The flow view
Read and edit the chapter graph: connect scenes, condition edges, add entry points, branch across chapters, and tidy the layout.
Click Flow in the editor header to swap the script for the map of the open chapter. Every card is a scene, every arrow is an edge, and an edge means one thing: when this scene's beats run out, go there. Click Scene to go back.
The graph you see is the open chapter only. The row of pills across the top is the chapter band: click another chapter to switch the whole editor to it.
Reading a scene card
A card shows the scene title, its beat count, and a chip summarizing what leaves
it, for example 3 · 2 if for three outgoing edges of which two carry a
condition. Two more tags can appear:
- unreachable: nothing routes into this scene from the start scene or from any entry point. Readers cannot get here.
- dead end: play can stop here (no unconditional edge leaves it) and the scene is not marked as an ending. Marking it removes the tag.
An ember badge in a card's top right corner is the live compile's problem count for that scene. An edge condition that does not compile puts a wavy underline on its own chip, so the count has a findable culprit.
Connecting scenes
Drag an edge
Pull from a scene's right handle onto another scene's left handle. The new edge has no condition, which means it always passes.
Or drop on empty canvas
Let go of the drag over blank canvas and the studio asks for a name, then creates the scene there and wires the edge to it in one undo step. Cancel the name dialog and nothing is created.
Condition it, if you want to
Click the chip riding the arrow (+ if when there is no condition yet) to open
the Edge condition dialog. It is the same builder used everywhere else, with
your declared variables in dropdowns. See
Conditions.
Order matters. When several edges leave one scene, they are tried in declaration order and the first passing condition wins. An unconditioned edge always passes, so it belongs last, as the fall-through. Put it first and nothing below it will ever fire.
Other edge work:
- Rewire: drag an edge's endpoint onto a different handle. A confirm asks before it commits, and the condition rides along to the new edge.
- Delete: select the edge and press Delete or Backspace, or use Delete edge inside the edge dialog. Both confirm first, and both are undoable.
- Cancel a drag in progress: press Escape.
Inline choice routes never draw arrows. An option with an inline body plays and rejoins inside its own scene, so it will not appear on the map. If a branch matters to the shape of the story, give it an edge. See Choice.
Entry points and cross-chapter branches
A gold pill to the left of a scene is an entry point: a named door into the chapter, joined to its scene by a dashed link. Select a scene, click + Entry point, and name it. Dragging from an existing pill onto a different scene re-targets that entry point.
Entry points earn their keep in two places. An entry point named start decides
where the playthrough begins. Every
other one is a target other chapters can aim at.
To branch across chapters, select the source scene and click Branch to
chapter. Pick the target chapter, type the entry point name (it defaults to
main), and submit. The graph grows a violet pill to the right of the source
card, labeled with the target chapter and entry name, because the real target
lives in a graph you are not looking at. The button stays disabled until a scene
is selected and the project has more than one chapter.
The branch dialog does not check that the entry point exists. If you name one the target chapter has not defined, the story stops compiling with a dangling edge error until you go and add it there.
Layout
Positions are stored, shared, and undoable, so a layout you arrange is the layout your collaborators see, live, cursors and all.
Tidy runs a layered auto-layout over the chapter's scenes and lays them out left to right in one undo step, then re-frames the view. Cross-chapter pills are budgeted for, so nothing lands underneath one. If you hate the result, press Mod Z.
A chapter nobody has ever arranged gets tidied automatically the first time you open the flow view, as long as it has at least two scenes and at least one edge. Once you have dragged anything by hand, that never happens again.
Drags snap to the dot grid. The minimap in the corner colors scenes, entry points, and branch pills differently, and it pans and zooms.
Selection is shared with the rest of the editor
Selecting a scene node makes it the editor's open scene. The navigator row highlights, and the Stage tab in the right dock switches to that scene's staging and ending controls. Going the other way, opening a scene from the navigator or the jump palette while the flow view is up pans the graph to that card and centers it rather than kicking you back to the script.
Clicking empty canvas clears the graph's selection but deliberately does not close the open scene, so the dock does not empty under you.
Double-click a card to open its script: that one does switch to the Scene view.
Selecting exactly one scene also lights its connected subgraph, everything reachable upstream or downstream of it, and dims the rest. It is the fastest way to answer "what can actually lead here".
Toolbar and keyboard
Toolbar buttons, left to right: + Entry point, Branch to chapter,
Duplicate (copies the selected scene), Tidy. The first three need a
selected scene and tell you so on hover. On the right is Find scene, which
shows an n of m count; press Enter to cycle matches (each one pans
and selects) and Escape to clear.
With focus on the graph:
| Keys | What happens |
|---|---|
| ArrowRight | Follow the first outgoing edge |
| ArrowLeft | Go back to the first incoming edge's source |
| ArrowUp / ArrowDown | Cycle sibling branches of the same predecessor |
| Enter | Open the selected scene's script |
| F2 | Rename the selected scene |
| Mod D | Duplicate the selected scene |
| Mod A | Select every scene in the chapter |
| Delete or Backspace | Delete the selection, after a confirm |
| Escape | Cancel a connection drag, or clear the selection |
| Mod F | Focus the find field |
| Mod 0 | Fit the whole graph |
| Shift 2 | Zoom to the selection |
| Mod = / Mod - | Zoom in and out |
Arrow keys navigate the graph. They never nudge a card: positions move by mouse drag only.
Deleting multiple scenes at once works, and the confirm counts them. Everything destructive here goes into the same undo stack as the rest of the editor.