The Manifesto
A tool with a spine.
Most writers we know keep a novel alive across three or four programs that were never meant to talk to each other — a heavyweight editor for the prose, a separate app for the plot, a spreadsheet for the characters, and something else entirely to turn it all into a book. The work gets split apart, and the writer spends their energy holding the pieces together instead of writing.
InkSpine is our answer: one quiet room where the manuscript, the world behind it, and the finished book all live together — on your own machine, in files you own. That decision has consequences, and they’re worth stating plainly. These are the principles we won’t bend, even when bending would be easier.
i.
Your words are yours
Your project is a folder on your disk. Prose is plain Markdown; the structured parts — characters, locations, chapters — are readable files right beside it. You can open it in any editor, back it up to anywhere, and walk away to another tool whenever you like. There is no proprietary blob, no database only we can read, and no version of InkSpine that holds your manuscript hostage.
ii.
Local first, always
InkSpine runs on your machine, not in a browser tab pretending to be a desk. It opens instantly, works on a train with the Wi-Fi off, and doesn’t slow down because a server is having a bad day. Sync to your own git remote if you want it; the cloud is a convenience we offer, never a leash we hold.
iii.
Every draft, kept
InkSpine quietly versions your whole project as you write — every chapter, character, and note. Open any earlier version of a chapter beside your draft, find the paragraph you cut last Tuesday, and bring it back. No manual saves to remember, no folders full of “final-v7-REAL”. History should be a safety net you never have to think about.
iv.
We don’t watch you write
Inside the app, we never see what you write. No tool watches your prose, tracks your word count, or reads your manuscript — that stays on your disk, always. During the beta we do collect anonymous crash reports and basic usage signals (which screens get used, not what’s in them) so we can find and fix what’s broken before it costs you work — that’s the price of an early, active beta, and it’s on for everyone testing it. A preferences toggle to turn it off arrives with general release. Your manuscript itself is never part of that data, and never will be. (This website measures traffic so we can find the writers who’d want this — details on our privacy page — but that stops at the front door.)
v.
Built by a writer, in the open
It’s just me — a software developer who also writes, building InkSpine while writing my own novel in it. Every rough edge annoys me first. I build the thing I need, ship it honestly with its flaws visible, and fix what gets in the way of the words. A tool for writers should be made by someone who has to live with it.
If that’s the tool you’ve been waiting for, come write in it.
Join the beta →