For developers

MechaSquid is a writing app for novelists: a quiet place to write the book, with everything around the writing in one place: planning (outline, plot threads, goals), a story bible of characters and places, a timeline, maps (your own, a generated world, or the real Earth, also as it was in the past) and continuity checks, comments and private copies for beta readers, and getting ready to publish: an EPUB, a paperback's interior and cover as print-ready PDFs, a cover studio, and a Word manuscript in standard format. The author writes; an optional AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT can connect through MCP to help plan, look things up and check continuity.

This page is for AI assistants and the people who build them. Writing with MechaSquid yourself? The user guide is for you.

Connect

• Claude, ChatGPT and other apps that sign in: add the address as a custom connector. The app registers itself and signs in with OAuth 2.1 (PKCE); the author sees which app is asking and allows it on mechasquid.com. One connection reaches all of the author's worlds; tools take an optional world argument.
• Your own agent: the author creates an API key on their Account page (all their books; the agent names the book with world and may start one) or in a book's Settings (that book only). Send it to the same address in the Authorization header as Bearer followed by the key (MCP's standard; never in the address).
• First call: help with no topic returns the overview below and the list of topics. Every refusal names the tool to call next.

Resources you can attach

Besides its tools, MechaSquid offers context you attach to a conversation yourself (in Claude: the + menu, Add from MechaSquid; in Claude Code: an @ mention). Nothing is read until you attach it.

• Guides: how MechaSquid works (Using MechaSquid) and each craft guide.
• Per world: each book's outline with its plans, the writing brief (your voice), the cast, the timeline and the open flags.
• A scene with its context: chosen by name; the scene with its characters, places, what surrounds it, open flags and comments.

Addresses look like mechasquid://world/<id>/cast. Not every app shows resources yet; the tools work either way.

The rules every agent works under

• The author's prose changes only with their yes: an agent proposes a revision and it waits for the author, who accepts it on the website or says yes in the conversation. Direct edits happen only where the author switched them on.
• Linking names never changes a visible word; the server checks and refuses otherwise.
• A book marked final is read-only to agents.
• Everything an agent does is shown to the author under the app's name; changes to the author's text can be undone, and the author can disconnect the app at once.

Guides

The same text the help tool serves to connected agents.

• Using MechaSquid

  Start here. What MechaSquid is, the rules every agent works under, and which tool or help topic fits what the author just asked.

• Maps and travel

  For where places lie and how long a journey takes, and for what the world's maps answer while writing: what a place is like, how far along the roads, which countries and towns there are, what still needs a name, and how to tie scenes and pages to the map. How to record what the author says about travel.

• Capturing ideas

  For quick sessions, often by voice on a phone. Save the thought fast, in the right book, without questions the author cannot answer on a walk.

• Continuity and health

  Timeline, scene context, the health check and flags; how to find and report contradictions.

• Critique partner

  Fetch when the author asks for feedback on their writing: a chapter, a scene, the whole book, or line by line. How to read it in MechaSquid, how to give notes they can use, and what never to do.

• Describing an imported book

  The author brought in a finished draft (or asks you to import one). How to write its wiki from the text: rich pages for characters, places, groups, objects and events, their voices and relationships, the plot threads, and names that still need a page, without changing a word of the book.

• Writing exercises

  Fetch when the author asks for a writing exercise or prompt. Build it from their own world (cast, places, relationships, the map) with one constraint, say where to write it, and respond to what they wrote.

• Tidy new scenes

  File what the author wrote in Write mode (scenes, entities, links, consistency, copyedit) without changing their words.

• Non-fiction books

  Read when the book is not a novel: self-help, a how-to, memoir, essays, popular science. How MechaSquid's novel-shaped pages map onto it, and what to leave alone.

• Plotting and pacing

  Fetch before talking about the shape of a book: its high and low points, its threads, planning scenes that are not written yet. Offers shapes; imposes none.

• Poetry forms and metre

  Fetch when the author writes or asks about verse: what a form asks (haiku, tanka, limerick, sonnet, villanelle, ballad metre, free verse), how to scan a line, how to check a poem's metre and rhyme as facts and suggest without rewriting.

• Publishing your book

  How to turn a finished book into an ebook and a paperback with MechaSquid's Publish page, how to submit to literary agents in manuscript format, and what the trade words mean (trim size, bleed, spine, ISBN, proof). Read it when the author asks about publishing, sizes, covers or print services.

• Revisions and comments

  How to propose changes to the author's prose, answer their notes, and what happens when they accept or reject.

• Books, pages and links

  How a book is organised (books, chapters, scenes, wiki pages, slugs, links, relationships) and the tools that read and change it.

• Writing in the author's voice

  The writing brief, character voices, and how to turn the author's rejections into rules they can accept.

• Building the world

  For conversations about the world itself (magic, history, politics, a character's past), with or without a book yet. How to turn talk into wiki pages the author can trust.

• Writing teacher

  Fetch when the author wants to learn a technique (free indirect speech, scene and summary, subtext, point of view, pacing, dialogue…). Explain it with their own text or a public-domain classic, check they have it, suggest a small exercise.

Support

Questions, problems, or anything about your data: support@mechasquid.com. A connected agent can also report a problem itself with send_feedback. Privacy: privacy policy.

A plain-text summary for language models is at /llms.txt.