Offline by default · Zero telemetry · Bring your own key From research to a narrated audiobook, on one Mac.
Quillstone is a serious authoring studio for non-fiction — manuals, textbooks, biographies, narrative history. Outline, draft, fact-check, narrate, design the cover, and export a publish-ready bundle. Your prose never touches our servers.
Apple Silicon · macOS 15+ · Free local tier, no account required
Built on four promises.
Privacy, ownership, flexibility, and a pipeline that actually reaches "publish."
Your prose stays on your Mac
Offline by default. Your text only leaves the machine if you turn on cloud editing — and then it goes direct to your provider under your key. We never proxy it. Zero telemetry, zero analytics.
Bring your own key
Use your own Claude, GPT, ElevenLabs, or OpenAI Images key. The provider bills you at cost — no token tax, no markup, no minimum spend. Local-only mode is $0 in API fees, forever.
Offline or hybrid — your choice
Run every model on your Apple Silicon Mac, or send only the heavy AI-text work to the cloud while images, RAG, and your library stay local. Toggle per role, any time. No reinstall.
The whole pipeline, one app
Outline → draft → editorial report → fact-check → copy-edit → audiobook → cover → a publish-ready bundle. Every step in one Mac app, the same author signed in.
Six steps. One app. One Mac.
Most AI writing tools stop at "first draft." Quillstone walks all the way to a file you upload to KDP, ACX, or Apple Books.
Research
Drop in PDFs, .docx, .md, .txt. The drafting prompts read directly from your local Research Library with Kiwix retrieval.
Draft
Nine selection-aware AI tools, voice-anchored to your own writing. Every factual claim gets a citation or a [NEEDS CITATION] marker.
Fact-check
A dedicated verification pass reads your sources and checks each claim. Editorial report scores quality and marketability.
Narrate
Full-length audiobook with chapter markers. Free local narration with voice cloning, or ACX-grade cloud TTS in 29 languages.
Design
Layer-based Cover Designer with AI background generation. Per-platform sizing on export — KDP, ACX, Apple.
Publish
Export a bundle: validated EPUB 3, full-bleed PDF, .m4b, sized covers, metadata, per-platform checklists. Drag it into the storefront.
The details writers notice.
AI tools rail
Rewrite, Expand, Shrink, Describe, Brainstorm, Continue, Proofread, Line edit, Fact-check — one click each.
Voice anchor
Paste 2–5 paragraphs of your prior writing and every AI tool matches your voice.
Citation discipline
Inline citations and [NEEDS CITATION] markers. No hallucinated sources, ever.
Verification report
Every citation verified against your Research Library, every marker counted.
Focus mode
The whole window becomes a writing surface. ⌘. to enter, Escape to leave.
Reading-grade target
Set a Flesch-Kincaid target per book with a live indicator in the editor.
Cover Designer
Layer-based composer plus AI background generation, with per-platform export.
Library backup
One-click portable zip. Move to a new Mac and restore in 60 seconds.
Honest comparisons.
We tell you when another tool is the better pick. Here's where Quillstone fits.
Quillstone vs Scrivener
A beloved local outliner with no built-in AI, audiobook, or cover tools. Quillstone adds all three — and still a one-time price.
Read the comparison →
Quillstone vs Sudowrite
Cloud fiction-writing on a subscription. Quillstone is local-first non-fiction with citation discipline and a one-time license.
Read the comparison →
Quillstone vs NotebookLM
Summarizes your sources in Google's cloud. Quillstone writes the whole book from them, locally, and exports publish-ready files.
Read the comparison →
Free to write. One-time to go pro.
No subscription. The free tier is functionally complete; Pro adds cloud quality and the publishing bundle.
Free
Everything an author needs to write a book and self-distribute, entirely on your Mac.
- ✓ All nine AI editing tools
- ✓ Editorial, fact-check & copy-edit passes
- ✓ Local audiobook narration + voice cloning
- ✓ EPUB / PDF export
- ✓ Cover Designer with AI backgrounds
- ✓ Research Library + Kiwix retrieval
Quillstone Pro
One-timeFor authors who want the cloud quality boost and a publish-ready bundle. Not a subscription.
- ✓ Everything in Free
- ✓ Cloud editing (Claude / GPT) — your key
- ✓ Cloud narration (ElevenLabs / OpenAI)
- ✓ Cloud image generation
- ✓ Export Publishing Bundle
- ✓ No per-token markup — you pay the provider
Straight answers.
Is it really offline?+
Yes. The local-first install runs every model on your Mac — chat, editor, image generation, audiobook narration, and retrieval over your sources. The only outbound call the app makes is the optional license check, and only if you buy Pro.
What does cloud mode send?+
Only the AI-text work you opt into, and it goes direct from your Mac to your chosen provider under your own API key. We never sit in the middle. Image generation, retrieval, and your library stay local either way.
What do I need to run it?+
An Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later) on macOS 15+. Higher-RAM Macs run everything locally; base-model Macs use cloud editing for the heavy lift and stay snappy. Windows, Linux, and iPad are not supported.
Is the free tier crippled?+
No. The free local tier covers full drafting, all nine AI tools, the editorial and fact-check passes, local audiobook narration, the Cover Designer, and single-file EPUB/PDF export — everything an indie author needs to ship.
What does Pro unlock?+
A one-time $89 license unlocks bring-your-own-key cloud editing, cloud narration, cloud image generation, and the Export Publishing Bundle. It's a license, not a subscription — you still pay your provider directly for any tokens.
Write the whole book. Keep every word.
Download Quillstone and take a manuscript from outline to audiobook — without your prose ever leaving your Mac.