🔥 Kindling v1.1.0 — Plantser Support & UX Polish

A major milestone! This release transforms Kindling from a plotter's tool into a home for every kind of writer. Whether you outline obsessively, discover your story as you write, or land somewhere in between — v1.1 has you covered.

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🌀 Rolling Outline Mode

Control how much structure each chapter and scene has with three planning states:

Status	Meaning
🟢 Fixed	Full beat scaffolding, references, and discovery notes (existing behavior)
🟡 Flexible	Title + synopsis only — beats hidden until you're ready
⚪ Undefined	A placeholder — you know it exists but haven't planned it yet

Promote scenes progressively: Undefined → Flexible → Fixed as your story takes shape. The sidebar adapts automatically — Undefined chapters show a placeholder, Flexible chapters show simplified title-only scene lists, and Fixed chapters show the full outline with filters and drag-and-drop.

💡 A first-time guidance banner walks you through the workflow when you open your first scene.

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📄 Blank Projects

Create a new project from scratch with File → New Project (Cmd+N). No import needed — start with an empty chapter and build your outline directly in Kindling. New scenes default to Undefined, so you can define structure as you go.

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✂️ Beat Management

• 🗑️ Delete beats via context menu or keyboard
• ↕️ Reorder beats with drag-and-drop
• ✂️ Split prose into beats — break a long prose block into individual beats
• 🔗 Merge beats — combine adjacent beats into one
• 📊 Beat density indicator — visual gauge showing how detailed each scene is

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💡 Inline Discovery Notes

Capture ideas mid-writing with Cmd+D. Discovery notes live alongside your scene and can be promoted to full beats when you're ready. Notes persist across sessions with snapshot support.

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⌨️ Command Palette

Press Cmd+K to open the command palette. Fuzzy search across all available actions — import, export, settings, navigation, and more. Arrow keys to navigate, Enter to execute.

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🎓 Guided Onboarding

First-time users see a step-by-step guided tour covering the sidebar, scene panel, references panel, and sync. Includes a sample project to explore immediately, plus a Quick Start guide accessible from Help (Cmd+Shift+H).

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🧹 Sidebar UX Overhaul

The sidebar got a serious cleanup:

• 📦 Export, Snapshots, and Archive tucked behind a "more" menu
• 🎚️ Scene filters consolidated into a compact toggle (All / Planned / Next 5) plus a filter popover
• ✨ Cleaner scene rows — redundant icons removed, status indicators consolidated
• 🗂️ Context menu flyout for planning status selection
• ✏️ Inline chapter synopsis editing for Flexible/Undefined chapters

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🖥️ Start Screen Redesign

• 📐 Two-column golden ratio layout (38.2% / 61.8%)
• 🪟 More real estate for recent projects
• 📱 Centered, responsive design
• Default window size 1600×1000, minimum 1360×800

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🔄 Auto-Updater

Kindling now checks for updates automatically on launch. When a new version is available, it downloads silently in the background and shows a non-blocking banner:

"Kindling vX.Y.Z is ready — Restart to update."

No more manually downloading releases! 🎉

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🛠️ Other Improvements

• Sync button tooltip added to guidance overlay
• Command palette arrow navigation scrolls selected item into view
• Quick Start documentation accessible from Help menu
• Dependency updates and security audit fixes
• ✅ Apple code signing and notarization for macOS builds

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📥 Installation

Platform	File
🍎 macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel)	Kindling_1.1.0_universal.dmg
🪟 Windows	Kindling_1.1.0_x64-setup.exe or .msi
🐧 Linux (AppImage)	Kindling_1.1.0_amd64.AppImage
🐧 Linux (Debian)	Kindling_1.1.0_amd64.deb
🐧 Linux (RPM)	Kindling-1.1.0-1.x86_64.rpm

First-Time Installation Notes

🍎 macOS: Code-signed and notarized by Apple. Opens without hassle.

🪟 Windows: You may see a SmartScreen warning. Click "More info" → "Run anyway."

🐧 Linux: Make the AppImage executable with chmod +x before running.

⬆️ Upgrading

If you have v1.0.x installed, just download and install v1.1.0 over it. Your projects are stored separately and will be preserved. Going forward, Kindling will update itself automatically!

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Full Changelog: https://github.com/smith-and-web/kindling/compare/v1.0.1-beta.6...v1.1.0

Thank you for using Kindling! If you enjoy it, consider giving us a ⭐ on GitHub.