Story Builder documentation

AI capture

AI capture pulls characters and other records out of your own manuscript. It reads a passage you have already written, proposes the characters, creatures, organizations, events and entries it finds, and lets you accept, edit or discard each one. Nothing is added to your project until you save it.

How do I set up AI capture? #

  1. Add your own provider key. In your account Settings, open AI provider. Choose a Provider (Anthropic, OpenAI or Google) and a Model, paste your API key, and save. Leave Test the connection when saving on to check that the key works.
  2. Switch the module on. In the project, open Settings → Modules and turn on Capture (see modules). It appears in the sidebar.
  3. Check your role. You need the Use AI Assistant permission, and permission to create each kind of record you want to capture. Capture never lets you create a record your role could not create by hand.

How do I extract characters from a passage? #

  1. Open Capture, paste or write a passage in the box, and select Read the passage. Reading usually takes fifteen to forty seconds.
  2. Review the proposals. Each one is marked in Your passage beside the words it came from. Edit a name or a description, untick what you do not want, or use Select all and Select none.
  3. Select Save selected and confirm. The records are created, along with the relations and storyline events you ticked.

Not quite right? Type what to change in the Say what to change… box, and capture reads the passage again with your correction.

What it finds #

  • New characters, creatures, organizations, events and entries, for the modules you have switched on and the record types your role can create.
  • Relations between them, and storyline events.
  • Dates, on your world's calendar. An event with no date on that calendar cannot be saved.
  • Records you already have. An exact match is marked already exists — will be linked, not created; a near match is marked similar to … so you can check it before saving.
  • Locations and places. These are recognised but not created here, because they are made on the map.

Does AI capture make things up? #

No. It is a reading tool, not a writing one. Every proposal has to quote your passage, and anything that cannot be traced back to your words is dropped before you see it. The page tells you how many proposals were dropped.

What does it cost? #

Capture runs on your own provider key, so the bill is between you and your provider, at their prices. We do not resell model access and take no margin. Your key is encrypted before it is saved, is never shown again, and is used only to call your provider.

There is no daily allowance. You can start two captures a minute and have one review open at a time. A passage can be up to 8,000 characters, and one capture proposes up to 25 records. Limits and usage on the Capture page shows these limits, and the AI provider tab in your settings shows your recent usage, so you can check it against your provider's bill.

What is sent to the AI provider #

The passage you submit, and the instructions that shape the answer. The instructions include your world's calendar and named eras, and the relationship and organization roles your project already uses, so the answer fits your world.

We do not send your other chapters, your other projects, your account details or anything about the other people in your project. The AI processing notice has the details.

Availability #

AI capture is being switched on gradually, for individual accounts and projects. If it is not on for you yet, the Capture page says This feature is not switched on for you yet and offers two buttons:

  • What is this? opens this page.
  • Request access asks us to switch capture on for that project. The button changes to Request sent, and we reply by email. Asking again while your request is open does not send a second one.

Tips #

  • Capture from your notes as well as your prose. A list of names with a line about each works well.
  • Work a scene at a time. Shorter passages read faster and stay under the 8,000-character limit.
  • Set up your world's calendar on the timeline first, so captured events come back with dates you can save.
  • Check every similar to … warning before saving, so you do not create a duplicate.
  • If the results look off, try a correction first, then a different Model in your AI provider settings.