Design Narratives, Build Legends

A personal knowledge management tool designed specifically for worldbuilding and creative writing.

Warning: Lore Designer is currently in a Pre-Alpha phase. The application is not ready for production use and may contain bugs. Always back up your data.

Lore Designer is an Offline-First desktop application that helps writers and game developers organize their stories. It bridges the gap between generic note-taking apps (Obsidian, Notion) and rigid writing software (Scrivener).

• User Owns Their Data: Everything is stored as plain text files (.md, .toml, .json) on your local drive. No hidden databases.
• No Lock-in: You can open your project folder with any text editor (VS Code, Notepad, Vim) and it will remain perfectly readable.
• Performance: Built to handle thousands of files without lag.

Lore Designer projects are just standard folders on your computer. However, the application uses three special components to manage your project logic without polluting your content.

graph TD
    subgraph Project Folder
        Manifest["Project.lore<br>(Identity & Metadata)"]
        Ignore[".loreignore<br>(Exclusion Rules)"]

        subgraph System
            Internal[".lore/<br>(Settings & Cache)"]
        end

        subgraph Content
            Files["Characters, Locations, Story...<br>(User Markdown Files)"]
        end
    end

    Manifest -->|Defines| Project_Identity
    Ignore -->|Filters| Files
    Files -->|Indexed by| Internal

1. The Manifest (.lore):

   • It is a simple TOML file that gives your project an identity.
   • It contains the project UUID, version, and basic metadata.
   • Example: MyFantasyWorld.lore

2. The Filter (.loreignore):

   • Works exactly like .gitignore.
   • Tells Lore Designer which files to ignore during indexing (e.g., temporary files, build outputs, or system files).
   • Keeps your workspace clean and performant.

3. The Internal Folder (.lore/):

   • This is where the app stores its own data, separate from your creative content.
   • Contains settings.toml (editor preferences), trash/ (safeguard against accidental deletion), and search indexes.
   • Note: You generally don't need to touch this folder manually.

While Lore Designer is flexible, a typical project structure looks like this:

MyFantasyWorld/
├── MyFantasyWorld.lore      # Project Manifest
├── .loreignore              # Ignore rules
├── .lore/                   # App configurations (Hidden)
│   ├── settings.toml
│   └── trash/
├── Characters/
│   ├── Hero.character.md
│   └── Villain.character.md
├── Locations/
│   └── Capital.location.md

Your content is stored in Markdown with YAML Frontmatter. This makes it machine-processable but human-readable.

---
type: character
name: 'Elandra Vosh'
archetype: 'The Reluctant Hero'
status: active
---

# Elandra Vosh

Character biography and notes go here using standard Markdown...

I'm are currently working towards the v1.0 MVP.

• Workspace Management: Create, open, and manage projects.
• File System Watcher: Robust detection of file changes.
• Markdown Editor: Rich text editing with specialized "Inspector" panels.
• Templating System: Custom templates for characters and locations.

For a detailed technical roadmap, please refer to ROADMAP.md.

This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. See the LICENSE file for details.

@iriata18: for the application logo.

Tauri Team: for the Tauri framework that powers Lore Designer.