How do I make secret lore entries?

Most lore entries are always available to the narrator: it knows they exist and can pull their content whenever the story touches them. A secret lore entry is different. It stays completely hidden from the AI (it is not in the lore catalog, and the AI cannot look it up) until a story beat reveals it. Once revealed, its full content stays in the narrator's context for the rest of that journey.

Use secrets for earned, high-impact reveals: a hidden twist, a character's true identity, the truth behind a mystery. The AI cannot accidentally spoil what it cannot see.

Marking an entry secret

In the world editor's Lore Book section, open a lore entry and turn on the Secret toggle. Two things to know:

• Each lore entry has a stable id (shown under the Secret toggle). It is generated from the entry's name when you first create it, then frozen so renaming the entry never breaks anything that points at it.
• A secret entry shows a warning, "This lore entry will never be revealed," until a story beat actually reveals it. That is expected while you are still wiring it up.

Revealing it with a story beat

Secrets are revealed by story beats, never by keywords. In the Story Beats section, add (or open) a beat and give it a Reveal lore effect, then pick your secret entry from the dropdown. When that beat fires, the secret is revealed and stays revealed for the rest of the journey.

A beat fires when all of its conditions pass. This is where you decide when the secret unlocks:

• Tracker thresholds (for example level at least 30, or a "trust" tracker equal to "high"), turn number, or afterBeat (another beat has already fired). These are deterministic: the engine fires the beat on its own, and the secret's content is in the prompt the same turn it unlocks.
• A narrative condition (a free-text description the AI judges, for example "when the player confronts the steward about the missing seal"). The AI fires the beat from its own output, so the canon locks in from the next turn onward and stays. Use a narrative condition when the reveal should depend on a story moment, not just a number.

You can combine them: gate a beat on a tracker threshold and a narrative condition so the moment only counts once the player is far enough along.

Keeping it secret until then (the cover story)

The AI only hides the secret's content; it still has to narrate the world before the reveal. Give it a cover story: write the "what everyone believes" version as an ordinary (non-secret) lore entry or in your instructions, and keep the secret entry for the real truth. To avoid tipping the twist early, do not give the revealing beat an ambientHint (ambient hints are foreshadowing; secrets usually should not be foreshadowed).

Multi-step and chained secrets

For a reveal that should only land after a sequence of moments, chain beats with afterBeat: beat A fires on the first moment, beat B requires A and fires on the second, and the final beat (requiring B) carries the Reveal lore effect. You can also have an earlier beat set a tracker (for example act2_reached = true) and gate the reveal on that. To make one secret depend on another already being out, gate its beat on the first secret's revealing beat (afterBeat) or on a tracker that beat sets.

Worked example

A colony of players slowly discovers they are not who they think they are.

1. Lore entry "The Quantized Truth", marked Secret (id the-quantized-truth), content: the players are copies, the originals are still on Earth.
2. An ordinary lore entry or instruction stating the popular belief: the transfer was one-way and the players are the originals. The AI deflects speculation using this until the reveal.
3. A beat truth-revealed with conditions: tracker level at least 30 and a narrative condition "the player pushes the colony AI to break character and admit what is really going on." Effect: Reveal lore, target the-quantized-truth.

A low-level player can poke at the mystery all they want; the secret cannot unlock until the tracker gate is met and the scripted moment happens. After it fires, the truth is canon for the rest of the journey.

Tips

• Use secrets sparingly. Most lore should be ordinary; reserve secrets for the few reveals that genuinely matter.
• Every secret needs a matching Reveal lore beat, or it can never surface. Watch for the "will never be revealed" warning.
• Once revealed, a secret cannot be un-revealed within that journey.
• You can see exactly when a secret was revealed (and by which beat) in the admin debug panel's per-turn view.