DeepQuill Complete Guide

1. What DeepQuill Is

DeepQuill is a desktop novel writing environment with local-first storage, manuscript structure tools, entity tracking, snapshots, semantic search, and optional AI-assisted workflows.

• Write and revise scenes in a structured manuscript tree.
• Track characters and locations in Codex and Entity panels.
• Visualize interactions in Entity Constellation.
• Save revision milestones using snapshots and compare drafts.
• Use integrated find/replace, todos, grammar tools, and export workflows.

2. Getting Started

2.1 Welcome Dialog

When DeepQuill starts, the Welcome dialog is your launch point.

• Create New Project: Start a new manuscript project.
• Open Existing Project: Open a local DeepQuill project file.
• Import From...: Import content from supported importer plugins.
• Show Tutorial: Launch the built-in onboarding walkthrough.
• Recent Projects: Reopen one of your last projects quickly.

2.2 Setup Wizard (First-run Setup)

The setup wizard helps configure your environment with sane defaults.

• Welcome: short overview of core capabilities.
• NER setup: configure entity recognition behavior.
• LLM setup: choose local/cloud AI usage mode.
• Appearance: choose theme preferences.
• Telemetry: opt in or out of anonymous usage analytics.
• Complete: review and apply your selections.

3. Workspace Anatomy

DeepQuill uses a panel-based workspace. Panels can be shown, hidden, pinned, auto-hidden, or popped out.

4. Menu Bar And Commands

4.1 File

• New Project
• Open Project
• Save and Save As...
• Export...
• Preferences
• Exit (or Quit on macOS app menu)

4.2 Edit

• Undo, Redo
• Cut, Copy, Paste, Select All

4.3 View

• Actual Size, Zoom In, Zoom Out
• Panels submenu for panel visibility
• Navigation submenu for Back/Forward movement
• Debug: reload, force reload, developer tools, IPC logger
• Reset Workspace, Toggle Fullscreen

4.4 Plugins

• Manage Plugins opens plugin management UI.

4.5 Help

• Documentation: opens this page.
• Restart Tutorial: restarts guided onboarding.
• About DeepQuill: version, runtime, and licenses.

5. Manuscript Sidebar

The Manuscript panel is your structural map of the project: manuscript, parts, chapters, and scenes.

5.1 Core actions

• Create chapters/scenes from inline plus buttons.
• Rename nodes inline.
• Delete nodes with a confirmation dialog.
• Drag-and-drop reorder (with valid parent checks).
• Select any node to load content in Editor.

5.2 Visual helpers

• Scene preview tooltips on hover.
• Chapter previews and scene count indicators.
• Entity pills showing key entities per scene/chapter.
• Project settings access from sidebar header controls.

6. Editor

The Editor panel is where scene text is authored and revised.

• Scene content loads when selected from the Manuscript sidebar.
• Text changes integrate with save flow, snapshots, search, and analysis tools.
• Supports spell checking and grammar tooling (depending on settings).
• Supports highlight/navigation targets from Find, Constellation, and trait evidence links.

7. Codex Panel

Codex is the entity management hub for characters and locations.

7.1 Tabs and filtering

• Characters and Locations tabs.
• Archive tab appears when archived entities exist.
• Sort controls: alphabetical or frequency.
• Occurrence mode cycling for frequency display style.

7.2 Entity actions

• Create new entity manually.
• Edit fields and aliases.
• Archive/unarchive entities.
• Pop out Codex to its own window.

8. Entity Info Panel

The Entity Info panel provides detailed profile editing for a single entity.

• View and edit entity metadata and profile content.
• Manage portrait/image selection where applicable.
• Review related references and contextual details.
• Useful for deep character/location refinement outside the list view.

9. Entity Constellation

The Entity Constellation panel visualizes relationships between entities as a graph.

9.1 Graph interaction

• Pan/zoom graph with zoom controls and reset.
• Select focal entities from graph nodes or entity selector.
• Use quick filters (All, Main Cast, Strong Bonds).
• Filter by shared scene count and chapter ranges.

9.2 Relationship layers

• Connection legend toggles: dialog, conflict, cooperation, action, pending.
• Ray focus mode for scene-level interaction review.
• Scene marker click can navigate directly into the related manuscript scene.
• Supports popout window mode.

10. Find And Replace

10.1 Quick Find Bar

• Compact inline search UI for immediate searching.
• Live search state and grouped results popup.
• Enter can open expanded Find and Replace panel.

10.2 Find Results Popup

• Results grouped by scene.
• Provider status indicators (loading/ready/error).
• Click a result to navigate to exact location.

10.3 Find And Replace Panel

• Search options: case-sensitive, whole-word, regex.
• Scope selector: current scene or entire project.
• Replace one or replace all.
• Supports keyboard navigation and result selection.

11. Snapshots And Diff

Snapshots are DeepQuill revision checkpoints. Use them for milestone saving and safe experimentation.

11.1 Snapshot actions

• Create snapshot with name and optional description.
• Rename and delete snapshots.
• Switch to snapshots (with auto-commit flow when needed).
• Compare one snapshot with current draft, or compare two snapshots.

11.2 Snapshot Diff Panel

• Shows textual differences between selected sources.
• Includes summary counts and refresh/export support.
• Can be launched directly from comparison controls.

11.3 Reset to active snapshot

• Double-click active snapshot to open reset flow when there are uncommitted changes.
• Reset dialog explains impact before applying.

12. Todos Panel

Todos capture actionable writing tasks with entity/chapter/scene linkage.

• Create todos from free text plus optional hashtag attachments.
• Autocomplete hashtags for scenes, chapters, characters, and locations.
• Quick-add current scene/chapter attachment from context button.
• Toggle complete, edit text/attachments, and delete with confirmation.
• Filter todos by clicking attachment pills.

13. Pending Traits Panel

Pending Traits helps you review AI-extracted trait suggestions before they are finalized.

• Traits are grouped by entity and trait field.
• Approve/reject at individual or bulk levels (where available).
• Evidence popovers show supporting text excerpts.
• Click evidence to navigate to original scene context.
• Useful for keeping character trait data accurate over time.

14. Status Bar And Activity Dock

14.1 Status bar modules

• Change counter: shows changes since last snapshot.
• Word count: live count with hover stats popup.
• Draft toggle: quickly enable/disable Draft mode.
• Operation indicators: background operation state feedback.
• Plugin status items: plugin-defined status entries.

14.2 Activity dock (auto-hide panels)

• Shows icons for auto-hidden panels.
• Hover/click to peek panel content and pin if needed.
• Keeps workspace compact while preserving quick access.

15. Project Settings

Project Settings apply to the currently open manuscript project.

15.1 Metadata tab

• Author name, author info, genre.
• Expandable contact information block (email, phone, address, website, agent).

15.2 Publishing tab

• Comparable titles and market-positioning notes.

15.3 Entity Detection tab

• NER sensitivity preset (low/medium/high).
• Danger-zone reset for project-level NER data.

15.4 Goals tab

• Target word count and target completion date.
• Progress preview and estimated words/day pace.

16. Preferences

Preferences are global app-level settings.

16.1 General

• Auto-save behavior and interval.
• Telemetry and privacy controls.

16.2 Editor

• Auto-zoom behavior.
• Spell-check toggle.

16.3 Appearance

• Theme display options.
• Entity highlighting style and color presets.

16.4 LLM Settings

• Local AI model management and download controls.
• Cloud provider configuration (OpenRouter).
• Service status panel and routing behavior.
• Performance, power, and fallback settings.

16.5 Logging

• Category/component log level tuning for diagnostics.

16.6 Semantic Search

• Search threshold, result limits, cache size, and indexing controls.
• Chunk size/overlap tuning for semantic indexing behavior.

16.7 NER Models

• Download/delete model bundles and review disk-space impact.

16.8 Plugins

• Enable/disable/uninstall installed plugins.
• Open marketplace and check for plugin updates.

16.9 Advanced

• Open logs folder and diagnostics helpers.

17. Import And Export

17.1 Import

• Import From... opens importer selection.
• Choose importer type and then file source (for file-based importers).
• Importer capabilities depend on installed importer plugins.

17.2 Export

• Export formats include .txt, .docx, and Google Docs workflow.
• Export scope: full manuscript or selected chapters.
• Title page options, author/contact inclusion, and formatting options.
• Google Docs mode supports auth flow and folder selection.

18. Plugins And Marketplace

18.1 Marketplace dialog

• Browse available marketplace plugins.
• Search by name, author, description, or tags.
• Install with progress feedback and retry on failures.

18.2 Installed plugin management

• Enable/disable each installed plugin.
• Open plugin-specific settings page if provided.
• Uninstall plugins with confirmation.
• Check all plugins for updates.

18.3 Plugin UI integration

• Plugins can add status bar items, settings pages, and custom panel content.
• Some plugin panels appear in dockview layout like built-in panels.

19. About, Logs, And Feedback

19.1 About DeepQuill

• Version, runtime details, and technology stack.
• Open-source dependency license browser with package search.
• System info summary for troubleshooting.

19.2 Feedback report dialog

• Submit issue description with optional screenshot attachment.
• Designed for bug reports and quality feedback.

19.3 Logs

• From Preferences advanced options, open the logs folder for diagnostics.
• Useful when reporting crashes, plugin issues, or import/export errors.

20. Keyboard Shortcuts

These are the core menu shortcuts available by platform.

20.1 Common

• New Project: Ctrl+N / Cmd+N
• Open Project: Ctrl+O / Cmd+O
• Save: Ctrl+S / Cmd+S
• Save As: Ctrl+Shift+S / Cmd+Shift+S
• Export: Ctrl+E / Cmd+E
• Preferences: Ctrl+, / Cmd+,

20.2 Editing

• Undo: Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z
• Redo: Ctrl+Y / Cmd+Shift+Z
• Cut/Copy/Paste: standard platform shortcuts.
• Select All: Ctrl+A / Cmd+A

20.3 View and debugging

• Reset Zoom: Ctrl+0 / Cmd+0
• Zoom In/Out: Ctrl+Plus, Ctrl+- (or Cmd variants)
• Developer Tools: F12 (Windows/Linux) or Alt+Cmd+I (macOS)
• Fullscreen: F11 (Windows/Linux) or Ctrl+Cmd+F (macOS)

21. Privacy, Data, And Backups

21.1 Data locality

• Your manuscript project data is stored locally in your project files.
• Cloud AI use is optional and depends on your explicit provider configuration.
• Telemetry is optional and controlled from setup/preferences.

21.2 Recommended safety practices

• Create snapshots before major revisions.
• Export milestone drafts (.docx or .txt) for external backup.
• Keep copies of project directories in your own backup system.

22. Troubleshooting

22.1 Search results look empty

• Verify query spelling and scope (scene vs project).
• Check case/whole-word/regex toggles.
• Open full Find panel for grouped result context.

22.2 AI features not available

• Open Preferences > LLM Settings and check Service Status.
• Install/download required local model or configure cloud provider.
• Check power/performance settings if processing is paused.

22.3 Entity tools not updating

• Verify NER settings and model availability.
• Review Pending Traits and Codex for unresolved items.
• Try reopening the panel or restarting the app if panel state is stale.

22.4 Export/import issues

• Confirm file permissions and destination availability.
• For Google Docs export, confirm authentication and folder selection.
• For importer plugins, verify plugin is installed and enabled.

22.5 Need support details

• Open logs folder from Preferences (Advanced).
• Use Help > About DeepQuill for system/runtime information.
• Send a feedback report with steps to reproduce and optional screenshot.