - [Why your manuscript should live on your own computer](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/journal/local-first-writing): 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. ## Reference - [Glossary](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/glossary): Plain definitions of canon, facts, modality, diagnostics, story time, reading order, story bibles, method packs, and other words used in Asten. - [FAQ](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/faq): 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. - [The record](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/guide): 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. - [The name](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/name): 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. ## Company - [About](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/about): 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. - [Brand](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/brand): The Asten brand: the Palette mark, the scribe’s pigments, typography, registers, motion, voice, and downloadable logo files for press. - [Contact](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/contact): Write to Verne about Asten: pre-alpha feedback, press, partnerships, security reports, accessibility problems, or legal notices. ## Legal - [Legal](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/legal): Every Asten policy in one place: privacy, terms, cookies, license, acceptable use, AI policy, accessibility, copyright, trademark, security, and the imprint. - [Privacy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/privacy): 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. - [Terms](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/terms): 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. - [Cookies](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/cookies): 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. - [License](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/license): 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. - [Acceptable use](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/acceptable-use): 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. - [AI policy](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/ai-policy): 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. - [Accessibility](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/accessibility): 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. - [Copyright](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/copyright): 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. - [Trademarks](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/trademark): 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. - [Security](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/security): 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. - [Subprocessors](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/subprocessors): 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. - [Credits](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/credits): 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. - [Legal notice](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/notice): Who publishes Asten and this website: Verne Ltd., registered in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with its registered address, registration, and contact. ## Optional - [Full text of every page](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/llms-full.txt): the whole site as plain Markdown. - [Sitemap](https://asten-writing.vercel.app/sitemap.xml)