Story DNA Inspector

What It Is

The Reactive Story Engine plays one path through a branching narrative at a time. This is the view from above: the whole scene graph of a story bundle, drawn at once, with nothing hidden behind a choice you did not make.

Reading The Map

Scenes are dots, arranged in columns by chapter and running left to right through the arc. Brightness tracks the chapter, so early scenes sit dimmer than late ones. Endings are drawn as outlined squares. Curves are choices: one line per choice, from the scene that offers it to the scene it leads to.

Hovering or selecting a node lights its edges in teal and dims everything it does not touch. The panel then shows the scene id, its track and chapter, the first stretch of its prose, and every choice it offers with the soul deltas that choice applies, colored by dimension.

How It Works

The layout is computed once per canvas size: group scenes by arcPhase, spread each group down its column, then resolve every static goto into an edge. There is no physics and no animation loop. The canvas redraws only when the size changes or the selection changes, which is why this one is a light experiment.

The soul dimensions listed in the panel come straight from the bundle’s own config, colors included, so a new story shows up here correctly the moment it is registered in stories.ts.

Keyboard

The map is focusable. Arrow keys step through scenes in layout order and Escape clears the selection, so the whole graph is reachable without a pointer.