Quick Start Guide
Get up and running with LoreForge in under 5 minutes. Choose the path that fits your workflow.
Option A: LoreForge Cloud
The fastest way to start. No installation required.
1. Create an Account
Visit loreforge.co/register and sign up with your email. You get a 14-day free trial with full Pro access, including unlimited AI generations.
2. Create Your First World
After signing in, you will be prompted to create a world. A world is an isolated project that holds all of your entries, maps, timelines, and settings. Give it a name and optional description.
3. Create Your First Entry
Click New Entry in the sidebar. Choose a type (Character, Location, Event, Item, Faction, etc.), give it a name, and start writing. The editor supports Markdown and [[wiki-links]] to cross-reference other entries.
4. Use AI Actions
Open any entry and use the action buttons:
- Expand — Generate new content that extends the entry's lore, maintaining consistency with your canon.
- Summarize — Get a concise summary of a long entry.
- Connections — Discover potential relationships with other entries in your world.
- Contradictions — Find inconsistencies between this entry and the rest of your canon.
- Dialogue — Generate in-character dialogue based on the entry's personality and context.
- Codex — Generate a structured encyclopedia-style reference entry.
Each action uses your canon entries as context, so the AI stays consistent with your established lore.
5. Build Relationships
Go to the Graph view to see your entries as connected nodes. Click any edge to label the relationship, or use the whiteboard to drag and create new connections visually.
6. Explore More Features
Check the Features page for the full list of 24+ capabilities, including maps, timelines, fantasy calendars, quest tracking, novel planning, and export options.
Option B: Self-Hosted (Docker)
Run LoreForge on your own machine with full data ownership. Requires Docker.
1. Clone and Start
git clone https://github.com/jordanmiller/loreforge.git
cd loreforge
cp .env.example .env
docker compose up -dThis starts two containers:
- loreforge-api on port
8250— FastAPI backend with SQLite - loreforge-web on port
3500— Next.js frontend
2. Open LoreForge
Navigate to http://localhost:3500 in your browser. No login required for self-hosted (auth is optional).
3. Configure Your LLM
Open Settings in the app to choose your LLM provider:
| Provider | Setup | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Ollama (default) | Install Ollama, pull a model, point LoreForge to it | Free (runs on your GPU) |
| Anthropic | Add your ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in Settings or .env |
Pay-per-token |
| OpenAI | Add your OPENAI_API_KEY in Settings or .env |
Pay-per-token |
qwen2.5:14b for creative writing (expand, dialogue, codex) and qwen2.5:7b for utility tasks (summarize, connections, contradictions). Pull them with ollama pull qwen2.5:14b.
4. Create a World and Start Building
The workflow is the same as cloud — create a world, add entries, use AI actions, and build your lore.
Option C: Docker Hub (One-Command Install)
The simplest self-hosted option. No cloning required — pull pre-built images directly from Docker Hub.
# Download the compose file
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jordanmiller/loreforge/main/docker-compose.hub.yml
# Create your .env
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jordanmiller/loreforge/main/.env.example
cp .env.example .env
# Start
docker compose -f docker-compose.hub.yml up -dOpen http://localhost:3500 and you are ready to go.