Fiction Editor

A voice-preserving fiction editing partner

Fiction Editor helps authors revise novels while preserving their unique voice. It ships as two things:

How It Works

Your manuscript lives as markdown files with YAML frontmatter — chapters, scenes, characters, settings, and plot devices — all version-controlled with git. Fiction Editor runs as an MCP server alongside Claude Code (or any MCP client), providing tools that understand your story's structure, voice, and continuity.

MCP Tool Categories

80+ tools across 21 categories. View the full tool reference →

• Critique & Review
• Voice & Prose
• Chapters & Scenes
• Characters
• Settings
• Plot Devices
• Search
• Context & Consistency
• Reporting
• Task Management
• Promise Ledger
• Revision & Backup
• Structure & Surgery
• Import & Export
• Interview Wizards
• Version Control

Install the CLI

Downloads point to the latest build. Pin a specific version at /v0.2.4/fiction-linux-x64 etc.

macOS / Linux

curl -fsSL https://fiction.oshers.com/install.sh | bash

The installer auto-detects your platform and architecture, downloads the binary to ~/.local/bin/fiction, and checks your PATH.

Options:

VERSION=v0.2.4 bash install.sh              # specific version
INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin bash install.sh   # custom location

Windows (Git Bash / MSYS2)

curl -fsSL https://fiction.oshers.com/install.sh | bash

Installs fiction.exe to ~/.local/bin/. Add that directory to your PATH if it isn't already:
Settings > System > About > Advanced > Environment Variables > Path > Edit > New

Direct Downloads

Getting Started

1. Set up your LLM provider

fiction setup

Creates ~/.config/fiction-editor/config.toml with your provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, or Z.AI), model, and API key.

2. Register the MCP server in a project

cd /path/to/your/novel
fiction setup-mcp

Installs the MCP server entry and optionally the Claude Code starter kit (slash commands, agent definition, CLAUDE.md).

3. Initialize a new book

Start Claude Code in an empty directory and run:

/init-book

This creates the project scaffold: meta.yaml, chapters/, manuscript/, etc. Fill in your title, genre, POV, tense, and target word count.

4. Import existing work (optional)

If you have a manuscript in progress:

/import-book

Imports a markdown or plain-text file, splitting it into chapters and scenes.

5. Establish your voice

/interview-style

An interactive conversation that builds your voice fingerprint in style/style-guide.md. The editor uses this to score every revision for voice drift.

6. Start editing

Common workflows as slash commands:

VS Code Extension

The Fiction Editor extension adds ambient project awareness to VS Code — no LLM required. It reads your project files directly.

Or install via the CLI:

fiction vscode-setup

Or install manually after downloading:

code --install-extension fiction-editor.vsix

Extension Features

• Status bar — live word count for current scene, chapter total vs target, and session word counter
• Metadata panel — read-only view of POV, tense, characters, beats, emotional target for the current file
• Todo tree — editing backlog filtered by current chapter, with passage navigation
• Review commands — trigger critique and lint via Claude Code from the command palette

Project Structure

my-novel/
  meta.yaml                 # Book metadata (title, genre, targets)
  chapters/01-arrival.md    # Chapter outlines (YAML frontmatter)
  manuscript/01-arrival/    # Scene prose
    00-dusk.md
    01-kitchen.md
  characters/claire.md      # Character profiles
  settings/river-house.md   # Setting descriptions
  todos.md                  # Editing backlog
  promises.md               # Chekhov's gun tracker