Timelines

Timelines let you visualise the chronological flow of your story world. Each timeline is an element in the project tree, anchored to a time system (e.g. Gregorian, Relative Years, or a custom fantasy calendar).

Creating a Timeline

1. Click Create in the project sidebar, then select Timeline.
2. Name your timeline and click Create.
3. On first open, you'll be prompted to choose a time system. This locks in for the timeline's lifetime—create a separate timeline if you need a different calendar.
4. To install a time system, go to Settings → Time Systems and install a template (e.g. Gregorian).

Adding Events Manually

• Click Add event in the toolbar to open the event dialog.
• Set a title, pick a track, and enter a start date (and optional end date for ranged events).
• Events can optionally link to a worldbuilding element via Linked Element.

Auto-Build from Elements

The Auto-build from elements button scans every worldbuilding element in your project for date-type schema fields with populated values, then presents a selection dialog where you choose which ones to add as timeline events.

How to Use

1. Ensure your worldbuilding elements have date fields with values filled in (e.g. a Character with a dateOfBirth field set to 1198-5-12).
2. Open your timeline and make sure a time system is committed.
3. Click Auto-build from elements in the toolbar.
4. A dialog appears listing all candidate elements with date fields. Each row shows the element name, the field label, and the raw date value.
5. Candidates are pre-checked by default (except those already on the timeline). Uncheck any you don't want to add.
6. Click Add N events to generate the selected events on the timeline.

What Gets Generated

• One event per selected date field.
• The event title follows the format Element Name: Field Label (e.g. Elara Nightwhisper: Date of Birth).
• Each event is linked back to its source element via linkedElementId.
• Events are placed on the first track.

Idempotent Re-runs

When you re-open the auto-build dialog, candidates already on the timeline are shown with a checkmark icon and unchecked by default. You can:

• Update existing auto events by re-checking them (the date value is re-parsed from the element).
• Remove auto events by leaving them unchecked — unchecked auto events are removed from the timeline when you confirm.
• Preserve manually-authored events (they are never touched by auto-build).

Limitations

• Only date type fields in worldbuilding schemas are scanned. Other field types (text, number, etc.) are ignored.
• All auto-built events are placed on the first track. You can move them to other tracks manually afterward.
• The source field key (e.g. background.dateOfBirth) is stored on each auto-built event for idempotency tracking.