Node Graph

Node Graph is the editor mode you draw your story in. The big workspace where nodes and connections live takes most of the screen; the Sidebar on the left lists scenes. Use it to lay out the structure of a scene and draw the connections that drive flow. As the project grows, it’s also where you move between scenes.

What’s not here: the events that hang off each node (dialogue, choices, Set Variable, jumps configured in detail) are covered on Branching dialogue, and the companion overview surface for moving the player between locations is the World Graph. For why the graph looks the way it does on any given step, see Scenes and visit state.

Navigate the graph

Node Graph at the Detail zoom level, with a node selected and the node context menu open beside it. The Sidebar and Inspector are visible on the left and right of the graph.

Sidebar: every scene in the project appears here. Single-click a row to make it active; the visibility toggle on each row hides or shows the scene in the graph.
Active scene: the highlighted row. Indented rows below it are its child scenes. Drag one scene row onto another to parent it.
Node context menu: opens on right-click of a single node. Duplicate, Copy ID, Copy UUID, and Delete.
Inspector: the right-side panel. Single-click a node or a scene to open its fields here for editing.

Pan the graph by dragging with the right or middle mouse button, by holding space and dragging, or by scrolling (hold Shift to scroll sideways on a mouse wheel). Zoom with the trackpad pinch, by holding ⌘ while scrolling, or in steps with ⌘+ and ⌘−. ⌘0 fits the whole graph in the view. F centers the view on the selection, or fits everything when nothing is selected.

There are three Detail levels, and they switch automatically as you zoom. There is no dedicated key to cycle them.

Detail: full node cards. The level you want when authoring events on individual nodes.
Summary: compact bars showing the node title and a tag strip. The right zoom for shaping a cluster without card chrome in the way.
Overview: flat tiles, no card structure. Best before an auto-arrange pass, or when you need to see a whole scene or the whole project at once.

Select nodes

Node Graph at the Summary zoom level, with three nodes selected and the bulk context menu open. Cards collapse to compact bars at this zoom.

Selected nodes: highlighted in the accent color. The bulk menu opens when you right-click any one of them.
Bulk context menu: replaces the single-node menu when two or more nodes are selected. Add Tag to All, Remove Tag from All, and Delete N Nodes.
Unselected node: a node not in the current selection, for contrast. Click it to switch the selection to just that node, or Shift-click to add it.
Minimap: bottom-right of the graph. Click anywhere to jump the viewport there, or drag the highlighted rectangle to pan.

Single-click a node to select it. Shift-click to add or remove from the selection. Click and drag from an empty area to draw a marquee selection box. ⌘A (or Ctrl-A) selects every node shown on the graph. Esc clears the selection; if a menu is open or a drag is in progress, it closes or cancels that first.

Draw connections

The Node Graph uses two kinds of lines, and you draw both by dragging from the top or bottom of a node.

Drag from the top of a node to draw a Dependency. The target node’s Visible when picks up a reference to the source, so the target becomes visible once the source has been played. Hold Shift while you drag to invert it: the target becomes an Inverse dependency, visible only while the source has not been played.

Drag from the bottom of a node to draw a Jump Connection. This is the writer’s word for a Jump: when the source node runs, control flows to the target. Hold Shift while you drag to draw a non-return Jump Connection, which interrupts the source mid-event instead of resuming after the target finishes.

Once drawn, the Dependency lines double as a references view in reverse. Every node whose Visible when references the current node shows up as an incoming line, so flow and gating share the same view.

Right-click any Connection or Dependency for a single action that removes it.

An annotated comparison of the two line types is on Branching dialogue.

Survey the whole graph

Node Graph at the Overview zoom level, with the empty-area context menu open over a clear pocket of the graph. Scenes show as containers, nodes as flat tiles.

Scene boundary: at the Overview zoom level, each scene shows its container outline and label. The boundaries show how the project is partitioned.
Flat-tile node: at this zoom, nodes drop their card chrome and collapse to flat tiles. Useful for surveying the whole graph or eyeballing the result of an auto-arrange.
Empty-area context menu: opens on right-click of an empty area. New Node, New Logic Node, Auto-arrange scene, and Auto-arrange all scenes. Auto-arrange scene is most useful at this zoom because you can see the whole result.

Work with scenes

The Sidebar runs down the left of the editor and lists every scene in the project. Single-click a row to make it the active scene; the graph centers on that scene and any new nodes you create there belong to it. The visibility toggle on each row filters its scene in and out of the graph, so you can hide the scenes you aren’t working in to keep the graph readable, and bring them back when you need the context.

Add a new scene with the button at the top of the Sidebar. The new scene becomes active so you can start placing nodes immediately. To parent a scene under another, drag one scene row onto another scene row; that nests the child in the parent for grouping and lifecycle. To move a node, or a multi-node selection, between scenes, drag it onto the target scene row, and it leaves its old scene to join the new one.