Mark how finished each passage is
Give any stretch of prose a status: Raw, Draft, Cleaned or Published. Highlights show where the weak patches are. Most tools label a whole chapter. Rescriptus labels the passage.
Write the book. Keep the files.
Rescriptus is a writing tool for novelists that runs in your browser. Chapters, a story wiki and notes, saved as plain files in your own storage.
Free while in beta. No account needed to start.
How it works
- 1
Start in your browser
No account, no install. Choose what you are writing and you get a short sample to show you round.
- 2
Write
Mark how finished each passage is, keep alternate versions, and look things up in your story wiki without leaving the page.
- 3
Keep your files
Keep them in your browser, in a folder on your computer, or on GitHub. Export to Word or EPUB, or download everything, whenever you like.
Made for a long piece of writing
Try another version without losing the first
Select a passage and make an alternate. Write a competing version, flip between them with the arrows, and keep the one you want. Nothing is thrown away until you decide.
A story wiki that fits your book
A page for each character, place, group or piece of lore, with categories and fields you design. Open one in a slide-over beside your chapter and carry on typing.
Find anything
Press Ctrl+K to jump to any chapter, wiki page or note, or to search your whole project. Find and replace works inside a chapter.
History you can read and restore
On GitHub, every chapter, wiki page and note keeps its earlier versions. Compare one with your text now and bring back all of it, or just a passage.
Your way out is always open
Export a Word manuscript or an EPUB, or Markdown or text. Bring in Word, Markdown or a zip. Download the whole project as plain files at any time.
Safe when things go wrong
Your words go to a journal on your device first, and are sent on after. If you lose your connection, they wait. If a file changed somewhere else, Rescriptus merges what it can and asks before it overwrites anything.
On your phone too
The layout adapts to phones and tablets, with a bottom bar, drawers for the chapter list and wiki, and touch targets built for fingers.
Light and dark
One tap switches between a light page and a dark one.
Your writing, your files
Your writing stays in your own storage, never on our servers.
What we promise
- Your writing goes from your browser to the storage you chose. It does not pass through our servers.
- Your files are plain Markdown and YAML. Open them in any editor, now or if we are gone.
- Your GitHub password never reaches us. GitHub's own sign-in page handles it.
- Rescriptus can only see the repositories you choose when you install it on GitHub.
- No analytics, no advertising trackers, and no third-party scripts, fonts or images on our pages or in the app.
- No AI features. Nothing you write is sent to an AI service by Rescriptus.
- No account with us today: no email address, no password.
What to know
- A working copy of your project is kept in your browser, in plain form, so pages open quickly and edits survive a dropped connection. On a shared computer, download your project and clear this site's data when you finish.
- If you use GitHub, our server briefly handles your GitHub access token to keep you signed in. A refresh token sits in a cookie that page scripts cannot read.
- Like any web server, ours, and the services in front of it, see your IP address, browser type, the page requested and the time.
- Your files are not end-to-end encrypted. GitHub holds a repository under its own terms.
Not here yet
We would rather tell you now.
- Google Drive storage is coming. It is not available yet.
- There is no PDF export. Word and EPUB are there.
- There is no live co-writing. Sharing a GitHub repository works, with care.
- Opening Rescriptus with no connection at all does not work yet. Edits survive a drop while the page is open.
- There are no paid plans and no accounts yet.
Questions
Do I need an account?
No. Start in your browser and you are writing in under a minute. A GitHub account is only needed if you choose to keep your project on GitHub.
What does it cost?
Rescriptus is free while it is in beta. There is no billing yet. If that changes, getting your files out will never be behind a paywall.
Where is my writing stored?
Where you choose: in this browser, in a folder on your computer (in Chrome, Edge and other Chromium browsers on a computer), or in a GitHub repository. A working copy is also kept in your browser so pages open fast and edits survive a dropped connection. We do not store it on our servers.
Can you read my book?
Not through Rescriptus. Your writing does not pass through our servers. If you use GitHub, GitHub holds your repository under its own rules. A private repository is private to you.
What if Rescriptus shuts down?
Your files are ordinary Markdown files in your own storage. Open them in any editor. Nothing is locked in, and you can download everything as a zip at any time.
Will you use my writing to train AI?
We cannot. We do not have it. Rescriptus has no AI features, and nothing you write is sent to an AI service by us.
Can I get my work into Word or onto an e-reader?
Yes. Export any book as a Word manuscript or an EPUB, or as Markdown or plain text. There is no PDF export.
Can I bring in what I have already written?
Yes. Import Word files, Markdown, plain text, or a zip of them. You see a preview before anything is added.
Can two people write together?
Not live. If you share a GitHub repository, Rescriptus brings in changes made elsewhere, combines edits to different words, and asks before it overwrites anything.
Can I use it offline?
Partly. If your connection drops while the page is open, your edits are kept on your device and sent when it comes back. Opening Rescriptus with no connection at all does not work yet.
Does it work on my phone?
It runs in a phone browser, with a bottom bar and drawers for the chapter list and wiki. It is not a separate app.
What is a palimpsest?
A manuscript scraped clean and written over, with the old words still faintly visible underneath. Rescriptus is named after that idea: your earlier versions stay within reach.
More in the help pages.
Ready when you are
Open it, pick a starting point, and write. Your files stay yours.
Start writing