What is Alcove?

Alcove is a story console for living novels. You pick or import a Cartridge — a reusable story world and engine — create a Save File (your own timeline in that world), and write chapter by chapter with help from the Writers Room. Every change to the world is something you approve and lock with Canon Lock.

Great next chapter. Clear next direction. Fast enough to stay in flow.

It is deliberately not a chatbot, a feed, or a coin-grabbing gacha game. It feels like sitting down at a console with a library of cartridges and a cast board for your story.

The core promise

• Your story remembers itself. Canon — characters, relationships, world facts, routes — is tracked as structured state, not left to a chat window's memory.
• The app proposes; the writer steers. Generated drafts and suggestions are always proposals. Nothing becomes canon until you lock it.
• Create here, publish anywhere. Share a cartridge and everyone writes their own save file from it. Export your chapters whenever you want.

How a session feels

1. Open a cartridge from your library (or import one).
2. Create a save file — your private timeline.
3. Get three recommended next moves.
4. Approve or tweak the scene brief.
5. Generate or draft the chapter.
6. Review the proposed state updates.
7. Lock canon — the magic moment.
8. Watch your route, cast, and codex update, and collect a reward.
9. Continue to the next recommended move.

That whole cycle is the core loop. Everything else — character sheets, the codex, the Route Lab, rewards, exports, and sharing — exists to make that loop better.

Where to go next

• New here? Read the core loop end to end.
• Want to understand the building blocks? Start with Cartridges and Save Files.
• Curious how the world stays consistent? See Canon Lock.
• Wondering about credits and plans? See Credits & plans.
• Lost in a term? The glossary maps every console word to what it means.