This is a mockup demo, not the full application. Not all features shown here are interactive, download the free trial to experience the complete app.
Alistair
Alistairx
Not available in demo
Projects
Text to Speech● GPU Accelerated
The library held its breath, a sanctuary buried in dust. Elara stood alone, the doors locked, the world outside a distant blur. Within these walls, forgotten narratives trembled with anticipation, waiting for a courageous spirit to breathe life into their shadowed existence. A waning glow from the stained-glass window dissolved into the twilight, casting intricate patterns across the weathered oak floors while dust motes pirouetted lazily through the shafts of fading light. Elara adjusted her spectacles with a practiced flick as she grasped the leather-bound volume waiting on the circulation desk. She set off to return the book to its hallowed place, her footsteps a whisper upon the floorboards. She moved through the library as one who knew its every breath, each corner and narrow aisle imprinted upon her mind. The shelves stood like ancient sentinels, and she, their trusted keeper. She had come to the library nine years ago, intending to stay only long enough to find something better. She could no longer recall what that something better had been. The library had folded itself around her quietly, the way old places do, until she could no longer tell where its walls ended and her own sense of self began. She knew the particular groan of the third floorboard past the philosophy alcove. She knew the way the cold settled in the east wing each autumn, pooling between the oldest shelves like standing water. She knew the smell: stone and oak and the slow sweetness of paper returning to the earth it came from. These were not things she had learned. They were things she had become. The reading room, vast beneath its grand cupola of glass, had grown quieter with each passing year. The chairs sat unoccupied now. The scholars and adventurers who had once lined up at the circulation desk, minds hungry and hands reaching, had found other doors to walk through. The world outside had grown loud and fast, indifferent to the particular pleasure of a room that asked only silence of you. Elara had watched the library empty the way one watches a tide go out, steadily, almost peacefully, until one day you look up and all that remains is the shore. She did not resent it. She only loved the place more fiercely for being left alone with it. Yet, as she glided past the familiar rows, a faint tremor awakened from within the tome. Elara paused, her awareness sharpening. She glanced down at it and up at the shelf before her. The shelf looked mundane, just another wooden barrier in the vast library landscape. Something beckoned her closer, though. With a curious tilt of her head, she stepped forward, drawn by an invisible thread. Then came the sound: a low, persistent hum that reverberated just beneath the threshold of hearing. It resonated not in the air, but somewhere within her own bones. Her attention was captivated by a particular section of the shelf. As she drew nearer, the tome in her hand had begun to pulse rhythmically. Elara noticed an empty slot on the shelf and thought. “This isn’t where I had taken the book from prior, is it?” Elara extended her hand, her breath caught in her throat as she placed the now-shaking tome into the empty space above. The book began to morph before her eyes. She clutched it tightly and glanced down at the once-blank surface, now unveiling intricate designs and a title. “The Schade Atlas: Cartography of the Unobserved” With adrenaline now pumping through her body, Elara unhooked the clasp, her hands shaking. The book bulged open, the leather groaning as if it had been waiting for an eternity. CRASH! The sound reverberated through the library as the doors slammed open. A fierce gale roared into the room. Elara gripped the nearest shelf. Around her the books were tearing from their shelves, not falling but thrown, their pages coming loose and flying, filling the dark air like something celebrating its own destruction. She had no hands free to catch any of them. As the gale subsided, Elara raced toward the front of the library. Shadows slithered in like sentient phantoms, the darkness engulfing everything. “Come on, come on!” She ran harder. The doors inched shut ahead of her. The last trace of light narrowed to a thread, then nothing. The dark swallowed her whole. Amid the gloom, Elara felt a tug in her arms. The tome wrenched from her grasp. “Where is it. Where is it!” She dropped to her knees, hands sweeping the floor in the dark. A faint glow bled through the dark, and then the symbols came. They rose from the pages like heat, burning themselves into her vision before she could look away. White-hot. Immediate. She recoiled but they were already inside her eyes, seared into the dark behind her lids. Elara watched as the darkness surged toward the book like it had been called. It poured into the pages, violent and hungry. Then the light came back, all at once. Elara stared at the book. It slammed shut with a decisive snap. Every instinct told her to run. She stood exactly where she was. The library settled around her, serene and still. She looked at her own hands. “What the hell did I just do?” Her hands were shaking. She looked at them like they belonged to someone else. She didn’t pick it up. She took three measured steps backward and then turned and walked quickly toward her chamber at the rear of the library. Not running. She told herself she was not running. (She was absolutely running)
VOICE
SPEED 1.0×
0:00
0:00
Is the Phantom Archivist a threat to Elara, or something more ambiguous?
Ambiguous, deliberately so. Its presence predates Elara. It isn’t reacting to her; she has entered its space. The threat isn’t violence. It’s the possibility that what Elara has built her identity around was never really hers to keep.
What does the Atlas represent thematically?
CHARACTERS
For Every Kind of Writer
Every tool you need, writing, analysis, and collaboration. All in one application. No matter what or how you write.
LLM Chat Interface
A manuscript-aware LLM that knows your characters, scenes, and story - fully offline, no API key.
Alistair ChatOffline
R
Is Crane a foil to Elara, or more of a true antagonist?
He functions as both. A foil highlights contrast - Crane's certainty mirrors Elara's doubt, his institutional loyalty opposes her moral independence. But a true antagonist actively obstructs the protagonist. Crane does both, which makes him more threatening than a pure foil.
R
Does the foil dynamic require a shared core value to work?
Audiobook Mode
Each character speaks in their own cloned voice - play your manuscript like a full-cast audiobook, entirely offline.
Audiobook - Ch. 3Playing
Now speaking: Elara VossVoice: Elara_Cloned (Custom Profile)
2:14 / 6:40
1.0x
Cast Voice Assignments
E
Elara VossElara_Cloned
D
Director CraneCrane_Cloned
N
Nadia OseiNova blend
Character Interview
Your characters speak in first person - grounded entirely in what you've written, never invented.
Interview - Elara VossIn Character
E
Elara VossProtagonist · In Character mode
R
What do you actually think of Director Crane?
E
He's the kind of man who believes his own justifications. That's what makes him dangerous - not the power, the certainty. I've stopped arguing with certain people. I just watch and wait.
R
Are you afraid of him?
E
Analysis by Alistair
Inline suggestions surface directly in your prose - accept, dismiss, or open a discussion.
Analysis4 suggestions
The room was cold. Elara felt afraid as she stepped inside. The door had been left open by someone.
She moved toward the desk, her footsteps echoing on the stone floor.
StyleShow, don't tell
"felt afraid" tells the reader Elara's emotion. Consider a physical reaction instead - her breath caught or her hands found the wall.
Continuity Checker
Scans every scene for contradictions and name variants. No LLM, instant results.
Continuity Check3 issues
47Passed
3Issues
18Scenes
Name variant: "Elara" vs "Elara Voss"Ch. 4, Ch. 7, Ch. 12
Eye color conflict: blue (Ch. 2) vs green (Ch. 9)Director Crane
Location unnamed in 2 scenesCh. 6, Ch. 11
Writing Goals
Daily targets, 7-day history, and streak tracking - all offline.
Writing Goals🔥 Day 7
73%832 / 1k
7🔥 streak
1,205best day
34ktotal
M
T
W
T
F
S
S
Pacing & Analytics
Tension curve, POV balance, and scene breakdown across your manuscript.
Pacing & Analytics18 scenes
34,201Total Words
18Scenes
1,900Avg / Scene
Tension Curve
POV Distribution
Elara
62%
Crane
25%
Nadia
13%
Review Annotations
Right-click to annotate any passage. Merge editor comments through a review dialog - no server needed.
Review Comments3 open
SRSarah R.ReviewCh. 3
"The pacing here feels rushed - maybe add a beat between the confrontation and the door slam?"
MKMarcus K.OpenCh. 5
"Elara's motivation is unclear here. Does she know about the letter yet?"
SRSarah R.ResolvedCh. 1
"Great opening line - very strong hook."
Why Choose Alistair?
See how we compare across the features that actually matter to authors
Feature
Alistair$60 once
Scrivener$60
Atticus$147
Ulysses$6.99/mo
Pricing & Privacy
One-time purchase
✓
✓
✓
-
100% offline - data never leaves your machine
✓
✓
-
-
Free updates forever
✓
-
-
-
LLM & ML Analysis
Offline LLM - local model, no API key
✓
-
-
-
Voice cloning & full-cast audiobook
✓
-
-
-
Text-to-speech (26 voices, offline)
✓
-
-
-
Continuity checker (contradictions & name variants)
✓
-
-
-
Character interview (LLM, in-character)
✓
-
-
-
Inline prose analysis (Kill Your Darlings)
✓
-
-
-
Writing & Organisation
Manuscript compiler (PDF & DOCX)
✓
✓
✓
-
World-building & lore templates
✓
partial
-
-
Writing goals & manuscript analytics
✓
partial
-
-
File-based collaboration (no server)
✓
-
-
-
The bottom line
Alistair is the only writing tool that unifies manuscript editing, story arc planning, character mapping, offline LLM inference, local text-to-speech with zero-shot voice cloning, full-cast audiobook playback, continuity checking, file-based collaboration, and per-scene analytics in a single one-time purchase - with no cloud, no subscription, and no limits on which models you run.
After 30 days Alistair will prompt you to activate a license. All your projects and data remain untouched - nothing is locked or deleted. Purchase a license at any time and enter the key to unlock the app permanently.
Yes. Alistair supports any GGUF-quantized model - download one through the app or import your own. No API key, no account, no cloud. Inference runs entirely on your hardware via llama.cpp with optional CUDA GPU acceleration.
No. Both the LLM and text-to-speech engines run 100% locally on your machine. After the initial one-time model download, everything works fully offline. Your manuscript never leaves your computer.
Alistair requires Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit). An NVIDIA GPU with CUDA support is recommended for faster LLM inference and TTS - but it is not required. Both features automatically fall back to CPU if no compatible GPU is detected, so Alistair runs on any modern Windows machine.
Yes - Mac and Linux are actively in development. If you purchase now for Windows, your license will transfer to Mac/Linux at no extra cost when they release. Sign up below to be notified the moment they're available.
Every feature added to Alistair - new tools, bug fixes, performance improvements - is included with your one-time purchase at no additional cost. There will never be a paid upgrade or a v2.0 paywall. You buy it once and you own it.
Download Alistair Trial
You are downloading the full version of Alistair with all features unlocked for a 30-day trial period.
All premium features included
Full ML-powered writing tools
Complete export capabilities
30-day evaluation period
After the trial period ends, you will need to purchase a license and activate it to continue using Alistair.
"Engineer by training, storyteller at heart, father and husband above all."
2024Founded
1Mission
100%Passion
The Story
I've always written. Not always well, not always consistently - but the urge was always there. What kept getting in the way wasn't the words, it was the tools. Every app I tried was either a stripped-down notepad that lost my structure, or a feature wall that buried the actual writing under menus and panels. I'd spend twenty minutes setting up a workspace before typing a single sentence. That's not writing. That's administration.
The Idea
In 2024 I stopped looking for the right tool and started building it. The first version was just a clean editor with a folder tree - something I could open and immediately write in. But the longer I used it, the more it grew: character sheets, a story arc builder, analytics, an offline LLM that actually knew my manuscript. Each feature was something I needed myself. Nothing was added because it looked good in a feature list.
The Goal
To build the writing app that every writer deserves - one that respects your privacy, earns its price once and never asks again, and gets out of the way when you need to write. Not a platform. Not a subscription. Just a tool that does exactly what it promises, runs entirely on your machine, and keeps getting better as long as I'm writing too.
Core Values
Privacy First
Your writing stays on your computer. No cloud storage, no data mining, no subscriptions.
Fair Pricing
One reasonable price for lifetime access. No hidden fees, no recurring charges.
Writer-Led
Every feature is designed based on real writing needs from myself and our community.
WindowsLive
MacIn Development
LinuxPlanned
Notify me when Mac & Linux arrive
I'm actively developing Alistair with input from our user community.
