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Projects

What a project is

A project is a folder on your disk. It holds all the book, character, and metadata files. No "cloud database" — everything is right there in the file system.

Project folder layout:

My Novel/
├── books/
│   └── kniga-pervaya/              # Book folder (slug)
│       ├── BOOK.md                 # Book AI guide (edited in the app or by hand)
│       ├── structure/              # Scenes (content.md files)
│       ├── characters/             # Characters for this book
│       └── .internal/              # AI service data: sessions, traces, workspaces
├── .internal/                      # Project service data (e.g. proofreading config)
├── project.json                    # Project metadata
└── project.db                      # Local database (search, statistics)

Each scene's content lives in a content.md file — plain Markdown you can read and edit in any text editor.

books/<slug>/BOOK.md is the book's AI guide. It contains a plot summary, character descriptions, and stylistic notes. You can edit it in the app (AI Copilot panel → Knowledge tab → AI guide) or by hand in any text editor.

Backups are stored separately from the project folder, in Writer Studio's system config directory. See Data safety.

Create a project

From the welcome screen (on first launch or when no project is open):

  • Click "New project"

From the Toolbar:

  • Project menu → "New project"

From the command palette (Cmd+Shift+P):

  • Type "New project"

In the dialog, specify:

  • Project name — shown in the UI and used as the folder name
  • Location — the parent folder where the project will be created

Open a project

From the welcome screen:

  • Click "Open project" and pick the project folder

From the Toolbar:

  • Project menu → "Open project..."

From the command palette:

  • Type "Open project"

Recent projects

Writer Studio remembers projects you've recently opened. To access them:

  • Welcome screen → "Recent" tab
  • Toolbar → project menu → "Recent"
  • Command palette → "Navigation" category → recent projects

Remove a project from the recent list: the "Remove from recent" button next to the entry (this does not delete the project on disk).

Close a project

  • Command palette → "Close project"

After closing, the welcome screen opens.

Files on disk

Because a project is a regular folder, you can:

  • Make backups by simply copying the folder
  • Open scene content.md files in any editor
  • Move the project to another computer or to cloud storage (Dropbox, iCloud, etc.)
  • Keep the project in a Git repository

Don't manually edit files inside .internal/ — neither inside the book folder nor at the project root. These are service files managed by Writer Studio. You don't need to touch project.db either — the database is rebuilt as needed.