References

References help you track people, places, and story elements across scenes. Each reference can include notes and custom attributes, and you can link them to specific scenes.

Reference Types

Kindling supports five reference types:

• Characters — People in your story
• Locations — Places where scenes occur
• Items — Objects that matter to the plot
• Objectives — Goals, quests, or missions
• Organizations — Groups, factions, institutions

You can enable or disable reference types per project from the References panel settings.

References Panel Overview

The References panel sits to the right of the editor and shows tabs for each enabled reference type. From here you can create, edit, and link references to the current scene.

When a scene is selected:

• References linked to the scene appear at the top
• Unlinked references appear below
• Drag references to set per-scene ordering
• Expand/collapse state is saved per scene

Editing Reference Details

Each reference includes:

Field	Description
Name	The reference’s primary name
Description	A short summary or bio
Notes	Free-form notes for your own reference
Custom attributes	Key/value pairs for structured data (e.g., Eye colour: green)

Custom Fields (v1.2+)

In v1.2, references support typed custom field definitions. Instead of plain key/value pairs, you can define fields with specific types:

Field type	Use it for
Text	Names, descriptions, freeform notes
Number	Age, height, chapter count
Date	Birth dates, event dates
Select	Role (protagonist/antagonist/supporting)
Multi-select	Tags, traits, affiliations

Custom field definitions are created per project and apply consistently across all references of that type. This means you can define “Role” once for Characters and all characters will have that field.

Hierarchical Tags (v1.2+)

References support a hierarchical tagging system with up to three levels of depth. Tags can have colours and are managed project-wide from the Tag Manager (accessible from the References panel settings).

Example hierarchy:

role/
  protagonist
  antagonist
  supporting
status/
  active
  deceased
  unknown

Apply tags to any reference and use saved filters to quickly find references matching specific criteria — for example, all active characters with role/protagonist.

Smart Reference Detection (v1.2+)

Kindling’s non-AI reference detection engine can scan your prose for character, location, and item names. When matches are found, suggestions surface automatically in the References panel so you can link them with one click.

Smart detection runs on demand — it doesn’t modify your prose or add anything automatically. It simply surfaces references you may have mentioned but haven’t explicitly linked to a scene yet.

Reference Type Settings

Use the settings cog (⚙) in the References panel to enable or disable reference types per project. If your story doesn’t need items or objectives, disabling those types keeps the panel clean.

References from Import

When you import a project, Kindling imports reference data where the format supports it:

Format	Characters	Locations	Items	Objectives	Orgs
Plottr	✓	✓	—	—	—
Scrivener	✓	✓	—	—	—
Markdown	—	—	—	—	—
yWriter	✓	✓	✓	—	—
Longform/Obsidian	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

See Importing Projects for details on how each format handles references.