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New in 1.8
A record of how the book got written
Every session, every save, and where each word came from. Kept on your machine, exportable when you need it.
A finished book is the visible part. The Writing Record keeps the rest: the mornings, the sessions, the sections you kept coming back to, and where every word came from.
Sessions, not just days
Writing History already shows the days. The Writing Record adds the sessions inside them: when each one started, how long it ran, how many saves it took, and which sections it touched. When a session ends, Verkilo snapshots every section it changed, so the version history reads like a diary of the draft.
Where the words came from
Every save records the change in word count and its origin:
- Typed: your own writing and deleting
- Pasted: text brought in from the clipboard
- AI accepted: words that landed by accepting a line-edit rewrite, shown as words in and words out
- AI corrected: spelling, grammar and punctuation fixes you accepted, counted as words touched and kept apart from rewrites, because a copyedit is not co-authorship
- Agent: words written by an AI agent you connected over the local API
- Imported and Restored: whole-document moves that nobody typed
The record errs toward disclosing more, never less. A paste that replaced a paragraph shows both the paste and the words it replaced.
Export it when it matters
From Writing History, export the record as a PDF or JSON: totals by origin, every session, first and last write per chapter, every AI operation and whether you accepted it, every manual adjustment shown as an adjustment, and the hash chain that lets the app check the record is consistent. It never leaves your computer until you export it.
Common questions
- Does this prove I wrote my book?
- It shows how the book was written in Verkilo: when, in what sessions, in which sections, and how many words came from typing, pasting, AI suggestions you accepted, or an agent you connected. It is a detailed, consistent record you can hand to someone who asks. It is not a certificate, and we don’t call it proof.
- Does it log my keystrokes?
- No. It records counts, times, sections and hashes at each save. It never stores what you typed or pasted, and nothing finer than a save.
- What if I used AI?
- Then the record says so, honestly. Rewrites you accepted from a line edit are counted as AI words in and out; spelling and grammar fixes you accepted are counted apart, as copyedits; words an agent wrote over the local API are counted as agent words. A record that can only say ’no AI here’ is worth less than one that can show you exactly what the AI touched, and whether it was a comma or a paragraph.
- Can the record be edited?
- Each closed session is hashed and chained to the one before it. The app can recompute the chain and tell you if a closed session was altered afterwards. That is a consistency check on your own machine, not third-party verification.