Hohoff Editor

A desktop manuscript editor built for the revision stage of novel writing. After producing a first draft in Scrivener or another writing tool, bring your manuscript here to strengthen it before it goes to a human editor.

Hohoff is not a substitute for professional editing. It is a preparation tool: it helps writers identify weaknesses in their own prose — passive voice, consistency gaps, show-vs-tell moments, pacing — so the manuscript arrives at the editor's desk in better shape. The AI flags candidates for revision; you decide what to change and how.

Built with Electron, React, and Claude (Anthropic).

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Features

Manuscript editor

• Markdown editor (CodeMirror 6) with syntax highlighting
• Document outline navigation by heading level
• Full-text search across all draft files
• Drag-and-drop file reordering

AI revision tools

All AI features are diagnostic, not generative — they identify candidates for revision, they don't rewrite your work.

Inline annotations — Run an analysis pass on the open chapter and the editor marks specific passages inline:

• Passive voice
• Consistency (character names, details, continuity)
• Style
• Show vs. tell
• General critique

Hover an annotation to see the suggestion. Apply or dismiss with one click; apply is undoable.

Chat — Ask questions about the open chapter. The AI has access to the chapter text as context. Two optional context toggles extend what it can see:

• Story bible — Injects your Story Bible.md reference file. Useful for continuity questions.
• Whole story — Injects the entire manuscript in narrative order. Useful for arc-level questions.

Both modes surface revision opportunities; the AI doesn't produce prose for you to paste in.

Story Bible

Story Bible.md lives in your project folder alongside the manuscript. Edit it directly in the app. A generation tool can bootstrap it from your existing manuscript (characters, world-building, timeline, themes, continuity rules) as a starting point.

Revision history

Every save creates a versioned snapshot in .hohoff/.revisions/. The revisions panel shows word count per version and lets you browse history.

File management

• Create, rename, and delete files via right-click context menu
• Custom ordering persisted in .hohoff/.order.json
• Folder structure mirrors Part I–IV chapter organisation

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Requirements

• macOS (primary target)
• Node.js 18+
• An Anthropic API key

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Setup

git clone <repo>
cd hohoff
npm install

On first launch, open Hohoff → Preferences (or Cmd+,) and set:

• API key — your Anthropic key
• Project path — the folder containing your manuscript files

Configuration is stored in ~/.hohoff/config.json.

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Development

npm run dev        # Electron dev server with hot reload
npm run build      # Production build
npm run typecheck  # Type-check (Node + browser configs)

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Project structure

The app and your manuscript are completely separate directories.

App (this repository):

hohoff/
└── src/
    ├── main/               Node process: file I/O, AI calls, IPC handlers
    ├── preload/            contextBridge (renderer ↔ main)
    └── renderer/           React UI (editor, chat, file tree, panels)

Manuscript (anywhere on your machine, e.g. ~/Documents/My Novel/):

My Novel/
├── Prologue.md
├── Part I/
│   └── *.md
├── Part II/ … Part IV/
├── Epilogue.md
└── .hohoff/                App metadata (not manuscript content)
    ├── order.json          Custom file ordering
    ├── session.json        Persisted app state
    ├── revisions/          Version history
    └── Story Bible.md      Reference file (optional)

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Configuration reference

~/.hohoff/config.json:

{
  "apiKey": "sk-ant-...",
  "projectPath": "/path/to/your/draft"
}

Changes to apiKey take effect immediately. Changes to projectPath require a restart.