novelscribe 2.8.6

AI-powered autonomous novel generation system — install with 'pip install novelscribe', run with 'scribe'

NovelScribe

An AI-powered autonomous novel generation agent. Give it a concept, pick a genre, and it writes a full novel — outline, characters, world-building, chapters, and all.

Language / 语言 / 語言: English | 简体中文 | 繁體中文

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Install

pipx install novelscribe

That's it. The scribe command is now available.

Why pipx? On macOS and many Linux distros, pip install is blocked by the system Python (externally-managed-environment error). pipx installs into an isolated virtualenv, avoiding this entirely. Install pipx first if you don't have it: brew install pipx && pipx ensurepath (macOS) or sudo apt install pipx && pipx ensurepath (Linux).

Other install methods

pip install --user novelscribe    # user-level (may warn on macOS)

Or the one-liner script (auto-detects pipx/pip):

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/huangjien/wst/main/novel_harness/install.sh | bash

30-Second Demo

# Create a new novel project
scribe new my-novel

# Run fully autonomous generation (outline → characters → world → chapters)
scribe autonomous start my-novel

# Check progress
scribe help

What It Does

NovelScribe chains 9 specialized AI agents into an autonomous pipeline:

discuss → genre → characters → world-building → outline → chapter-planning → writing → continuity → editing

Each agent is a Markdown file with a system prompt and model config. The orchestrator runs them step-by-step through YAML-defined workflows, with verification loops that auto-fix issues until quality passes.

Key Features

• Autonomous generation — one command produces a complete novel
• 9 specialized agents — writer, editor, character designer, world-builder, continuity checker, etc.
• Verification loops — auto-detects and fixes plot holes, inconsistencies, and quality issues
• Hook lifecycle framework (v2.2) — YAML-declared hooks across workflow/runtime with required vs optional semantics, strict guardrails for builtin.http / builtin.shell, and fail-closed external plugin loading
• Resilience + orchestration upgrades (v2.3) — step retry/timeout, hook when conditions, runtime transient retry, DAG parallel execution with rollback, exponential+jitter backoff, checkpoint pruning, and trigger API
• Reliability hardening (v2.4) — durable trigger store (journal+snapshot), HMAC webhook security, async dispatch with retry/DLQ semantics, strict-mode runtime gates, event-driven checkpoint decisions, docs consistency guard
• Governance & schema maturity (v2.5) — secrets management with ${secrets.*} resolution, reusable step templates, workflow-level timeout, output schema validation, versioned artifact management, human-in-loop default, language-consistent output (en/zh-CN/zh-TW)
• Quality gates — Bronze / Silver / Gold / Platinum tiers with metrics and benchmarks
• Parallel execution — runs independent agents concurrently for 2-4x speedup
• LLM streaming — real-time token streaming on all 8 providers
• Circuit breakers — automatic failover between LLM providers on persistent failures
• Schema versioning — forward-compatible agent/workflow definitions with migration support
• Run logging — structured JSONL logs with scribe logs run <project> command
• Scales to 3M words — hierarchical summaries, memory optimization, chapter pagination, phase-level caching
• Multi-language — English, 简体中文, 繁體中文 (with fallback)
• 8 LLM providers — OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Ollama, LM Studio, MiniMax, ZhipuAI (z.ai), Moonshot (Kimi)
• AI Chat assistant — scribe chat <question> for instant answers about novel writing and scribe usage

Usage

Create a Novel

scribe new my-novel --provider openai --model gpt-4

Run Autonomous Generation

scribe autonomous start my-novel

Run Individual Phases

# Generate the outline
scribe run workflow outline --project my-novel

# Run a single agent
scribe run agent writer_agent --project my-novel

# Preview without executing
scribe run workflow writing --project my-novel --dry-run

Explore Agents & Workflows

scribe agents list
scribe agents show writer_agent

scribe workflows list
scribe workflows show outline

Templates

scribe templates list                          # List all templates + KB stats
scribe templates list character                # List KB character templates
scribe templates list character "male, brave"  # Search KB character templates
scribe templates show heros_journey --category plot
scribe templates kb search "hero journey"      # Search template knowledge base
scribe templates kb stats                      # Show KB statistics
scribe templates create plot -n "My Structure" -d "Description" -b "0:Hook:Description"

Semantic search: Install with uv sync --extra search for embedding-based KB retrieval.

Setup & Configuration

scribe setup interactive                      # Interactive setup wizard
scribe setup apikey openai sk-...             # Configure API key
scribe setup apikey ollama                    # Configure local provider (no key needed)
scribe setup apikey openai sk-... --base-url  # Custom base URL (proxy support)
scribe setup language zh-CN                   # Set default language
scribe setup install-skill                    # Install IDE chatbot skill
scribe setup verify                           # Verify installation

Checkpoint Management (Human-in-the-Loop)

scribe checkpoint list my-novel               # List checkpoints
scribe checkpoint show my-novel               # Show current proposal
scribe checkpoint approve my-novel            # Approve checkpoint
scribe checkpoint modify my-novel             # Modify and approve
scribe checkpoint reject my-novel             # Reject checkpoint
scribe checkpoint history my-novel            # Show decision history
scribe checkpoint compare my-novel            # Compare all alternatives

Proactive Suggestions

scribe proactive enable                       # Enable proactive suggestions
scribe proactive disable                      # Disable proactive suggestions
scribe proactive status                       # Show configuration
scribe proactive list                         # List available suggestions
scribe proactive history                      # Show acceptance history
scribe proactive review                       # Review pending suggestions
scribe proactive promote <id>                 # Promote suggestion to global KB

Project Management

scribe project list                           # List all novel projects

Version & Updates

scribe version info              # current version
scribe version check             # check PyPI for updates
scribe version update            # self-update to latest
scribe version update --yes      # skip confirmation

AI Chat Assistant

Ask questions about scribe usage or novel writing craft — no quotes needed:

scribe chat how to create a new character?
scribe chat what agents are available?
scribe chat --provider anthropic how to build a plot?

# Interactive multi-turn conversation
scribe chat

The AI reads all agent definitions and project documentation to give contextual answers. Supports English, 简体中文, and 繁體中文.

Run Logs

scribe logs run <project>        # view structured run logs

Character Archetypes

scribe character archetypes list              # list all built-in archetypes
scribe character archetypes show hero         # view archetype details
scribe character convert hero "John Doe"      # convert archetype to character
scribe character convert rebel "Jane" --project my-novel  # add to project

Export

scribe export manuscript my-novel --format pdf     # export as PDF
scribe export manuscript my-novel --format epub    # export as EPUB
scribe export manuscript my-novel --format docx    # export as DOCX
scribe export manuscript my-novel --format md      # export as Markdown
scribe export manuscript my-novel --format pdf --output-dir ./out/  # custom output directory

Review

scribe review start my-novel                  # run review pipeline
scribe review report my-novel                 # generate review report
scribe review formats                         # list report export formats

Quality Assurance

scribe qa analyze my-novel                    # quality metrics analysis
scribe qa validate my-novel                   # run validation rules
scribe qa benchmark my-novel                  # benchmark against standards
scribe qa gate-check my-novel --chapter 1 --level gold  # quality gate check

Parallel Execution

scribe parallel plan my-novel                 # plan parallel execution
scribe parallel execute my-novel              # execute with concurrency
scribe parallel benchmark                     # benchmark parallel speedup
scribe parallel stats                         # show execution statistics

NovelScribe checks for updates on startup (once per 24h) and shows a notification when a new version is available.

Multi-Language Support

Language	Code
English	en
Simplified Chinese	zh-CN
Traditional Chinese	zh-TW

Set per-project in META.yaml:

project_name: my_novel
language: zh-CN
genre: fantasy
target_word_count: 80000

Or per-command:

scribe --lang zh-TW agents list

Language resolution priority: --lang flag > META.yaml > user config > SCRIBE_LANGUAGE env > system locale > English fallback.

Configuration

Set your LLM provider:

# Interactive setup
scribe config get

# Or set directly
scribe config set language zh-CN
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

Supported providers:

Provider	Env Var	Notes
OpenAI	OPENAI_API_KEY	Best quality
Anthropic	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Long context
Google Gemini	GOOGLE_API_KEY	Free tier available
Ollama	—	Local, no API key needed
LM Studio	—	Local, no API key needed
MiniMax	MINIMAX_API_KEY	OpenAI-compatible
ZhipuAI (z.ai)	ZHIPUAI_API_KEY	GLM-4 models
Moonshot (Kimi)	MOONSHOT_API_KEY	128K context

Architecture

novel_harness/
├── cli.py                 # Entry point (registered as 'scribe')
├── cli_*.py               # Command modules (agents, workflows, run, autonomous, logs, memory, etc.)
├── core/                  # Core engine
│   ├── orchestrator.py    # Central coordinator
│   ├── llm_client.py      # Multi-provider LLM abstraction (with streaming)
│   ├── circuit_breaker.py # Per-provider circuit breakers with auto-fallback
│   ├── optimizing_llm_client.py # LLM call wrapper with cache + cost tracking
│   ├── model_registry.py  # Per-model token limit registry
│   ├── schema_versions.py # Schema versioning for agent/workflow definitions
│   ├── run_logger.py      # Structured JSONL run logging
│   ├── phase_context_cache.py # Per-phase artifact pre-loading
│   ├── memory/            # Memory system
│   │   ├── conversation_memory.py  # Session journal (JSONL)
│   │   ├── knowledge_graph.py      # Entity relationship graph
│   │   ├── generation_learning.py   # Adaptive learning
│   │   ├── consistency_checker.py   # Graph consistency validation
│   │   ├── novel_wiki.py          # Obsidian-compatible markdown wiki
│   │   └── entity_extractor.py    # Structured-first entity extraction
│   ├── memory_bus.py      # Memory system facade (unified index/retrieve API)
│   ├── context_bus.py     # Context injection with optional memory integration
│   ├── hooks/             # Shared hook event bus + built-in handlers + plugin manager
│   ├── trigger_store.py   # Append-only journal + snapshot trigger persistence
│   ├── trigger_manager.py # Trigger registration, webhook security, async dispatch
│   ├── quality_gate.py    # Quality gate evaluation (Bronze/Silver/Gold/Platinum)
│   ├── quality_report.py  # Quality report generation
│   ├── template_kb.py     # Global template knowledge base with semantic search
│   ├── storage.py         # File-based storage
│   ├── version.py         # Update checker & self-updater
│   ├── performance_profiler.py        # Profiling facade
│   ├── performance_profiler_core.py   # Profiling implementation
│   ├── performance_profiler_types.py  # Profiling data types
│   ├── archetype_loader.py    # Archetype YAML parser and formatter
│   ├── archetype_converter.py # Archetype-to-character conversion engine
│   └── ...
├── agents/                # Agent definitions (Markdown, schema_version: 1)
├── workflows/             # Workflow definitions (YAML, schema_version: 1)
├── api/                   # FastAPI server with WebSocket streaming (optional)
└── tests/                 # Test suite (2649 tests, 100 files, 98% coverage)

LLM Providers

NovelScribe supports any OpenAI-compatible API. Configure via environment variables or scribe config setup:

# .env file
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
LLM_PROVIDER=openai
LLM_MODEL=gpt-4-turbo-preview

Memory System

NovelScribe includes a multi-layered memory system that tracks knowledge graph entities, conversation sessions, and learned patterns:

# View memory system status for a project
scribe memory kb status my-novel

# List knowledge wiki pages
scribe memory kb wiki-list my-novel

# View a wiki page
scribe memory kb wiki-view my-novel character

# Run knowledge base consistency check
scribe memory kb consistency-check my-novel

# Visualize entity relationships as ASCII graph
scribe memory kb graph-visualize my-novel

# View session history
scribe memory kb sessions my-novel

# View learning summaries
scribe memory kb learning my-novel

Components:

• Knowledge Graph — entity relationships (characters, locations, events) with consistency checking
• Knowledge Wiki — structured wiki pages with auto-generated content
• Conversation Memory — append-only JSONL session journal for generation sessions
• Generation Learning — adaptive learning from generation patterns

API Server (Optional)

For web UI integration or programmatic access:

# If installed with pipx
~/.local/pipx/venvs/novelscribe/bin/uvicorn api.app:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

# If running from source
cd wst/novel_harness
uv run uvicorn api.app:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Development

git clone https://github.com/huangjien/wst.git
cd wst
uv sync --all-extras

# Run quality checks
make check

# Individual
make format      # ruff format
make lint        # ruff check --fix
make type-check  # mypy
make test        # pytest with coverage
make build       # uv build → dist/

License

MIT