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About the Corpus

The IF Craft Corpus is the core of this project: 59 curated documents containing practical guidance for writing interactive fiction. Each document distills craft knowledge into actionable advice.

What's in the Corpus

Category Documents Topics Covered
Narrative 19 Branching, pacing, scene structure, endings
Craft 10 Quality, testing, workflow, collaboration
Prose 8 Dialogue, voice, exposition, subtext
Genre 7 Horror, mystery, romance, sci-fi, fantasy, YA, tropes
World 5 Worldbuilding, canon, settings, naming
Audience 3 Accessibility, localization, targeting
Emotion 2 Tension, atmosphere, emotional beats
Agent 3 AI writing prompts, multi-agent patterns
Game Design 1 Game mechanics, player agency
Scope & Planning 1 Project scoping

Browse all documents by cluster :material-arrow-right:

How to Use the Corpus

Browse Directly

The easiest way to use the corpus is to browse the documents directly on this site. Use the left navigation to explore by cluster, or the search box to find specific topics.

With AI Assistants

Add the corpus to Claude Code or other MCP-compatible tools:

claude mcp add ifcraft -- uvx ifcraftcorpus-mcp

Then ask naturally:

  • "Search the IF craft corpus for pacing techniques"
  • "Find guidance on writing horror atmosphere"
  • "Look up dialogue subtext techniques"

With Python

Install the search library for programmatic access:

pip install ifcraftcorpus

from ifcraftcorpus import Corpus

corpus = Corpus()

# Search for specific techniques
for r in corpus.search("dialogue subtext"):
    print(f"{r.source}: {r.content[:100]}...")

# Filter by cluster
for r in corpus.search("atmosphere", cluster="genre-conventions"):
    print(f"{r.title}")

Document Format

Each corpus document follows a consistent structure:

Frontmatter

YAML metadata with:

  • title: Document title
  • summary: Brief description (20-300 characters)
  • topics: Searchable keywords
  • cluster: Topic cluster for organization

Content

Structured markdown with:

  • Clear headings (H1-H3)
  • Practical examples and techniques
  • Cross-references to related topics

Contributing

The corpus is open for contributions under CC-BY-4.0. We welcome:

  • New documents on underrepresented topics
  • Improvements to existing guidance
  • Corrections and clarifications

See the GitHub repository for contribution guidelines.