Manuscript Workbench — Python edition

Local web app for cleaning manuscripts, structuring text with Markdown, importing files or URLs, exporting TXT/Markdown/DOCX, running preflight checks, and streaming rewrite/clean tasks through local OpenAI-compatible providers such as LM Studio and oMLX.

User guide: USER_GUIDE.md

Screenshot

Install

cd "Manuscript Workbench"
python -m venv .venv
# macOS/Linux
source .venv/bin/activate
# Windows PowerShell
# .venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
pip install -r requirements.txt
python app.py

Open the URL printed in the terminal, normally:

http://127.0.0.1:8765

To use another port:

MANUSCRIPT_WORKBENCH_PORT=8766 ./start_mac_linux.sh

Local AI Providers

The AI tab supports OpenAI-compatible local endpoints:

• LM Studio: http://localhost:1234/v1
• oMLX: http://localhost:8000/v1
• Ollama: http://localhost:11434/v1
• Custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint

Start your provider, choose it in the AI tab, click Detect Model, then choose the model.

The app sends model, messages, and stream. Runtime settings such as temperature/top-p/context length stay in the provider app, unless you fill in the optional Advanced request options in the AI tab.

Markdown Structure

Markdown structure is converted to Word paragraph styles during DOCX export:

# Chapter One          -> Heading 1
## A Subhead           -> Heading 2
### Lower Subhead      -> Heading 3
> Quoted paragraph     -> block quote
***                    -> scene break

Extra manuscript blocks use fenced Markdown-style containers:

::: verse
Poetry or song lines
:::

::: written-note
A note written by a character
:::

Inline markup:

*italic*
**bold**
`monospace`
[[u:underline]]
[[sc:small caps]]
[[sans:sans serif]]

Saving Text

Use Export TXT for clean plain text without Markdown structure characters.

Use Export Markdown to keep the editable Markdown manuscript.

Use Export DOCX for a formatted Word document.

Notes

• .md / .markdown import opens Markdown directly.
• .docx import preserves common paragraph styles as Markdown where possible, but it is not a full Word layout converter.
• .rtf import is a practical plain-text extraction, not full formatting preservation.
• .html / .htm import offers simple extraction and Trafilatura main-text extraction before loading.
• Import URL fetches an http/https page and shows the same extraction choice before replacing the editor.
• Old binary .doc files should be saved as .docx, .rtf, or .txt first.