Sgeulai and AI
You stay in control of your own words.
AI reading is one feature in Sgeulai, not the point of it. It's optional, it's off until you turn it on, and everything it does is built to be checked — not taken on faith. This page is the whole story, not a summary.
Off by default
Twenty-six analysis tools, the Story Bible, wikilinks, comments, Harper's grammar checking — none of it touches AI. Sgeulai is a complete writing environment before AI enters the picture at all. AI reading is a separate feature you switch on when you want it, not a layer underneath everything else.
Where your words go, in plain terms
When you do turn it on, Sgeulai reads your manuscript with your own Claude API key — not a key we hold, not a subscription routed through our servers. The first time it happens on a project, the app shows you this, and waits for you to agree to it:
“The text of your manuscript is sent to Anthropic's servers to be read. It leaves this Mac and travels over the internet… it is the only part of Sgeulai that sends your writing anywhere.” — shown in the app, before the first AI read of a project
That's not marketing copy — it's the literal disclosure text in the app. Your key lives in macOS Keychain, on your Mac, never inside the .sgeulai project file itself. Nothing about your manuscript passes through a Sgeulai server, because there isn't one in this loop: your Mac talks to Anthropic directly.
Without a key, AI reading simply isn't available — the rest of the app works exactly the same, and Apple's own on-device Writing Tools still do, since those never leave your Mac either.
What it actually does
Proposals, not automatic edits.
Point Sgeulai's AI reading at a chapter and it proposes Story Bible entries — characters, places, events — drawn from what's on the page. Every one of them waits, unticked, on a review screen until you accept or discard it. Nothing is written to the Story Bible without you saying so, one entry at a time or all at once.
A report you can hand to an editor
Export → Export AI Provenance Report… generates a PDF breaking down exactly what share of your manuscript carries AI involvement — separated into Writing Tools edits, pasted chatbot text, and passages you confirmed yourself — and quotes every one of those marked passages verbatim, in reading order. It's built to be checked, so it says plainly what it can't detect too: text copied through a chatbot's own in-page copy button leaves no trace and isn't represented. We'd rather admit the gap than paper over it.
What it costs, and who sees the bill
Anthropic bills your API key directly — Sgeulai never touches your money. Since your account balance can't be checked from inside the app, Settings keeps its own running total: tokens used and estimated cost, per project, so a surprise bill isn't how you find out you left something running.
The short version
Off unless you turn it on. Your key, not ours. Your Mac talks to Anthropic directly. Every proposal waits for your yes. And a report exists specifically so you never have to just take our word for any of this.
Read the rest
The help documentation covers AI reading, the Claude API key, and the provenance report in full detail.