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Draft Bench

by banisterious
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Description

This plugin has not been manually reviewed by Obsidian staff. A full creative writing workflow: project creation, scene management, and manuscript compilation with frontmatter-native data and Bases compatibility.

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Latest Version

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Changelog

See all version on GitHub

README file from

Github

A writing workflow for Obsidian. Manage projects, scenes, and versioned drafts in plain markdown, with flexible folder structure and native compatibility with Obsidian Bases.

Draft Bench is inspired by Longform, with added emphasis on per-scene draft history as first-class files, rich metadata via frontmatter, and a compile system that requires no JavaScript knowledge.

Status: 0.6.1 — current release. The full V1 feature set has shipped, plus extensions: sub-scene note type (0.2.0); Manuscript Builder Preview tab (0.3.0), dockable Manuscript Builder leaf (0.3.1), mobile support (0.3.2; Android verified, iOS / iPadOS untested), Builder-aligned Manuscript leaf restyle (0.3.3); Manuscript view Continuous mode (0.4.0); Scrivener 3 project importer (0.5.0-0.5.2); five-phase architectural audit (0.5.3); status-based scene-archive workflow (0.5.4); build-provenance attestations on every release asset (0.5.5); frontmatter type-narrowing refactor (0.6.0); scanner-hygiene patch eliminating IE-era polyfill literals from transitive dependencies (0.6.1). API and data shape may still adjust between minor versions during the 0.x phase. See VERSIONING.md, the CHANGELOG, or the Release History wiki page for full detail.

What it is

  • Frontmatter-native. Every project, scene, and draft is a plain markdown file with dbench-* properties. No index files, no parallel JSON stores. The vault is the database.
  • Versioned per-scene drafts. Each "new draft" command snapshots a scene's current prose into its own file, carries the working draft forward, and lets you keep revising. Every prior draft remains a real file, openable in split panes for side-by-side comparison.
  • Flexible folder structure. Scenes can live anywhere in your vault; the plugin identifies them by frontmatter, not folder location. Organize by status, POV, date, or any other scheme; nothing breaks.
  • Obsidian Bases compatible. Every property is Bases-queryable out of the box. Build manuscript tables, status queues, and corkboards without custom configuration.
  • Compile without JavaScript. A form-based Manuscript Builder handles compile presets, scene selection, and multi-format export (Markdown, ODT, PDF, DOCX).
  • Compile preview, in-place. A Preview tab renders the current preset's output as continuous read-only prose, no real export file needed. Dock the Builder as a workspace tab to keep Preview pinned next to a scene you're editing; Preview re-renders as you save.
  • Scrivener 3 import. A multi-step wizard reads a .scriv bundle from inside your vault and produces a fresh Draft Bench project: chapters, scenes, sub-scenes, drafts (optional), inspector content (synopses, notes, comments, footnotes, keywords), and custom metadata. Cross-platform; works on every OS Draft Bench itself supports. See Importing from Scrivener.

Install

  • Community Plugins (recommended): Settings -> Community plugins -> Browse -> "Draft Bench" -> Install -> Enable.
  • BRAT (for pre-release access): Install BRAT, then add banisterious/obsidian-draft-bench as a beta plugin. Useful when you want early access to release-candidate builds before they reach the community-plugin directory.
  • Manual: Download main.js, manifest.json, styles.css from GitHub Releases into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/draft-bench/.

See Getting Started for the first-project walkthrough.

Documentation

User documentation lives at the GitHub Wiki. Developer and design documentation is in the repo:

Community & Support

Non-goals

Draft Bench is deliberately not an AI writing assistant, a grammar checker, a text-editor replacement, a collaboration tool, or a submission tracker. It provides structural and workflow scaffolding; the words are yours. See the specification for the full list.

License

MIT.

Sponsors