Story Format Archive (SFA)

This project contains two parts:

• SFA-Get, a Node.js tool for downloading story formats found in the main branch.
• Flat-file database of JSON files describing story formats for Twine beginning with 2015 (Twine 1.4.2) found in the docs branch.

npx sfa-get

SFA-Get can be invoked using npx sfa-get. The tool now supports enhanced CLI options, concurrent downloads, retry logic with exponential backoff, progress indicators, and file integrity verification.

CLI Options

npx sfa-get --help

Available options:

• -c, --concurrency <number>: Number of concurrent downloads (default: 3)
• -r, --retries <number>: Number of retry attempts (default: 3)
• -t, --timeout <number>: Timeout in milliseconds (default: 30000)
• --no-progress: Disable progress indicators
• -V, --version: Output the version number

Commands

List Installed Formats

npx sfa-get list
# or
npx sfa-get ls

Download Latest Versions

# Download latest versions of all story formats
npx sfa-get latest

# Download latest versions of specific formats
npx sfa-get latest --formats harlowe sugarcube

Download Specific Version

# Download a specific version
npx sfa-get get harlowe 3.3.9

# Download latest version of a specific format
npx sfa-get get harlowe latest

Verify Downloaded Files

# Verify all downloaded files against database checksums
npx sfa-get verify

# Verify all versions of a specific format
npx sfa-get verify harlowe

# Verify a specific version of a format
npx sfa-get verify harlowe 3.3.9

File Integrity Verification

SFA-Get now includes SHA-256 checksum verification to ensure downloaded files are intact and haven't been corrupted during download or storage. The database includes checksums for all files:

{
    "name": "jonah",
    "version": "1.4.2", 
    "proofing": false,
    "description": "",
    "files": ["LICENSE", "code.js", "header.html"],
    "checksums": {
        "LICENSE": "6449c2dad1102ebce8a0f1f07c01abccc4c44d81b6f46b35f967f62373f4ba3b",
        "code.js": "1b66dfad4f18c9e03881253d616f8574ceda35628dfa48db608ba80e84328b4a", 
        "header.html": "a4beac5e2b240119a0cd459379e3baf948340a8aa1d16dd8ffb1dbca986aa9af"
    }
}

The verify command will check all downloaded files against their expected checksums and report any discrepancies:

🔍 File Verification Results:
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

📦 [email protected]:
  ✅ LICENSE - VALID
  ✅ format.js - VALID  
  ✅ icon.svg - VALID

📦 [email protected]:
  ✅ LICENSE - VALID
  ❌ format.js - INVALID
     Expected: abc123...
     Actual:   def456...
  ✅ icon.svg - VALID

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
📊 Summary: 6 files checked
   ✅ Valid: 5
   ❌ Invalid: 1
   ❓ Missing: 0
   ⚪ No checksum: 0

⚠️  Some files failed verification. Consider re-downloading them.

Interactive Mode

Without any command, SFA-Get will run interactive mode:

npx sfa-get

This will then retrieve the JSON index and build a new database:

🌐 Fetching latest JSON database...
✅ Database fetched.
✔ Select installation

The installation option is either latest or specific.

Choosing latest will download the highest versions found of each official story format found in the database. For example, the following output might be produced based on the versions found:

✔ Select installation latest
    Downloaded LICENSE to ./story-formats/chapbook/2.3.0/LICENSE
    Downloaded format.js to ./story-formats/chapbook/2.3.0/format.js
    Downloaded logo.svg to ./story-formats/chapbook/2.3.0/logo.svg
    Downloaded LICENSE to ./story-formats/harlowe/3.3.9/LICENSE
    Downloaded format.js to ./story-formats/harlowe/3.3.9/format.js
    Downloaded icon.svg to ./story-formats/harlowe/3.3.9/icon.svg
    Downloaded LICENSE to ./story-formats/paperthin/1.0.0/LICENSE
    Downloaded format.js to ./story-formats/paperthin/1.0.0/format.js
    Downloaded icon.svg to ./story-formats/paperthin/1.0.0/icon.svg
    Downloaded LICENSE to ./story-formats/snowman/2.0.2/LICENSE
    Downloaded format.js to ./story-formats/snowman/2.0.2/format.js
    Downloaded icon.svg to ./story-formats/snowman/2.0.2/icon.svg
    Downloaded LICENSE to ./story-formats/sugarcube/2.37.3/LICENSE
    Downloaded format.js to ./story-formats/sugarcube/2.37.3/format.js
    Downloaded icon.svg to ./story-formats/sugarcube/2.37.3/icon.svg

Alternatively, if choosing specific, it will ask for the story format name in lowercase and the version number.

✔ Select installation specific
✔ Enter story format name:
✔ Enter version: 

Specific Mode

Specific story formats can also be accessed by name and version. For example, to retrieve only Harlowe 3.3.9, it would be the following:

npx sfa-get harlowe 3.3.9

The previous command would create only the directory ./story-formats/harlowe/3.3.9/ with the following files based on the GitHub directory of the same name and version:

• LICENSE
• format.js
• icon.svg

New Features

Enhanced Performance & Reliability

• Concurrent Downloads: Downloads multiple files simultaneously with configurable concurrency limits
• Retry Logic: Automatic retry with exponential backoff for failed downloads
• Progress Indicators: Real-time progress bars showing download status
• File Integrity: SHA-256 checksum verification ensures downloaded files are intact
• Improved CLI: Better command-line interface with help, version, and structured commands

Usage Examples with New Features

# Download with custom concurrency and retries
npx sfa-get --concurrency 5 --retries 5 latest

# Download without progress indicators
npx sfa-get --no-progress get harlowe 3.3.9

# Download with custom timeout
npx sfa-get --timeout 60000 latest

SFA: Web Search

A simple search is provided to help verify entries and general data in the database.

Archive Database

• Official: https://videlais.github.io/story-formats-archive/official/index.json
• Unofficial: https://videlais.github.io/story-formats-archive/unofficial/index.json

Organization

Organization is split between official and unofficial. If a story format currently is or was packaged with Twine at any point in time, it is considered "official" with all others falling into the "unofficial" collection. Generally, those in the "unofficial" collection are more experimental in nature with some providing complex functionality and others, for example, the ability to export Twine data in different file formats.

Story formats are additionally sorted into twine1 and twine2 sub-collections. In some cases, a story format might be in both categories if it was originally published during the transitory period between major versions.

Organization Example

URL: /official/index.json

{
    "twine1": [
        {

        }
    ],
    "twine2":[
        {

        }
    ]
}

Directories within the major Twine versions include story format and minor version per story format (e.g. harlowe/3.3.0). For Twine 1 story formats, the version of Twine (e.g. 1.4.2) is used unless explicitly mentioned by the build or author.

Directory Example

URL: /official/twine2/chapbook/1.0.0/

Story Format Properties

Official

Each official story format has the following properties:

• name: (string) Name.
• author: (string) Author(s) of the story format.
• version: (string) Semantic version.
• proofing: (boolean) true if story format is for proofing and false otherwise.
• description: (string) Summary of story format.
• files: Files of the story format.

Example:

{
    "twine1": [
        {
            "name": "jonah",
            "version": "1.4.2",
            "files": [
                "LICENSE",
                "code.js",
                "header.html"
            ]
        }
    ],
    "twine2": [
        {
            "name": "chapbook",
            "author": "Chris Klimas",
            "version": "1.0.0",
            "proofing": false,
            "description": "A Twine story format emphasizing ease of authoring, multimedia, and playability on many different types of devices.",
            "files": [
                "LICENSE",
                "format.js",
                "logo.svg"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Unofficial

Each unofficial story format has the following properties:

• name: (string) Name.
• author: (string) Author(s) of the story format.
• repo: (string) GitHub repository or website.
• proofing: (boolean) true if story format is for proofing and false otherwise.
• description: (string) Summary of story format.
• basedOn: (string) Parent story format it is based on, if any.
• files: Files of the story format.

{
    "twine1": [
        {
            "name": "DotGraph",
            "author": "M. C. DeMarco",
            "version": "2.2.0",
            "repo": "https://github.com/mcdemarco/dotgraph",
            "proofing": true,
            "description": "Displays a graph of your story, with several options for color-coding, clustering, and labeling nodes; it also detects unreachable nodes and terminal leaves",
            "basedOn": "",
            "files": [
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Twine 2

Each story format folder contains:

• format.js: JSONP code. (See Twine 2 Story Format output specification.)
• icon.svg: Icon.
• LICENSE: License text.

Twine 1

Depending on the story format, there may be up to three files:

• header.html: HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.
• LICENSE: License text.
• code.js: Additional JavaScript code.

In cases where the code.js file is not included, the complete JavaScript of the story format can be assumed to be part of the header.html file.