DeadLine

Write your novel. On your terms. From blank page to finished manuscript.

DeadLine is an AI-powered CLI novel-writing system. It orchestrates a multi-agent pipeline across 4 free-tier API providers — Gemini, Groq, Cerebras, and Mistral — to help you brainstorm, outline, draft, revise, polish, and publish a complete novel. No subscription. Your files stay local markdown.

Features

• 14 CLI commands covering the full writing workflow
• Multi-agent pipeline — Bible generator, character architect, chapter drafter, continuity validator, AI-tell humanizer, 15-dimension critic, coherence propagator, global spine model
• 4 free API providers — Gemini, Groq, Cerebras, Mistral (with automatic failover)
• 9 revision passes — subtext, dialogue, pacing, voice, sensory detail, show-don't-tell, slop cleanup, continuity
• Iterative polish loop — deadline polish detects craft issues, device patterns, POV/tense violations, and runs multi-pass revision until quality thresholds are met
• Global coherence — The Spine tracks character arcs, open threads, world rules, foreshadowing, timeline, thematic tension, relationships, and unanswered questions across the entire novel
• Genre templates — Tailored bible prompts for mystery, romance, thriller, fantasy, and literary fiction
• Cost tracking — Per-chapter cost ledger with token estimation
• EPUB export — deadline publish generates a professional EPUB from your manuscript
• Branching — Experiment with alternate timelines without losing your main draft
• Windows native — Full Unicode support with ASCII-safe fallback

Installation

pip install deadline-cli

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/sicario-labs/deadline.git
cd deadline
pip install .

Requires Python 3.11+.

Quick Start

# Create a new novel project
deadline init

# Set your API keys
deadline config set-provider gemini --api-key "your-key"
deadline config set-provider groq --api-key "your-key"
deadline config set-provider cerebras --api-key "your-key"

# Check everything works
deadline check

# Brainstorm your story idea (with optional genre template)
deadline brainstorm "A detective investigating a murder in a space station" --genre mystery

# Build chapter outline
deadline plan --chapters 12

# Draft all chapters (with spine coherence)
deadline write

# Polish the manuscript (device detection, subtext, POV, tense, multi-pass revision)
deadline polish -a

# Generate a comprehensive quality report
deadline report

# Publish as EPUB
deadline publish

Commands

Configuration

DeadLine uses a TOML config file (deadline.toml) in your project root. Each provider stores its API key and model:

[providers.gemini]
api_key = "your-key"
model = "gemini-2.0-flash-exp"

[providers.groq]
api_key = "your-key"
model = "llama-3.3-70b-versatile"

[providers.cerebras]
api_key = "your-key"
model = "gpt-oss-120b"

[roles.bible]
provider = "gemini"
fallbacks = ["groq"]

Architecture

DeadLine routes each creative role to the most suitable provider:

• Bible / Brainstorm / Plan — Gemini (creative breadth)
• Characters / Spine — Gemini → Groq fallback
• Draft — Gemini → Cerebras fallback (long context)
• Critic — Cerebras (analytical depth)
• Humanizer — Groq (fast inference)
• Validator / Device detection — Groq
• Propagate — Gemini → Groq fallback

License

MIT