How to use Who Where When
Who Where When is a story bible app for novelists. It keeps your characters, places, factions, items and lore in one place, records when each fact was true and which chapter says so, and warns you when your story contradicts itself.
This guide walks through the whole app in order: signing up, setting up a universe, filling it with books, entries and facts, bringing in an AI, running the continuity check, working with timelines, family trees and maps, inviting a co-author, and publishing a reader wiki. Each step links to a help article with more detail.
You don't need to do every step. Many authors only ever use the bible and the continuity check. The rest is there when a series gets big enough to need it.
Step 1: Sign up with your email
Go to the sign-in page, type your email address and choose Email me a sign-in link. There's no password. The link in the email works once and expires after 15 minutes. If you haven't used Who Where When before, opening the link creates your account.
You'll stay signed in on that browser for 30 days. To change the name your co-authors see, open your name in the top corner of Your universes and edit Display name on the Account page.
Step 2: Create a universe, or explore the sample
A universe holds one series: its books, characters, places and lore. A standalone novel gets a universe too.
On Your universes, choose New universe, enter the Series or world name and an optional description, and choose Create.
If you'd rather look around first, choose Explore the sample (or Add the sample universe if you already have one). You get The Ashen Crown, a two-book fantasy series with a custom calendar, a family, a magic system and four mistakes planted on purpose:
- Kael Varn's eyes are green in book one and grey in book two.
- Kael is said to be 19, but his birth year makes him 24.
- Kael holds the Varrow gate for three days while also attending a vigil in Thornwatch.
- Lord Aldric attends a council months after he dies.
Open Continuity in the sample and you'll see all four flagged. Delete the sample whenever you like from Settings → General.
Step 3: Add books and chapters, or upload a manuscript
Open Books & chapters and choose Add book. The first book takes the universe's name; rename it by clicking the title. Set each book's status to Planned, Drafting or Published, and reorder books with the arrows.
Chapters matter because they're what facts cite as sources, and what the reader wiki uses to hide spoilers. You have two ways to add them:
- By hand. Choose Add chapter under a book. Open a chapter to Paste text if you want it stored.
- Upload the manuscript. Choose Upload manuscript on a book, pick a .docx, .md or .txt file, and choose Import chapters. Who Where When splits the file at headings and at lines like "Chapter 7", "Prologue" or a bare numeral, and adds the chapters after any the book already has.
Once chapters have text, each entry's page shows where that character or place Appears in, and the Overview lists Names in your chapters: recurring names that aren't in your bible yet, with one-click buttons to add each as a character, place, faction or item. Uploaded text isn't sent to an AI.
More: How do I upload my manuscript?
Step 4: Build entries and facts by hand
An entry is anything you need to keep track of: a character, place, faction, item, creature, concept, or something else. To add one, open a type under Bible and choose New character (or place, faction and so on), or press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows) anywhere, type a name, and pick from Create.
On an entry's page you can add aliases ("the Ember Knight", "Sir Kael"), a one-line summary, tags, an image, and free-form notes. In notes, type @ to link another entry; the linked page lists it under Mentioned by.
The heart of each entry is its facts. Choose Add fact and fill in:
| Field | Example | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Attribute | eye color | Facts with the same attribute are compared |
| Value | green | What the text says |
| True from / Until | 412 AS | Lets a fact change over time without a false alarm |
| Source chapter | Book 1, Chapter 2 | Where you found it, linked to the text |
| Readers learn it in | Book 2, Chapter 1 | Controls when it appears on the reader wiki |
| Quote | "his green eyes caught the firelight" | The exact words, for checking later |
You can also mark a fact Inferred, not stated outright or Secret (never shown to readers). If something changes in the story, such as a curse turning eyes white, add a second fact with its own "true from" date instead of editing the first.
More: Entries, facts and sources
Step 5: Set up your world's calendar
If your story uses its own months or eras, set them in Settings → Calendar before you add many dates. Name the calendar, add months with their lengths, and add eras with an abbreviation and starting year. The sample uses ten months, from Frostmoon to Deepwinter, and an era called After Sundering (AS).
After that, date fields accept things like 412, 3 Frostmoon 412 or 412 AS. Use the standard calendar puts the usual twelve months back.
More: In-story dates and calendars
Step 6: Use the AI prompts and Import
You can use the ChatGPT or Claude subscription you already have to do the reading. Open Prompts and pick one:
- Extract from a chapter: characters, places, facts, events and relationships from one chapter.
- Character deep dive: every fact about one character across the chapters you paste.
- Timeline builder: events in order, with in-story dates where possible.
- Continuity audit: compares a new chapter against your bible and lists contradictions with quotes.
- Backfill from a synopsis: a starter bible from outlines or blurbs.
- Brainstorm: new ideas that fit your world, all marked as drafts.
Each prompt includes your current names and aliases, so the AI matches existing entries instead of inventing duplicates. Choose Copy prompt, paste it into your AI, paste your chapter after it, and copy the whole reply.
Then open Import and paste the reply. Who Where When sorts it into Conflicts, New entries, Updates to existing entries, New facts, New events, New relationships and Already in your bible. Tick what you want, decide each conflict, and choose Import. Nothing changes until you do, and the whole import is one entry in History that you can undo.
More: Use ChatGPT or Claude with the prompts and Review an import
Step 7: Connect your AI directly
With Pro, you can skip the copy and paste. In Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok or Le Chat, add a custom connector with https://whowherewhen.app/mcp (in Claude it's Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector). Your AI opens a Who Where When page asking you to allow access; sign in if asked and choose Allow.
Then ask in plain words: "List my universes, then read chapter 3 and add anything new to my bible." Your AI can read the bible, search, read chapters, run the continuity check and add entries, facts, events and relationships. Facts that conflict with your bible are reported back to you, not saved over it. Every change it makes is labeled in History. Some apps only allow custom connectors, or only read-only ones, on certain plans.
More: How do I connect Claude, ChatGPT or another AI?
Step 8: Run the continuity check
There's no button to press: the novel continuity checker runs on every change. Open Continuity to see what it found, grouped as Contradiction, Likely problem and Worth a look. It catches:
- Conflicting facts (the same attribute with two values at the same time)
- Characters who appear after their death or before their birth
- A character in two places at once
- Ages that don't add up against a birth date
- Possible duplicate entries
- Date ranges that end before they start
- Relationships pointing at deleted entries
Each issue shows the facts involved, with their source chapters and quotes. You can Keep this one to resolve a conflict, Merge into one of two duplicates, or mark it Intentional if the contradiction is deliberate (an unreliable narrator, say). Intentional issues move to their own tab and stop counting.
More: The continuity check
Step 9: Build the timeline, family trees and maps
These three views draw themselves from what's already in the bible.
Timeline. Choose New event and give it a title, kind (birth, death, battle, journey and so on), date, place and participants. Dated events appear on a zoomable timeline with a lane per character; switch to List for a year-by-year view. Birth and death events feed the continuity check.
Relationships and family trees. Add relationships on an entry's page or under Relationships: parent of, spouse of, ally of, rival of, serves, loves, member of and more. Family trees builds itself from "parent of" and "spouse of" links, and you can add a parent, child or spouse straight from the tree.
Maps. Under Maps, choose Upload map (PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF or SVG, up to 15 MB). Open it, choose Add pin, click the map and link the pin to a place or any other entry.
More: Events and the timeline, Family trees and relationships, Maps
Step 10: Invite a co-author
Open Settings → Collaborators, enter an email, choose Editor or Viewer, and choose Send invite. Editors can change everything except members and publishing. Viewers can only read. The invitation link lasts 14 days.
Everyone sees edits live, and History records who changed what, when and from where: in the app, an AI import, Claude, a manuscript upload. Editors can Undo any entry. Undo only reverses the parts that are still exactly as that change left them, so a co-author's later edits are never overwritten.
More: Invite a co-author and History and undo
Step 11: Publish a spoiler-safe reader wiki
When you're ready to share your world with readers, open Settings → Reader wiki. Tick Published, check the Address (your wiki lives at https://whowherewhen.app/w/your-series), add a title, tagline and accent color, and choose Save.
Readers pick a reading point, such as "I've finished book 1", and only see entries, facts, events and relationships revealed by then. Notes, quotes, secret facts, hidden entries and draft ideas never appear. Use Readers first meet them in on entries and Readers learn it in on facts to control when things show up.
More: Publish a reader wiki
Keep a backup
Your bible is yours. Settings → Export & backup downloads a Full backup (.json) you can restore later, or a Markdown folder (.zip, works with Obsidian) with one file per entry and per chapter. It's worth downloading one before big changes.
For ideas on what's worth tracking in the first place, see What to put in a story bible and Keeping a series consistent.
Common questions
Do I have to upload my manuscript to use Who Where When?
No. You can build the whole bible by hand, or from AI replies, without storing any chapter text. Uploading chapters adds appearance counts and name suggestions.
Does Who Where When send my manuscript to an AI?
Not on its own. Text only reaches an AI if you paste it into one yourself, or if you connect your AI and ask it to read a chapter.
Can I try it without setting anything up?
Yes. Choose Explore the sample to get a two-book fantasy series with four continuity mistakes already planted for the checker to find.
Keep your story straight
Who Where When keeps every character, place and date in your books, and tells you when the story contradicts itself.
Start your story bibleRelated
- What is a story bible?A story bible is the reference file of everything that's true in your book or series. Where the idea comes from, who needs one, and what it isn't.
- What to put in a story bibleA complete story bible checklist by category, from characters and places to timelines and spellings, with why each item is worth tracking.
- How do I create my first universe?Create a universe for your series, or open the sample, then add books, entries and a calendar. Here's what each step does.
- How does the continuity check work?Who Where When checks your bible on every change for conflicting facts, deaths, births, two places at once, ages and duplicates.