DraftHarbor
Every story seeks a harbour

A safe harbour for your novel.

DraftHarbor is a Scrivener-style writing studio for long-form fiction — a proper binder, corkboard, and world bible, kept on your own device by default. When you do use AI, it only reads what you've already written. It never writes for you.

Start writing — free See how it compares

No credit card. An account is required. Projects stay local by default; encrypted backups stay unreadable to us. Only text you deliberately submit to Story Intelligence and the material you choose to publish in Library is processed in readable form.

Built for the whole novel, not just the words

Everything a long manuscript actually needs

Chapters and scenes are only part of a novel. DraftHarbor gives the rest of it — characters, places, history, and time — a proper home too.

A binder that thinks in books, not files

Organize manuscript, world, research, and resources as separate, purpose-built sections. Drag to reorder, drop into folders, switch between Corkboard, Outline, Plot Grid, Flow, and Timeline views without losing your place.

  • Corkboard index cards for scenes and chapters
  • Outline view with custom columns
  • Plot grid for tracking threads across the book

Ask Loremaster, not a blank chatbot

Ask what a character knows, where a detail first appears, or what changed between chapters. Loremaster searches across the manuscript, favours later material where a long book needs prioritising, and gives every answer with the passages it used.

  • Answers are grounded in your manuscript, with sources you can open
  • Built to answer questions, not to draft, continue, or rewrite your prose
  • A focused research companion inside the Inspector
Loremaster answer with manuscript source passages

A world bible that stays consistent

Start with the Lore structure that suits this book, then make it your own: add or remove categories, define fields, and create your own entry types. Build fictional calendars and align your timeline across them.

  • Genre presets, Blank and Minimal starts, plus full customization
  • Custom calendars with eras, corrections, and alignments
  • Wiki-style links between entries and manuscript

A guide that lives inside the studio

Harbor Guide is a real, read-only example project: open its binder, inspect its world, and see the writing workflow in context before you start your own. It follows the app language, so its structure stays familiar wherever you write.

  • A working example of binder, Lore, resources, and compile settings
  • Safe to explore — it cannot be changed or accidentally backed up
  • A practical starting point instead of an empty screen
DraftHarbor’s three-pane workspace: Binder, editor, and Inspector

Finish a draft without leaving your workspace

Save named revision milestones before a big rewrite, publish a clean reading edition for beta readers, then compile a print-ready manuscript when it is time to share the work beyond your binder.

  • Private or unlisted reading editions with passage-level feedback
  • HTML print preview, DOCX, Markdown, and EPUB export
  • Your working notes and world bible stay out of the reader edition
DraftHarbor’s Compile dialog with export and front-matter options

Story Intelligence: scans, consistency checks, and Loremaster

Character Catcher and Lore Catcher scan what you've already written and propose character sheets, world entries, and a red/amber/green consistency check — catching a hair colour that quietly changed three chapters ago. Loremaster lets you ask factual questions about the manuscript and shows the passages it used. Nothing is added until you approve it, and every account has a hard monthly usage cap. No BYO-key hoops, no surprise bills.

  • Extraction only — never generates plot or prose
  • Consistency flags with a plain-language explanation
  • Capped usage included, not metered per word
  • Loremaster answers questions about your manuscript with linked source passages — it is a research assistant, never a co-writer.

Fictional calendars

Build calendars with their own eras and eccentricities, then track scenes against them on a real timeline.

Distraction-free writing

Per-document type formatting, multiple writing-room themes, and a focus mode that fades everything but the page.

Comments and smart links

Anchor notes directly in the text. Link any word or phrase — a nickname, a different grammatical form, whatever you actually wrote — to a Lore entry, not just an exact title match.

Local-first by default

An account is required to enter DraftHarbor, but your project still lives on your own device by default — no server round-trip is needed to keep writing.

Optional encrypted backup

Turn on cloud backup only if you want it. Both text and images are encrypted on your device first — we can't read them either way.

Import and export freely

Bring a Scrivener project in directly, or import Word/EPUB/RTF/Markdown. Compile out to DOCX, HTML, or Markdown any time.

Share a clean reading edition

Freeze selected manuscript pages into a private edition or unlisted reader link, with the formatting and images you chose — never your working notes or Lore.

Bring beta-reader notes home

Readers can comment on a selected passage in a frozen edition. Your review inbox keeps the note with the version they read and takes you back to the source manuscript.

From draft to print preview

Save named revision milestones, then compile HTML in Classic, Paperback, or Modern styling and preview it at your chosen trim size before printing to PDF.

How it compares

Two other paths writers usually take

Not a knock on either — just where DraftHarbor sits between them.

One-time desktop apps Cloud, AI-first apps DraftHarbor
Works fully offline Yes Rarely Yes
Your manuscript leaves your device No Usually, to power AI features Only for encrypted backup or text you deliberately submit to Story Intelligence
Structured world-building & calendars Basic notes at best Varies, often an afterthought Built in, with custom fields
What AI does with your book No AI at all Often writes or rewrites prose for you Reads and checks — never writes it for you
Sync across devices Rare, or a paid add-on Cloud-only, always on Optional, end-to-end encrypted

General patterns we've seen across the market, not a claim about any specific product.

Give your draft a safe harbour.

Create your free account and start writing in your browser in under a minute.

Start writing — free