How to use Signal

1. The idea behind Signal

Most writing tools assume you're writing linearly: chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3. TMAPO doesn't work that way. It moves through drift, signal interference, and daydream logic between six vignettes of equal ontological weight.

Signal is built around that movement. Instead of chapters, you write in blocks, each tagged to a vignette. When you feel the pressure change and want to drift into another vignette, you switch. The tool tracks where you've been, what threads are active, and what each vignette last touched, so you can feel the shape of the book as you write it.

2. Layout overview

• Left rail: always visible. The constellation, vignette selector buttons (with word counts), and total word count.
• Writing surface: the main area. A continuous scroll of blocks. This is where you write.
• Right panel: slides open when you click a panel button in the top bar (Threads, TMAPO, Fragments, ASCII, Drift Map). Close it with Esc or by clicking the same button again.
• Top bar: shows the current vignette name (colour-coded) and toggle buttons for all panels.
• Status bar: at the bottom. Shows save status, total words, segment count, and quick shortcut hints.

3. Writing and blocks

The manuscript is made of blocks (called segments). Each block is a text area tagged to one of the six vignettes. A coloured bar on the left edge shows which vignette the block belongs to.

Creating a new block

Press Cmd + Enter to create a new block in the same vignette, directly below the one you're writing in. You can also switch to a different vignette (see below), which automatically creates a new block if the current one has content.

Moving between blocks

Click into any block to make it active. The active block has a brighter coloured bar and its vignette glows in the constellation.

Retagging a block

Click the vignette label at the top-left of any block to cycle it through the six vignettes. Useful if you realise a passage belongs somewhere else.

Deleting a block

Hover over a block and click the × button that appears on the right of the header. You can't delete the last remaining block.

4. Switching vignettes

This is the core action of Signal. When the pressure changes and you want to drift into a different vignette:

Press Cmd + a number key:

Or click a vignette button in the left rail.

What happens: if your current block is empty, it simply retags to the new vignette. If it has content, a new block is created below it, tagged to the new vignette. A ~ ~ ~ transition marker appears between blocks of different vignettes.

The top bar updates to show the current vignette name in its colour, and the constellation highlights the active node.

5. The constellation

The mini constellation in the top-left of the rail is a living map of your book. It shows:

• Six nodes arranged in a circle, one per vignette
• The current vignette glows with a pulsing halo
• Structural connections between vignettes as faint lines
• A golden dashed drift path tracing how the book has moved between vignettes, based on the order of your blocks

As you write and switch between vignettes, the drift path grows and you can see the movement pattern of the manuscript at a glance.

6. Thread tracking

TMAPO has eight soft threads that recur across vignettes: breath, surfaces, signals, bodies, landscape, war/moral, drift, preservation. These are the invisible fibres that connect the daydreams.

Tagging threads on a block

Each block's header has a row of small thread pills. Click a pill to toggle that thread on/off for the block. Active threads appear highlighted.

You can also tag threads for the current block in the Threads panel (right side), under "Tag Current Block."

The thread log

Open the Threads panel with the top bar button or Cmd + Shift + T. The log shows each thread with:

• How many times it has appeared (e.g. 3x)
• How far back the last appearance was (e.g. 4 blocks ago or this block)

This tells you at a glance: "Breath hasn't surfaced in 8 blocks. Maybe this passage wants it."

7. TMAPO recurrence log

The title phrase "Their Most August Public Organ" recurs throughout the novel in different forms, like Brautigan's "Trout Fishing in America." Each appearance is slightly different, slightly off.

Logging an appearance

Open the TMAPO panel from the top bar or click the TMAPO button. At the bottom, fill in:

1. Vignette: where the phrase appears
2. Form: what it manifests as (e.g. "cheap paperback," "corrupted text file," "food court signage," "letter reference," "graffiti")
3. Wording / context: the exact phrasing or how it appears in the text

Click Log Appearance. The entry appears in the log above, showing all appearances across the book.

This helps you track: how many times has the phrase appeared? In which vignettes? Is it becoming more corrupted over time? More abstract? More or less legible?

8. The handover prompt

This is the heart of Signal's philosophy. Press Cmd + H or click Handover in the top bar.

A panel appears at the bottom of the writing surface with the question:

Below it, each vignette is listed with the last sentence written in that vignette. This shows you what each world last touched: a surface, a sound, a thought, a rhythm.

Click any vignette in the handover list to drift there. A new block is created, tagged to that vignette, and the handover closes.

When to use it

When the energy dips. When you feel a transition coming but aren't sure where to go. Open the handover, scan the last touches, and let one of them pull you forward. The connection becomes the transition.

Example: The Boxer's last touch was "the weight of his hands resting on his knees." Root's was "a faint hum from the relay node." Either could become a doorway. You don't decide logically. You feel which one connects to where you are now.

9. Fragment drawer

Sometimes you write a passage that feels true but doesn't have a home yet. It doesn't belong to any vignette. It's just a fragment, hovering.

Open the Fragments panel with the top bar button or Cmd + Shift + F.

Writing a fragment

At the bottom of the panel, there's a text area. Write your passage. Optionally add a mood (a word or phrase describing its feeling). Click Save.

Using a fragment

When you're writing and a fragment connects, click insert on the fragment card. It creates a new block in the manuscript with that text, tagged to whatever vignette is currently active. The fragment is removed from the drawer.

You can also delete fragments you no longer need.

10. ASCII workbench

TMAPO uses ASCII art and text-visual notation as part of its language: landscape forms, score notation, network diagrams, text files. These are "pressure peaks" where prose fractures into visual form.

Composing an ASCII block

Open the ASCII panel from the top bar. You'll see a monospace text area. Compose your text-visual here, using the full width of the space.

Click Insert into Manuscript. A new block appears in the manuscript, styled in monospace with a dashed border in the vignette's colour.

Quick ASCII block

Press Cmd + Shift + A to create an empty ASCII block directly in the manuscript, without opening the panel. Write directly into it.

11. Drift map

Open the Drift Map panel from the top bar or Cmd + Shift + D.

The river

At the top of the panel, a row of coloured blocks represents the manuscript. Each block is one segment, colour-coded by vignette, with width proportional to word count. ASCII blocks have a dashed outline. Hover any block to see its vignette and word count.

This gives you a bird's-eye view of the manuscript: where it lingers, where it moves quickly, and the pattern of vignette transitions.

Distribution

Below the river, a set of bars shows the percentage of total words in each vignette. This tells you if the balance feels right or if a vignette is being neglected.

12. Pressure margin

As you write a dense, unbroken block of prose, the right edge of the block subtly warms in colour, shifting toward a faint red. This is the pressure margin.

It's ambient feedback. It doesn't tell you to stop or break. It just lets you feel the density building. When the pressure is high, you might want to:

• Insert an ASCII intrusion
• Drift to another vignette
• Let a paragraph break in
• Or keep going, because sometimes the density is the point

It resets when you add paragraph breaks or switch blocks.

13. Export

Press Cmd + Shift + E or click Export in the top bar.

The full manuscript appears as plain text with:

• Vignette labels in brackets: [The Train], [Root], etc.
• Transition markers: ~ ~ ~
• ASCII blocks wrapped in backtick fences

You can copy to clipboard or download as a .txt file.

14. The opening screen

Each time you open Signal, you're greeted by a transmission from inside the book. It shows:

A drift prompt

A randomly selected evocative fragment drawn from the world of TMAPO. Not "write 500 words today" but something like:

There are 36 prompts across all six vignettes plus several that address the book as a whole. A different one appears each time you open Signal. They're designed to place you inside the book before you've written a word.

Where you left off

If you have existing writing, the opening shows your last vignette and the last sentence you wrote, so you can feel your way back into the drift immediately.

Your progress

Word count, segment count, and how many vignettes you've touched. Quiet progress, not pressure.

File controls

From the opening screen you can also Load from file to restore a previously saved manuscript, or Continue in browser to use whatever is in localStorage.

Click Enter the drift to begin writing.

15. Saving and data

Signal has two layers of saving:

Auto-save (browser)

Signal auto-saves to your browser's localStorage as you type. This means your work persists between sessions on the same browser. The status bar shows "saved" when a save completes.

Save to file (recommended)

Press Cmd + S or click Save in the top bar. This downloads a tmapo-signal-data.json file containing your entire manuscript, fragments, TMAPO log, and thread tags.

To restore from a file, click Load in the top bar (or on the opening screen) and select a previously saved JSON file.

Save reminders

After every 300 words or 20 minutes of writing (whichever comes first), a gentle reminder appears in the bottom-right corner asking if you'd like to save to a file. Click Save to file or dismiss it.

Export vs Save

• Save (Cmd + S): downloads a .json file with all data (manuscript, fragments, threads, TMAPO log). This can be loaded back into Signal.
• Export (Cmd + Shift + E): generates a plain text version of the manuscript for reading or sharing. This is a one-way export — it can't be loaded back in.

16. All keyboard shortcuts

Press Cmd + / inside Signal to see these at any time.