Where your writing lives

Your library belongs to you. Mythforge keeps it on your device as plain markdown files: one file per scene, lore entry and manuscript, readable in any text editor. Mythforge never keeps your words on a server of its own. (During the private beta you sign in with a code to open the web app: see Your account and signing in. That account holds no writing.)

You can see and change where your library lives in Settings → Storage.

Inside, each world is a folder:

worlds/
  the-ashen-reach/
    world.md
    lore/
      kaela-voss.md
      emberfall.md
    manuscripts/
      the-ember-crown/
        manuscript.md
        chapters/
          the-salt-road/
            chapter.md
            scenes/
              ashfall-at-dawn.md
    images/
    snapshots/

Every file is markdown with a short header of details. A lore entry, for example:

---
type: place
name: Emberfall
summary: The capital, where the pyres never go out.
---

Built on the ash of everything it has burned.

In this browser

This is where everyone starts. Your library is kept in the browser's own storage on this device.

• It works offline and needs no setup.
• It belongs to this browser on this device: another browser, or another device, has its own separate library.
• Clearing your browser's site data deletes it.

A folder on your computer

On a computer, in Chrome or Edge, you can keep your library in a folder you choose instead: Settings → Storage → Folder on this computer. Mythforge copies your library there and works from it.

Pick a folder inside Dropbox, iCloud Drive or OneDrive and your writing is backed up by that service too.

Browsers sometimes ask again for permission to use the folder when you come back. If they do, Mythforge asks you to allow it with one click, or to go back to browser storage.

On Windows and Mac with the desktop app

The desktop app keeps your library as files in Documents → Mythforge. See The desktop app.

On iPhone with the Mythforge app

The Mythforge iPhone app stores your library as files you can see in the Files app, under On My iPhone → Mythforge.

Editing the files yourself, or with an AI assistant

When your library is files (a folder on your computer, the desktop app or the iPhone app), you can edit them in another program while Mythforge is open. Mythforge notices when you come back to it, and every few seconds while it's on screen, and loads the changes. Open scenes and pages show the new text. If you were typing in the same file, Mythforge keeps both versions, as a conflicted copy.

The library's folder holds an AGENTS.md file, written by Mythforge, that explains to AI assistants (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and the like) how the files fit together and how to edit them safely: for example, to update many lore entries at once. Point your assistant at the library's folder and it will find it. Export a backup first if the changes are big.

If Mythforge can't read a file, or finds one somewhere it doesn't look, it leaves the file alone and lists it under Settings → Storage → Files that need attention, saying what's wrong. Fix the file and Mythforge reads it again.

Sync with Dropbox or Google Drive

Sync keeps a copy of your library in the cloud and brings in changes from your other devices. You can use Dropbox, Google Drive, or both at once.

Mythforge can only see its own folder: not the rest of your Dropbox, and in Google Drive only the files it created.

Turn it on

1. Open Settings → Sync and choose Dropbox or Google Drive.
2. Sign in and allow Mythforge access.

Sync works in Mythforge at app.mythforge.co.uk and mythforge.chriscosta084.workers.dev. Dropbox also works in the iPhone app. Google Drive isn't in the iPhone app yet, and neither service can be turned on in the desktop app yet.

How it works

• Your edits upload as you write.
• Changes made on another device are brought in when you open Mythforge, and again while you work whenever an upload finds that something has changed elsewhere. Mythforge holds off writing over a scene or entry you have open, then updates it in place. If the app itself has a new version, it offers to Reload.
• The first changes of a launch, or the first after you sign in to a service, show a full-screen Syncing with Dropbox (or Google Drive) screen, with how many changes are coming in. Choose View my library now to go back to your writing at once: syncing carries on in the background.
• While syncing, a small cloud with turning arrows appears in the top bar of every screen. Choose it to open Settings → Sync.
• If the same scene or lore entry was edited in two places, Mythforge keeps both: the other version is saved beside it as a "(conflicted copy)", so no words are ever lost. The manuscript (or the lorebook) then shows a notice until you've settled them: see Conflicted copies.
• Edits you made just before closing Mythforge, or while offline, upload the next time you open it.
• Something you deleted stays deleted on your other devices, even ones that were offline or not syncing at the time, and a deleted scene isn't brought back by a device that still had it. If you move a file instead, say a scene to another chapter, it's treated as a move, not a deletion. Recently deleted syncs too, so you can restore it anywhere.
• Snapshots, lore pictures and your writing stats sync along with everything else.

Settings → Sync shows each service with its status: who's signed in and when it last synced, "Offline · syncs when you're back online", "Couldn't sync · will keep trying", or Signed out. Choose Sync now to sync straight away.

Both at once

With Dropbox and Google Drive both on, this device is the go-between: an edit that arrives from Dropbox is uploaded to Google Drive too, and the other way round. It's a good way to keep two copies of your library in two places.

The two services only meet through this device, so it needs to be opened now and then for a change to travel from one to the other.

If you're asked to sign in again

If a service needs you to sign in again (after you change your password or remove Mythforge's access, say), a message with a Sync button appears and Settings shows Signed out. Choose Sync, or Sign in to Dropbox again (or Google Drive) in Settings, and syncing carries on.

Sign out of a service

Choose Sign out of Dropbox (or Google Drive) and confirm. Mythforge syncs one last time, stops syncing with that service, and ends its access to your account there. Your library stays on this device and in the cloud.

When you choose the service again, it asks you to sign in, so you can pick the account:

• The same account: Mythforge picks up where it left off. Whatever you changed, moved or deleted in the meantime is synced, and nothing you deleted comes back.
• A different account: that account's library is combined with this device's, as when the cloud already has a library.

If the cloud already has a library

When you turn on sync on a device that already has a library, and the cloud has one too (from another device, say), Mythforge combines them:

• Before anything changes, Mythforge saves a copy of this device's library. You'll find it under Settings → Backup, ready to restore.
• Everything from both is kept. If the same scene differs between the two, both versions are kept, one as a "(conflicted copy)" (see Conflicted copies).
• Things you deleted on one device aren't brought back from the other.

If you sign in with a different Dropbox or Google account from last time, Mythforge treats it as a new library and combines them in the same careful way.

Conflicted copies

Edit a scene on your laptop, then edit the same scene on your phone before the two have met. Many apps quietly pick a winner and one of your edits vanishes. Mythforge never does. It keeps both, and gives you a proper tool for settling them, at your own pace.

The cloud's version stays as the scene, and the other edit is saved beside it, titled "(conflicted copy)". Nothing is lost, and nothing is settled until you look.

The manuscript's page shows a notice while it has conflicted copies (the lorebook does the same for entries). Choose it for the list, with how many lines each copy adds and removes:

Then select a copy to compare the two versions change by change:

• Current is the text as it is now; Copy is the other edit. Red marks words only in the current text, green words only in the copy.
• At each change, choose Current, Copy or Both, or use All current / All copy at the top.
• Keep the current text, Use the copy's text or Save the merged text (the button says which, from your choices) puts the result in the scene and moves the copy to Recently deleted. A scene's earlier text is kept as a snapshot first, so you can go back.
• Keep both as separate scenes keeps the copy as a scene of its own, titled "(copy)", for you to rename or move.

Renaming a conflicted copy so its title no longer says "(conflicted copy)" also settles it. While any copy is unsettled, the notice stays.

Because every way out keeps the words somewhere you can get them back from, there's no wrong answer to be afraid of.

For lore entries, the notes are what's compared and replaced; the entry's other details stay as they are. If the scene a copy was made from has since been deleted, you can keep the copy as a scene or delete it.