From manuscript to structured canon

This workflow turns manuscript source material into reviewable canon.

1. Select a narrow manuscript scope

Choose a small, coherent source set:

• a few chapters;
• one short story;
• one arc;
• one test section from a larger book.

A narrow scope makes the first review pass meaningful.

2. Prepare source files

Use Markdown or plain text. Keep filenames stable and ordered. Preserve chapter boundaries.

Avoid importing notes, discarded scenes, and manuscript text in the same batch unless you intentionally want Arc to analyse them together.

3. Ingest the material

Run the ingestion workflow and watch the reported stages. A successful run should produce source-aware project material. A warning state should be reviewed before you rely on the output.

4. Inspect extracted structure

Open the project and review:

• chapters;
• entities;
• aliases;
• relationships;
• graph;
• evidence;
• review items.

Expect the first pass to need correction.

5. Resolve the most important uncertainty

Start with major characters, plot-critical events, and recurring world rules. Do not spend the first pass polishing every minor entity.

6. Promote reviewed material into canon

A claim becomes useful canon when it is accepted by the author or supported by strong enough evidence for the intended workflow.

Keep uncertain claims visible. Hidden uncertainty is worse than an unfinished review queue.

7. Use canon as context

Once the project has reviewable canon, Arc can support analysis, continuity review, and AI-assisted revision with stronger context.

The quality of the context depends on the quality of the review.