Story Maintenance
Overview
Run deterministic maintenance for Story Skills projects. Use the CLI for structure validation, registry rebuilds, word counts, link checks, continuity checks, project reports, next-action reports, schema migration, entity helpers, manuscript import, and manuscript export. The creative skills still own story decisions; this skill handles mechanical consistency.
CLI Access
Prefer the first available command:
story <command> - when the package bin is installedbun run story -- <command> - when working from this repositorynode scripts/story.js <command> - bundled fallback, resolving scripts/story.js relative to this skill folder
If none of these are available, perform the requested maintenance manually using the conventions in story-init.
Run the installed or bundled CLI in place. Do not copy scripts/story.js into the user's story project, and do not create project-local build scripts, generator scripts, or bulk writer scripts to generate story content. Story projects should remain markdown-first, plus explicitly requested exports such as manuscript.md.
Commands
Run commands from the story project root, or pass the story path explicitly.
story validate .
story reindex .
story wordcount . --write
story links .
story continuity .
story import draft.md --title "Title"
story report .
story report . --actionable
story next .
story doctor .
story migrate .
story add character "Name"
story rename character old-id "New Name"
story remove promise old-promise
story export . --out manuscript.md
story build . --format markdown
story build . --format epub
story build . --format docx
Use:
validate after initialization and at the end of any multi-file editreindex after adding/removing/renaming characters, locations, systems, arcs, or chapterswordcount --write after writing or revising chapterslinks after changing character relationships, notable locations, arc participants, or chapter referencescontinuity after drafting or revising a chapter, and whenever the user asks about contradictions, dead characters appearing, unfired setups, or stale state; it deterministically checks died-in ordering, promise/question chapter ordering, Chekhov gaps, POV/cast consistency, and continuity/state.md referencesimport when the user has an existing manuscript or chapter drafts and wants a Story Skills project built from them; follow up by creating character and location files from the printed entity candidatesreport when the user asks for project status, inventory, progress, or a quick health summarynext before a drafting session to identify the next deterministic actiondoctor when the user asks what is stale, broken, or inconsistentmigrate when a project has an older schema version or missing v2 pathsadd, rename, and remove for deterministic entity file operations when they fit the requested changeexport only when the user asks for a combined manuscript at a specific pathbuild when the user asks to build the book artifact; supports markdown, EPUB, and DOCX outputs in dist/
Failure Handling
- Treat CLI errors as actionable maintenance findings.
- Fix broken references, missing required files, stale registries, or incorrect word counts when the requested task implies doing so.
- Do not overwrite creative prose or story content merely to satisfy a mechanical check.
- If a validation warning reflects intentional user data, report it rather than silently changing it.
1---2name: story-maintenance3description: This skill should be used when the user asks to validate, reindex, repair registries, check links, check continuity, count words, summarize a story project, import an existing manuscript, export a manuscript, run the story CLI, or perform deterministic maintenance on a Story Skills markdown project.4---5
6# Story Maintenance
7
8## Overview
9
10Run deterministic maintenance for Story Skills projects. Use the CLI for structure validation, registry rebuilds, word counts, link checks, continuity checks, project reports, next-action reports, schema migration, entity helpers, manuscript import, and manuscript export. The creative skills still own story decisions; this skill handles mechanical consistency.
11
12## CLI Access
13
14Prefer the first available command:
15
161. `story <command>` - when the package bin is installed
172. `bun run story -- <command>` - when working from this repository
183. `node scripts/story.js <command>` - bundled fallback, resolving `scripts/story.js` relative to this skill folder
19
20If none of these are available, perform the requested maintenance manually using the conventions in `story-init`.
21
22Run the installed or bundled CLI in place. Do not copy `scripts/story.js` into the user's story project, and do not create project-local build scripts, generator scripts, or bulk writer scripts to generate story content. Story projects should remain markdown-first, plus explicitly requested exports such as `manuscript.md`.
23
24## Commands
25
26Run commands from the story project root, or pass the story path explicitly.
27
28```shell
29story validate .
30story reindex .
31story wordcount . --write
32story links .
33story continuity .
34story import draft.md --title "Title"
35story report .
36story report . --actionable
37story next .
38story doctor .
39story migrate .
40story add character "Name"
41story rename character old-id "New Name"
42story remove promise old-promise
43story export . --out manuscript.md
44story build . --format markdown
45story build . --format epub
46story build . --format docx
47```
48
49Use:
50
51- `validate` after initialization and at the end of any multi-file edit
52- `reindex` after adding/removing/renaming characters, locations, systems, arcs, or chapters
53- `wordcount --write` after writing or revising chapters
54- `links` after changing character relationships, notable locations, arc participants, or chapter references
55- `continuity` after drafting or revising a chapter, and whenever the user asks about contradictions, dead characters appearing, unfired setups, or stale state; it deterministically checks `died-in` ordering, promise/question chapter ordering, Chekhov gaps, POV/cast consistency, and `continuity/state.md` references
56- `import` when the user has an existing manuscript or chapter drafts and wants a Story Skills project built from them; follow up by creating character and location files from the printed entity candidates
57- `report` when the user asks for project status, inventory, progress, or a quick health summary
58- `next` before a drafting session to identify the next deterministic action
59- `doctor` when the user asks what is stale, broken, or inconsistent
60- `migrate` when a project has an older schema version or missing v2 paths
61- `add`, `rename`, and `remove` for deterministic entity file operations when they fit the requested change
62- `export` only when the user asks for a combined manuscript at a specific path
63- `build` when the user asks to build the book artifact; supports markdown, EPUB, and DOCX outputs in `dist/`
64
65## Failure Handling
66
67- Treat CLI errors as actionable maintenance findings.
68- Fix broken references, missing required files, stale registries, or incorrect word counts when the requested task implies doing so.
69- Do not overwrite creative prose or story content merely to satisfy a mechanical check.
70- If a validation warning reflects intentional user data, report it rather than silently changing it.
danjdewhurst