Boards and the canvas

The Node Editor section, Ctrl+1. Its side drawer is titled Boards; the surface beside it is the canvas.

What a board is

A board record is deliberately small:

Field	Type	Required	What it is
id	string	Yes
name	string	Yes	1–100 characters
type	"board"	Yes	Distinguishes it from a folder in the same tree
description	string
color	string
parentId	string or null	Yes	Another board, a folder, or the root
order	number	Yes	Position among its siblings
tagIds	string[]
startNodeId	string		Where a playthrough of this board begins
createdAt · updatedAt	number	Yes	Epoch milliseconds
createdBy	string	Yes

A folder is the same shape minus the board-specific fields, with type: "folder". Boards and folders share one tree, so a board may be nested under either.

startNodeId is optional in a way worth knowing: leaving it unset keeps the derivation — a root node with an outgoing edge — and an id pointing at a node that no longer exists is treated as nothing declared rather than as an error.

Where the content lives. The board records are one collection; the nodes and edges are another, keyed by board id. That separation is what lets one canvas be re-pointed at a different board instead of being torn down and rebuilt, and it is why a board tab renders no content of its own.

The tree

Right-click in the drawer: New Board, New Folder, Rename, Edit (boards only — name, description, colour, tags), Delete. The delete dialog reports how many nodes, edges and child items go with it.

Single-click a board opens it as a preview tab; double-click opens it for keeps — and on a board that has children, the double-click opens it rather than merely expanding the row.

Reaching another board

Three separate mechanisms, and they do different things.

Nesting

parentId. This is organisation — where a board sits in the tree. It has no effect on the story’s flow.

The Board node

A node whose type is Board: runs another board, then continues here — with the entities it contains. Its header field is a board reference marked as a jump target, and it carries a header action labelled Open board. Its body lists up to six of the referenced board’s entities, plus a description.

The Jump node

A node whose type is Jump: continues the flow at another node. Its field is a node reference, also a jump target, and the target may be on any board.

A Jump node can be connected into but never out of — its connection policy is can receive, cannot initiate, single output. A drag from one does not start a wire, and no message is shown.

Nodes, edges and exits

A node

Field	Type	Notes
id	string
type	string	The node type’s code
position	{x, y}	World coordinates
data	object	The node’s field values, shaped by its node type
width · height	number	Optional; some types are fixed-size
parentId	string	Set when the node is inside a group
sourcePosition · targetPosition		Which side its ports default to

An edge

Field	Type	Notes
id	string
source · target	string	Node ids
sourceHandle · targetHandle	string	Which port on each end
pathStyle	bezier · straight · step · smoothstep
color	string	A hex value, or source-node to inherit
thickness	number
animated	boolean
markerStart · markerEnd		Arrowheads
waypoints	{x, y}[]

An edge also carries its condition, as collaborative text on the edge itself. Whitespace alone counts as no condition for the purpose of showing the “this exit is gated” affordance.

An exit

An exit is what the story actually follows, and it is computed from a node’s type and data rather than stored:

Field	Meaning
portId	Which port it leaves by
gate	The condition, or null for ungated
content	The field slots shown for it. Empty content means a branch, not a player choice.
repeater	Set when the exit came from a repeater block, with the instance and index
exitKind	offer · branch · continue · display
whenBlocked	show or hide. Default: show
label	The handle’s own label, when it has one: the option’s words when neither the exit’s cells nor the edge’s label give any. It never makes an exit an option

Connection policy

Every node type declares three things:

Field	Values	Meaning
canReceive	boolean	May be the target of an edge. An Entry node cannot.
canInitiate	boolean	May be the source of an edge. A Jump node cannot.
outputCapacity	unlimited · single · per-port	unlimited for dialogue, per-port for a branch (one output per condition port), single for everything else

A node type declaring canReceive: false is what makes it an entry node, which is also what makes it selectable in Game Start.

The node types a new project starts with

Type	Description
Text	A free-form text card
Board	Runs another board, then continues here — with the entities it contains
Dialogue	A line of dialogue spoken by an entity
Entry	Where a conversation starts
Branch	Splits the flow down the first matching condition
Jump	Continues the flow at another node
Element	A media or entity element
Code	Runs an expression when the flow reaches it

All eight appear in the canvas’s palette — the radial menu and the toolbar — on a new project. More premade types, such as the Exchange (a run of lines between several characters, played as one moment) and the Interaction (an Entry and a Branch in one card, where a conversation begins), are added from the Library. Every one of them is project data you can change. See the node builder.

A group — the named, collapsible frame you make with Ctrl+G — is not on the list: it is built into the canvas rather than being a node type, so there is nothing about it to edit in the builder.

Writing in a node

Every text field on a node is a real editing surface, not an input box — bold, italic, underline and links, sized to your text rather than clipping it, and holding your cursor position while somebody else edits alongside you.

Two characters put something live into the prose, and they are different keys for different things:

Type	You get	What is stored
@	A character, item or location — anything that is an entity	The entity’s id, plus a copy of its name
{	A variable or an expression, resolved when the story runs	The variable’s id and its code

An @ mention is an atom: one indivisible thing you select and delete in a single press, not a run of text that can be half-deleted into nonsense. So is a { interpolation — which is why a literal { you type yourself survives untouched beside one.

{ is the variable trigger, not @. They are separate mechanisms: a mention points at a thing in your world, an interpolation is a value at play time. See variables.

Moving around

Gestures

Gesture	Effect
Middle-drag, anywhere including over a node	Pan
Space + left-drag	Pan — the trackpad fallback
Left-drag on empty canvas	Marquee select
Shift + left-drag	Add to the selection
Left-drag a node	Move the whole selection
Shift + click a node	Toggle it in the selection
Click a node	Select just it
Shift while resizing	Lock the aspect ratio
Shift while rotating	Snap the angle
Mouse wheel	Zoom about the cursor
Right-click empty canvas	Radial menu — create a node there
Drop a dragged connection on empty canvas	Radial menu — creates the node and the edge, as one undo step
Drag an edge endpoint to empty canvas	Radial menu — creates a node and re-attaches, as one undo step
Drag from the palette bar	Create a node at the grid-snapped drop point
Double-click an edge	Edit its label
Right-click an edge	Path style, thickness, colour, delete
Drag near a pane edge	Auto-pan — a 40px band, except during a marquee

This is deliberately the convention Blender, Unreal and Unity share: middle-drag pans, left-drag selects.

A marquee counts an edge when its path enters the box, not only when the whole edge is inside; and a drag that starts inside a group frame but outside its grab handle counts as background, so a marquee can begin inside a group. A drag under 5 pixels is a click, not a box.

Shortcuts

With the canvas focused and no text field active:

Keys	Action
Ctrl+C	Copy
Ctrl+X	Cut
Ctrl+V	Paste, centred on the cursor
Ctrl+D	Duplicate at the cursor
Ctrl+A	Select all
Ctrl+G / Ctrl+Shift+G	Group / ungroup
Ctrl+0	Reset the selection to automatic size
Delete / Backspace	Delete
Escape	Clear the selection
Shift+1	Fit every node in view
A letter, digit or symbol, one node selected	Start typing in the node’s first text field
G	Toggle grid snapping
S	Toggle edge spacing

With exactly one node selected, typing goes into that node: its first editable text field opens with your character in it, so G and S type letters instead of toggling. With no selection or several nodes selected, they toggle as listed. A single click on an empty text field (one still showing its placeholder) also starts editing it; a field with text opens on a double-click.

Zoom, grid and the minimap

Zoom range	12.5% – 200%
Zoom step used by fit and focus	12.5%, so text stays crisp
Wheel	Continuous, about the cursor
Grid	Two levels, the coarse one every fifth line; it fades out as you zoom away
Below 40% zoom	Nodes render as shells rather than full content
Minimap	Bottom-left, 200×150, pannable and zoomable, with a Fit all nodes in view button
Viewport	Saved per project and per board, so a board reopens where you left it

There is no keyboard shortcut for zoom. Fit-view is the minimap’s corner button, or Shift+1 with the canvas focused.

A read-only collaborator keeps pan, zoom and select, and loses drag, resize, connect, reconnect and rotate.

Limits

Nothing enforces a cap on boards, nodes or edges per project — no guard reads one, and no such number is published. The only limit a large project meets is storage per project, which counts the collaborative snapshots of your boards as well as your media. That figure is per plan and lives on the pricing page.

What breaks

Situation	What you see
A board name is empty	Board name cannot be empty
A board name is over 100 characters	Board name must be 100 characters or less
Dragging an edge out of a Jump node	No wire starts; no message is shown
A Board or Jump node with no target set	The Open board action does nothing
An automatic exit’s gate is present but blank	The exit fails, and the next exit is tried
An offered exit’s gate is present but blank	No condition: the option is offered and can be picked