· Version 0.2.0

Novelist 0.2.0 — Writing with AI, natively

AI Talk and AI Agent panels, a prompt preset library, a fresh SVG icon set, and a rewritten selection renderer.

0.2.0 makes writing with AI a first-class citizen in Novelist — and gives the editor a broad visual and plumbing polish.

AI Talk: parallel multi-session chat

The new AI Talk panel lets you run multiple conversations inside the same project: one for brainstorming, one for polishing a specific chapter, one for drafting emails.

  • Each session keeps its own history
  • A prompt preset dropdown at the top flips between the roles you use (editor, translator, critic…)
  • Save any conversation to the project as Markdown — dialogue is part of the work too

AI Agent: more proactive collaboration

The AI Agent panel runs Claude CLI in a subprocess with access to the project’s files. It sits next to AI Talk but serves a different purpose — Talk is dialogue, Agent is execution: rename a character across the whole novel, extract every TODO, split a draft into one-file-per-chapter.

Prompt preset manager

Settings → Prompt Presets now gives you full CRUD over prompt templates — create, edit, import, export. Presets are scoped per project, so each novel can have its own cast of roles. Talk and Agent share the same library.

Visual refresh: a hand-rolled SVG icon set

Every emoji in the UI has been replaced by a hand-drawn SVG icon. Line weight, stroke, and color all match Novelist’s own type system — the product looks like itself on every platform now.

Under the hood: selection renderer rewrite

In the 0.1.x line some readers saw selection highlights rendering with mismatched tints or ragged right edges. This release ships a three-layer paint system for selections — line decoration, native ::selection, and a suppression layer inside selected lines. The result:

  • Partial-character and full-line selections render at the same 18% accent tint
  • Wrapped selections no longer tear at the right margin
  • CodeMirror 6’s hideNativeSelection no longer eats our selection

Also

  • AI-panel toggle / new session / save chat all have shortcuts (remappable in Settings)
  • Testing moved to a three-tier hierarchy (unit / integration / e2e) with enforced coverage floors
  • Full list: upstream CHANGELOG

Download 0.2.0 →