# Plan with the manuscript board

The manuscript board is a planning space linked to your paper. Open **Write → Manuscript board**. It stores purposes, working notes and next steps independently of assistant conversations.

## Start a board

Import detected manuscript headings, start with the six-section paper outline, or create individual cards. Cards can represent a section, figure, table or note. Give each card a clear purpose: what should the reader understand after this part?

Add an owner label, priority, word target, working notes and a checklist. Owners are plain labels; assigning a name does not notify someone or grant workspace access. A useful checklist contains observable tasks such as “Define the evaluation split” rather than only “Improve methods”.

## Use writing stages and paper order

**Writing stages** shows Planned, Drafting, In review and Ready. Drag a card or change its stage selector. Stage changes preserve narrative order and do not certify scientific readiness automatically.

**Paper order** arranges the planned narrative. Drag cards or use earlier/later controls. This changes the board's order, not LaTeX source blocks. If you decide to move a section in the manuscript, make the corresponding source edit separately and compile.

These views answer different questions: writing stages show progress, while paper order shows the argument's intended sequence.

## Connect cards to actual sections

Linked cards show a source excerpt, approximate word count and **Open in manuscript**. Detected headings follow common `\input` and `\include` structures. Each section's count estimates its own prose rather than counting subsection bodies twice.

Links use the file, heading kind and title, so ordinary line shifts can preserve them. Renamed or removed headings need reattachment. Repeated headings are marked ambiguous rather than silently picking one. Custom macros or conditional compilation may need manual cards because the board is not a TeX expansion engine.

The visible board refreshes periodically and on window focus. **Refresh** provides an explicit check. New headings appear as available sections but become cards only when you add/import them.

## Review source changes

A linked card can show **Text changed** when its source or included fragments change. Read the excerpt and use **Mark text reviewed** to acknowledge the displayed source state. If the source changes again before acknowledgement, refresh and inspect the newer version.

This acknowledgement does not complete checklist items or move the card to Ready. Keep those as deliberate author judgments. A paragraph may have changed without the underlying experiment or review request being complete.

## Save, archive and export

Save card details explicitly. Moving, archiving and restoring cards save immediately. Unsaved details are protected when switching cards or closing the board, and background refresh retains the active draft.

If another writer updates the same card, you can preserve your draft as a new card or discard it and reload. Archive is reversible. **Export** downloads a Markdown snapshot of active cards in their board order, useful for planning discussions outside VersoFold.

The board is stored in `.versofold.board.json` and participates in manuscript history. The current limits are 300 cards including archived cards, 30 checklist items and 6,000 characters of notes per card.

## Ask the agent for planning help

**Help me build the board** prepares a request to inspect the existing manuscript and board, import missing sections and improve purposes or next steps. **Improve this card with agent** targets a saved card. Review and send the prepared prompt with your configured model.

Board tools can update planning records in authorized Edit mode without changing manuscript source. The agent should preserve your decisions and should not mark work ready solely because text exists.

Related: [working with the agent](agent.md), [deadlines](deadlines-rebuttal.md), [versions](versions.md).