The manuscript

A book is a directory. Nothing needs Byline to open it, and nothing about the record depends on the application still existing in ten years.

How it sits on disk

• Folders are parts. Filename prefixes set reading order.
• Metadata is YAML frontmatter at the top of each file.
• Every change is an ordinary git commit.

Clone the repository somewhere else and the whole manuscript, and its history, is there in files you can read.

Views

Write, outline, corkboard, focus and split. The outline is a table of status, word counts and targets that you edit in place rather than a read-only summary. Typewriter scrolling keeps the line you are typing near the middle, and stops fighting you the moment you scroll by hand.

Moving things

Drag a chapter, or move it with a keystroke. Siblings renumber and git records the rename, so the history follows the file rather than losing it. Notes and cut material live beside the manuscript and stay out of the compiled document.

Links between chapters

Reference another chapter by name and it resolves. Each chapter shows what links to it, which is the cheapest way to find what a rewrite will break. In the printed document a link becomes its label, since a page cannot be clicked.