Roadmap

Status key

Green, yellow, grey

• Done built and working
• In progress being worked on now or next
• Later planned for a future stage

Product focus

A calm place to build complex story worlds

Canon Garden is a calm place for people who create detailed worlds.

This can include books, comics, games, roleplay worlds, fictional histories, character universes, maps, places, cultures, languages, rules, and timelines.

The goal is simple: Canon Garden helps a creator keep their world organised, clear, and consistent.

The creator experience should feel calm, clear, and manageable.

Main principle

Many inputs, one next step

A creator may have many ideas at once. Canon Garden should take those ideas and turn them into one clear thing to do next.

The system may use several parts behind the scenes:

• Cards hold world material, such as characters, places, rules, events, cultures, and ideas.
• Canon Ledger records what is official, what is draft, what is retired, and what has been set aside.
• Garden Setup helps a creator start a world with a small number of clear choices.
• Guidance Profile stores how much help and structure the creator wants.
• Story Bridge connects worldbuilding to scenes, chapters, games, or reader experiences.
• Simplification Engine turns many possible actions into one useful next step.
• Hidden Technical Help gives optional help with file formats, validation, exports, backups, and publishing.

The user only needs to manage the visible next step: one card, one check, one decision, or one next action.

Build phases

Done, V1, V2, V3, V4, Later

Completed foundations

Framework foundations already built

Canon Garden already has a working base. It is an active project with a real public site and validation checks.

• Public website shell.
• Roadmap page.
• File-based feature gates.
• World registry seed.
• Validation scripts for entries, world files, registry files, public index files, feature gates, and routes.
• Build checks for routes, links, page identity, page contracts, cards, and movement.
• Security checks for public and private material.
• Big-run checklist and closeout process.
• Cloudflare Pages deployment.
• Public root domain.

V1

Usable canon framework and card foundation

V1 is the most important stage. It creates the basic tools that make Canon Garden useful.

V1 should make Canon Garden reliable before it becomes clever.

• Cards: small records for characters, places, objects, events, rules, cultures, languages, timelines, and ideas.
• Canon Ledger: a record of what is official in the world.
• Draft and locked states: draft ideas can stay flexible; locked canon needs stronger structure.
• Garden Setup: a simple way to start a world with a small number of clear choices.
• Basic checks: the system should notice missing information or possible contradictions.
• Simple guidance: the creator should receive short, clear explanations.
• Project structure: each world should have a clear place to store its core information.
• Export support: creators should be able to get useful output from their work.
• Public page model: public pages should show material that is ready to share.
• Validation: checks should protect the whole framework.

V1 should answer this question: Can a creator start organising their world safely and clearly?

V2

Guided creator tools and private workflow

V2 adds more help for the creator's private process.

This stage should make Canon Garden easier to use, especially when a creator has a lot of ideas.

• Guidance Profile: the system learns how much help the creator wants.
• Story Bridge: a tool that connects worldbuilding to actual scenes, chapters, games, or stories.
• Simplification Engine: a tool that turns many possible actions into one clear next step.
• Hidden Technical Help: optional support for file formats, exports, validation, structure, and setup.
• Private creator dashboard: a calm place to manage world work.
• Simple, Standard, and Deep views: different detail levels over the same canon structure.
• Better prompts: questions that help the creator think clearly.
• Review tools: checks for gaps, contradictions, repeated ideas, and unclear rules.
• Preview-before-publication: the creator can check material before it becomes public.
• Export and backup: the creator can keep safe copies of their work.
• AI-assisted entry shaping: AI may help organise rough notes, with the creator in charge of canon.

V2 should answer this question: Can Canon Garden guide the creator while the creator stays in control?

V3

Playable worlds

V3 begins to make worlds feel more alive.

Playable can mean exploration, choices, paths, rituals, discoveries, and completion.

• World home pages.
• Interactive or explorable maps.
• Readable timelines.
• Character pages.
• Location pages.
• Object and artefact pages.
• Paths, discoveries, and progress markers.
• World-safe tasks, rituals, and unlocks.
• Public lore sections.
• Private creator-only sections.
• Canon-safe exploration.

V3 should answer this question: Can a created world be explored while its canon stays protected?

V4

User worlds, doorways, and story support

V4 is about helping creators build larger public or private worlds.

• User-created world spaces.
• Creator world hubs.
• Doorway pages for each world.
• Reader-friendly entry points.
• Public and private areas.
• Links between compatible worlds, where permissions allow it.
• Stronger links between characters, places, events, rules, and stories.
• Better support for long-running projects.
• Story support for campaigns, books, comics, and games.
• Account roles, permissions, moderation, audit logs, rollback rules, and payment support if needed.

V4 should answer this question: Can each creator have a clear home for their world?

Later companion layer

Live messages and phone companion

This is a later idea. Build it after the main canon system is strong.

The aim would be to let a created world send updates or messages in a controlled way.

• Optional phone companion app.
• In-world messages.
• Character notices.
• World event updates.
• Lore updates.
• Language prompts.
• Ritual or calendar reminders.
• Continuity alerts.
• Quiet mode and notification limits.
• Creator-controlled message rules.

The key rule is simple: live messages must come from the world's canon. They should be meaningful, calm, and canon-led.

Summary

Build order

Canon Garden is being built in this order:

• Build the foundation.
• Make canon safe and structured.
• Help creators organise complex worlds.
• Add calm guidance.
• Let worlds become readable and explorable.
• Add advanced features when the core system is ready.

The main goal stays the same: Canon Garden absorbs the complexity so the creator only has to face one useful next step.