Sheets Overview

Sheets are structured data containers for your project’s world data. Character profiles, item catalogs, location details, faction rosters – anything you need to define and track across your narrative.

Each sheet holds a set of blocks (typed fields like text, number, select, boolean) that define its structure. Blocks that aren’t marked as constants automatically become variables that flows can read and modify at runtime.

Shortcuts

Every sheet has a shortcut – a dot-notation identifier that flows, conditions, and instructions use to reference it.

Shortcuts are auto-generated from the sheet name but can be edited manually. The format is lowercase alphanumeric with dots and hyphens (e.g., mc.jaime). Use prefixes to organize by domain:

• mc.jaime – main character
• item.healing-potion – an item
• loc.tavern – a location
• faction.guild – a faction

Shortcuts must be unique within a project. If a sheet already has variables referenced in flows, renaming it won’t change the shortcut to avoid breaking references.

Variable references

Blocks on a sheet become variables with the pattern:

{sheet_shortcut}.{variable_name}

The variable name is auto-generated from the block label using underscore notation. For example, a block labeled “Health Points” on sheet mc.jaime becomes:

mc.jaime.health_points

These references are what flows use in conditions (“Is mc.jaime.health_points greater than 50?”) and instructions (“Set mc.jaime.health_points to 100”).

Organizing with folders

Sheets support a tree structure. Drag and drop to reorder, nest sheets inside other sheets for organization.

Main Characters/
  mc.jaime
  mc.elena
  mc.kai
Items/
  Weapons/
    item.iron-sword
    item.fire-staff
  Potions/
    item.healing-potion

Any sheet can have both children and its own blocks. Parent sheets can also define inherited properties that cascade to their children (see Property Inheritance below).

Property inheritance

Blocks have a scope setting that controls whether they stay local or cascade to child sheets:

• Self (default) – the block exists only on this sheet.
• Children – the block definition propagates to all descendant sheets. Each child gets its own instance with local values but the same type, label, and configuration.

This lets you create template-like parent sheets. A “Character Base” sheet with children-scoped blocks (health, level, faction) automatically gives every child sheet those same fields, each with their own independent values.

Child instances stay synced with the parent definition: if you change the label, type, or options on the parent block, all non-detached instances update. You can detach an instance to make it fully independent, or re-attach it to sync again.

Sheets can also hide specific inherited blocks, preventing them from cascading further down to their own children.

Sheet customization

Each sheet supports additional metadata:

• Color – a hex color for visual identification in the sidebar and references.
• Avatar – an uploaded image shown as the sheet’s icon.
• Banner – a header image displayed at the top of the sheet.
• Description – rich text for notes and annotations (not exposed as a variable).

Versioning

Storyarn tracks the history of each sheet through version snapshots.

• Auto-versioning – a snapshot is automatically created when you edit a sheet, with a minimum interval of 5 minutes between snapshots to avoid noise.
• Manual snapshots – you can create a named version with a title and description at any time to mark a meaningful milestone.
• Restore – roll back to any previous version. This restores the sheet’s name, shortcut, avatar, banner, and all block types, configurations, and values.

Each version records who made the change and generates a summary of what changed (blocks added, removed, or modified).