Currently in development. Join the waitlist to be first in line when early access opens.

Local-first writing software for novelists

Your manuscript.
Your hard drive.

trove is a native desktop app for serious authors. Your writing lives in plain Markdown files on your own machine — no account, no cloud, no lock-in. A focused editor, a manuscript binder, and a living world bible, all in one quiet place.

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trove — The Circus · Chapter Four
trove editor showing manuscript binder and writing view
Your files, your folder
Plain Markdown. Open standard. No export needed.
No account required
Works completely offline, always.
Proudly AI-free
Every word is yours. No suggestions, no autocomplete.
Built for authors writing
FantasyLiterary fictionThrillerSci-fiRomanceHorror
Built for long-form

Everything a novelist needs,
nothing they don't.

Designed from the ground up for writing books — not blog posts, not notes, not tasks. Your work stays in plain Markdown on your own machine, readable and portable without trove forever.

✦
Distraction-free editor

Beautiful typography, focus mode, typewriter scroll, full keyboard control. The interface steps back so the writing can step forward.

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Manuscript binder

Organise your novel into parts, chapters, and scenes. Drag to reorder, track status per scene, and compile to a clean DOCX in one step.

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Corkboard view

Your entire outline at a glance. Scene cards, drag to shuffle, spot the gaps before they become rewrites. Synced with the binder at all times.

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World bible

Characters, places, factions, lore — each in its own card with custom fields. A living reference that grows with your manuscript, stored locally like everything else.

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Sprint goals

Daily and weekly word targets, streak tracking, session history. All stored on your machine — no cloud dashboard, no data shared.

⌘
Open format

Your manuscripts are plain Markdown files in a folder you own. No export step needed — they work in any editor today and every editor tomorrow.

The editor

Write without friction.

Choose your typeface — Spectral, Lora, Crimson Pro — and your line spacing. Turn on Focus mode to dim everything but the active paragraph. Everything else disappears. Every session is logged locally: words written, time spent, streak count.

Typewriter scroll keeps the active line centred
Focus mode fades everything but the current paragraph
Session history & word counts stored on your machine
Full keyboard shortcut map, always visible
trove distraction-free writing editor
Binder & outline

Your manuscript, structured.

Nest parts, chapters, and scenes. Drag to reorder. Each scene is a plain Markdown file in a folder — the binder is just a view over files you already own, not a database you're locked into.

Each scene is a real file — Git, Dropbox, Time Machine just work
Unlimited nesting — parts, acts, chapters, scenes
Compile any selection to clean DOCX or PDF
trove dashboard showing projects and manuscript binder
World bible

Build a world that breathes.

Characters, factions, locations, lore — each stored as a plain Markdown file with structured frontmatter. One world, shareable across multiple manuscripts. Yours to back up, sync, and version however you like.

Stored as plain Markdown — no proprietary format
Custom fields per entity type (age, role, status…)
One world linked across multiple manuscripts
trove world bible showing character list
"I don't want a writing app that knows more about my manuscript than I do. I want one that disappears and lets me write."
— What we're building toward
FAQ

Questions

Where does my writing actually live? +
Do I need an account to use it? +
Can I import from Scrivener or Word? +
What export formats are supported? +
Does trove work on Windows and Linux? +
What about writing groups and collaboration? +
When will trove be available? +

The story isn't going to write itself.

trove is in active development. It's local-first, AI-free, and designed to disappear into your writing process. Join the waitlist and help us shape what gets built next.

No spam. Early access notification only. Unsubscribe anytime.