CodexStudio
The Guide

How CodexStudio works

A quick tour of everything from your first chapter to a finished, continuity-perfect draft.

1. Getting started

Every story begins on your writing desk — the dashboard where all your books live.

  1. 1Create a free account with your email, and add a pen name if you'd like a public-facing identity.
  2. 2Click New project and give your book a title, genre and a one-line synopsis.
  3. 3Already have a draft? Use Import to drop in a .docx, .txt or .pdf — it's split into chapters and its details are extracted for you.

2. Plan with the Blueprint

The Blueprint is your bird's-eye view: a logline at the top, acts across the board, and chapter cards you can shape before you draft.

codexstudio · story blueprint
2. Plan with the Blueprint
  1. 1Write a logline — your story's north star — then flesh out each act's pitch.
  2. 2Add chapter cards under any act, set a status (Planned / Drafting / Done) and slide the tension marker.
  3. 3Drag chapters between acts to reshape your structure, or switch to the outline view.
  4. 4Stuck? Hit AI: Expand to turn a logline into acts, or an act into chapters.

3. Detail-plan chapters with beats

Before you write a scene, sketch it out. The Beat / Scene Planner lets you list a chapter's beats as a simple, tickable checklist — with your logline, act and summary right there for context.

codexstudio · beat planner
3. Detail-plan chapters with beats
  1. 1Open Beats from the manuscript toolbar on any chapter.
  2. 2Add beats in the order they'll happen, and tick each one off as you draft it.
  3. 3Reorder or remove beats as the scene takes shape.
  4. 4Short on ideas? Let 'AI: Suggest beats' draft a plan from your logline and chapter summary.

4. Write & auto-highlight

The Manuscript view is a focused, Word-class editor. As you write, CodexStudio recognises the details that matter.

codexstudio · manuscript
4. Write & auto-highlight
  1. 1Draft in the centre canvas — everything autosaves as you type.
  2. 2Flip on Highlight details to see characters, weapons, places and objects colour-coded in your prose.
  3. 3Click any highlight to edit that detail — the update reflects across every chapter instantly.
  4. 4Use the toolbar for headings, styles, lists and links, plus native spellcheck.

5. The Storyboard Codex

The Codex is your story's living memory — a searchable board of every vital detail.

codexstudio · storyboard codex
5. The Storyboard Codex
  1. 1Browse detail cards grouped by type: characters, weapons, locations, objects, factions and more.
  2. 2Search or filter by type to find anything in seconds.
  3. 3Toggle Included to mark which details have made it into your draft.
  4. 4Add your own custom detail types with their own colours — and mark a type as a Kit (like a Med Kit or grab-bag) to give it a contents list.

6. AI Detail Scan & sensitivity

Let the AI read a chapter and surface the details worth tracking — with you in control of how much it captures.

  1. 1Open AI Scan from the studio toolbar to sweep the current chapter.
  2. 2Choose a sensitivity: Key details only, Balanced, or Everything.
  3. 3Prefer to review first? Switch to 'Review first' and tick exactly which details enter your Codex.
  4. 4Run Proofread anytime for a spelling and grammar pass.

7. Loadouts & Gear Sync

For action, survival, fantasy and historical fiction, the loadout engine tracks every item, arrow, magazine and ration your characters carry.

codexstudio · loadouts
7. Loadouts & Gear Sync
  1. 1Add owners (characters, vehicles or buildings) and give them gear, ammo, food and water.
  2. 2Ammo is any consumable type — 5.56mm rounds, shotgun shells, arrows or musket balls — with a capacity for magazines and quivers.
  3. 3Mark a store like an armoury or quiver as a stock source so kit drawn from it is deducted automatically.
  4. 4Build a Kit in your Codex (say a Med Kit with 6 bandages and 2 tourniquets) — when a character picks it up, its contents auto-fill their loadout as a tick-off checklist.
  5. 5Type a plain-English note — 'fired 30 rounds', 'loosed a dozen arrows', 'used a bandage from the med kit' or 'restocked the med kit' — and let it update the counts and kit checklists.
  6. 6Shared a kit with the whole squad? A group line like 'the three of them grabbed a med kit' lets you tick exactly who receives one.
  7. 7Use Sync gear on a chapter to scan the scene, and watch for low-stock and continuity warnings.

8. Branching & CYOA

Writing a choose-your-own-adventure? Switch a project to Branching mode and build interactive paths.

  1. 1Toggle Linear ↔ Branching from the Blueprint header (your data is kept either way).
  2. 2Give any section choices, each linking to an existing or brand-new section.
  3. 3Open the visual Map to see your whole story as a node-and-arrow graph, with Start, endings and orphans flagged.

9. Save & export

Your work is always yours.

  1. 1Everything autosaves — you'll see 'All changes saved' in the header.
  2. 2Export your manuscript and codex whenever you want to take them elsewhere.
  3. 3Upload cover art to each project to make your desk feel like a real bookshelf.

Ready to start writing?

Your first project takes less than a minute to create.