YarnDraft 0.8.3 — portable build for Windows
==================================================

This is a portable package, not an installer. Unzip it wherever you like and
run it from there. Nothing is written into Program Files, nothing is added to
the registry, and uninstalling means deleting this folder.


GETTING STARTED
---------------

1. Run YarnDraft.exe.

2. Windows will stop the first launch with a blue "Windows protected your PC"
   panel. That is SmartScreen noticing the app is not code-signed yet — not a
   virus warning. Click "More info", then "Run anyway". It does not come back.

3. Pick a folder for your first project. A sample project is already in the
   list on first run — open that if you would rather look around something
   built than start from an empty canvas.

The manual is in the app under Help, and also in docs/ as plain HTML if you
would rather read it in a browser.


WHAT IS IN THIS FOLDER
----------------------

YarnDraft.exe
    The application. This is the only thing you run.

templates/
    The game-engine plugin YarnDraft copies into your exports — the Unreal
    C++ runtime, the Blueprint player and the editor importer.

    You do not edit or open this yourself. The app reads it when you use
    "Export to game engine", and writes a fresh copy of it into each export
    bundle alongside your story data. If this folder is missing or moved, the
    export fails with UNREAL_TEMPLATES_NOT_FOUND and nothing else breaks.

    The exported plugin is MIT licensed so that you can compile it into a game
    you sell; the licence text is templates/unreal/LICENSE and travels with
    every export.

docs/
    The user manual, the same one the app shows under Help. Offline, no
    network needed.

mcp-server/
    A small server that lets Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Codex or Claude Code
    read and edit an open project — list the flows, add cards, wire them up,
    write entities and variables.

    You do not configure this by hand. When you open a file project, the app
    writes the editor's own MCP config for you and points it here. Help → MCP
    setup walks through the rest. Moving this folder breaks that link.

demo-projects/
    The sample project. On first run the app copies it into its own data
    folder and lists it beside your own projects; the copy in here is never
    written to, so the sample is always there to start over from.

LICENSE.txt
    YarnDraft's own terms. Free to use, including for work you sell: no seat
    count, no per-project fee, no revenue threshold. What you write is yours.
    The copy you downloaded stays yours whatever happens to later versions.

THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt
    The copyright and permission notices of every open-source component this
    build is made from. Long, and required to be here.


MOVING OR BACKING IT UP
-----------------------

Move the whole folder, not parts of it. The app finds docs/, templates/,
mcp-server/ and demo-projects/ relative to YarnDraft.exe, so they have to stay
beside it.

Your projects are not in here. A project is a folder of small JSON files
wherever you chose to put it, which is also why ordinary version control works
on it — one file per flow, per entity, per variable group, per sketch, written
so that a diff shows what actually changed.


THIS IS A BETA
--------------

It says so in the corner of the window, and it means it. Expect bugs. If you
find one, telling us is genuinely useful.

    contact@yarndraft.com
    https://yarndraft.com
