The worst continuity errors in a novel are the ones nobody catches until a reader does: the character who is in the tavern and at the Watch House on the same night, the alliance that ends a chapter before it began, the date that puts a funeral before the death. Rereading catches some of them. A list of what your story bible says is wrong catches the rest, in seconds, provided the story bible holds enough of the story to check.
Lokee's Consistency Check reads your vault and tells you what looks off. It flags and never fixes. A flashback, an unreliable narrator and a genuine mistake look alike from the outside, and only you know which is which. This guide explains the two kinds of check, every category of finding and how to resolve each one, how to set up the "two places at once" check that people most often want, and how to make the check part of your drafting routine.
The examples use The Ashen Circle, the demo story, extended with the world points, recorded changes and events built in the earlier guides: three kinds of when, recording changes and story events.
Where the check lives and who can run it
Open Consistency Check from the vault sidebar, or from Tools in the Writer's toolbar. It is available in the browser and the desktop app. It is not offered in the Android app, and it is hidden for collaborators who are Reviewers on a vault: they read and comment but change nothing, and the check exists to lead to changes. Co-authors can run it like the owner.
The page has a Scope picker, two run buttons, and a list of issues.
Two checks, two jobs
Run deterministic check (free) reads the structure of your vault: recorded changes, world points, story points, relationships and their history, event placements, dated fields. It follows fixed rules, gives the same answer every time, and costs nothing. It always checks the whole vault, whatever the Scope picker says; a contradiction in chapter 2's records is still a contradiction when you are working on chapter 9.
Run AI-assisted check… reads your manuscript text. It is for contradictions that live in the prose rather than in the records, the kind of thing a careful reader notices, such as a detail that changes between two scenes. Here the scope matters: A chapter, The whole book or A timeline branch. Before anything runs, a consent dialog shows the model and the estimated cost. In cloud vaults the AI pass uses Lokee credits (see pricing); in a local vault on the desktop app it can use your own API key or a local model, chosen in the vault's AI settings, and the dialog says so. If no provider is available you get a message with a Go to Setup → link.
AI findings are labelled AI-assisted, quote the passage they are about and name the chapters they come from. Deterministic findings are labelled Deterministic and carry a severity and a category. The rest of this guide is mostly about the deterministic categories, because they are the ones you can act on precisely.
How to read a finding
Each finding has a one-line summary in plain words, a detail line with the values involved, its severity, its category name, an Open link to the record, point or entity it is about, and two buttons: Accept and Reject.
Both buttons do the same thing: they remove the finding from the list for this session. Neither changes your vault. They exist so you can work down the list, but a finding you accept or reject comes back the next time you run the check if the cause is still there. The only way to make a finding go away for good is to fix what it points at, or to switch its category off.
Findings are sorted worst first, in three severities.
Problems: contradictions in the records
Problem findings are contradictions: the vault says two incompatible things.
Contradiction
"Rowan Ashe: two values for “Allegiance” at The eastern wall riot." Two records give the same field different values at the same point. It usually happens when an event's effect and a hand-recorded change land on the same point, or when you record a change twice while revising.
Fix: Open the entity, go to the History tab, and look at the records at that point. Delete the one that is wrong. If both values were true one after the other, they are not at the same moment: add a world point between them on the Timeline and record one of them there.
In two places at once
"Rowan Ashe is in two places at The eastern wall riot." The same as a contradiction, for a field that says where someone is: the Gilded Lantern and the Watch House recorded at one point.
Fix: as above. Delete the wrong record, or split the moment. Fine-grained points cost nothing; "Riot, before curfew" and "Riot, after curfew" are often what the story actually means.
If the double location is deliberate (a character lying about where they were), the lie belongs to the reader's axis, not the world's. Record the true place at the world point and the claimed place at the story point where the reader hears the alibi. The world stays consistent, and the guide on keeping a mystery fair shows how the gap becomes a fair clue.
Relationship conflict
A relationship that ends before it begins, or is set two ways at one point: Rowan's membership in the Crown Watch ending at the riot but beginning at a later point.
Fix: Open it, set Viewing to the points involved, and correct it on the entity's Relationships tab with Began here… or Ended here…, or delete the wrong entry under Relationship history.
Nowhere to sit
"A recorded change points at a world point that is gone." You deleted a world point, and a recorded change still sits on it. Such a change can never be shown, so it is invisible everywhere until you deal with it. On the History tab it reads "Its point can no longer be found, so this change is not applied."
Fix: note what the change says, delete it, and record it again at an existing point with Record a change….
Worth a look: probably wrong, possibly deliberate
Worth a look findings are not contradictions, but they usually mean something slipped.
Date against order
A world point dated before the one above it, or a period that ends before it starts. "Order is what counts; the date annotates. Nothing was moved."
Fix: on the Timeline, decide which is right. If the order is right, correct the date. If the date is right, use Move earlier or Move later. If an event's period is backwards, fix its Place in world time in the event plan, where the row also shows a ⚠ flag. If you date some points in a character's unreliable diary on purpose, leave it: the finding is telling you something you already know.
Changed outside history
"“Allegiance” was changed outside Lokee’s history." The field's stored value is not what Lokee last wrote, most likely because an older version of Lokee changed it.
Fix: Open the entity. Its History tab shows a box with the stored value and the last value saved in Lokee. Choose Keep the new value, Put back the previous value, or Review to look at that field's history first.
Just so you know: information, not faults
Just so you know findings are listed so they are not forgotten. Nothing is wrong.
Not placed yet
A change you accepted from AI review with Leave unresolved: you knew something changed but not when. "It waits until you place it; nothing is wrong."
Fix, when you are ready: there is no button to place it afterwards, so delete it on the History tab and record it again with Record a change… at the right point.
Readers don’t know this yet
"Readers know Lady Iseult Varnhold’s “Allegiance” as Crown." At some story point the manuscript presents a value that canon has since moved past. The detail line ends: "That is what a reveal looks like."
What to do: read the list as a map of your open secrets. Each one should be a secret you meant to keep. If one surprises you, the reader is behind where you thought: either the reveal is missing from the manuscript, or you have not recorded the story point where it happens.
One thing to know about this category: it is raised for every story point where the presented value differs from canon, even when a later story point records the reveal. So Iseult's "Crown" in chapter 1 is listed even after you have recorded "Ashen Circle" at chapter 2. Read it as "places where the reader is behind", not "secrets you never revealed".
Duplicate dated facts
One more kind of finding has no severity badge and appears in English whatever your language: "Conflicting “Born” for the same entity at …". It means two separate date fields with the same name on one entity hold the same date, usually a field added twice to a type. Remove the duplicate field.
Setting up “two places at once”
This check is the one writers ask for most, and it needs one piece of setup, because Lokee cannot guess which of your fields means a place.
- Go to Settings → Structure → Entity types and edit your character type.
- If the location field is a Place field, you are done: Place fields always count.
- If it is a Text field, tick Says where someone is beside it. Its hint: "The consistency check uses this to notice someone being in two places at the same point in time."
A relationship type whose On maps role is Says where something is (location) puts characters on maps, but it does not feed this check. For characters who move, use a field.
Then remember what the check compares: recorded changes at the same point. A card that simply says the Gilded Lantern at Current never conflicts with anything. Movements recorded with Record a change…, as event effects, or by dragging a character onto a place on a map and choosing Moved here at this moment, are what the check reads. The map itself shows a conflict marker rather than choosing one of the two places. The guide on following characters across the map covers recording movements.
Switching checks off
A checker that insists on opinions you do not share is one you stop opening. In Settings → Writing → Consistency checks, every category has a switch: Contradiction, In two places at once, Relationship conflict, Nowhere to sit, Date against order, Changed outside history, Not placed yet and Readers don’t know this yet. Everything is on by default. A category that is off is never run in that vault, so it costs nothing and says nothing.
Reasonable reasons to switch one off: a mystery where you never want to hear "Readers don’t know this yet", or a book with no dates at all.
A first run on The Ashen Circle, finding by finding
Here is what a first deterministic run looks like on the demo vault after the earlier guides' setup, plus one deliberate mess: the riot's effects were recorded, and then Rowan's move to the Lantern was recorded again by hand at the same point, with a different place.
Press Run deterministic check (free). Three findings, worst first.
1. Problem — In two places at once. "Rowan Ashe is in two places at The eastern wall riot." Detail: The Gilded Lantern and The Undercroft. The event effect put him at the Lantern; the hand-recorded change put him in the Undercroft. Open → History tab → two records at the riot. In the book he hides in the Undercroft the night of the riot and reaches the Lantern the next morning, so neither record is wrong; they are at different moments. On the Timeline, add "The morning after the riot" below the riot, delete the Lantern record, and record Location → The Gilded Lantern there. Run again: gone.
2. Worth a look — Date against order. "The first grain winter" was dated Era 2, Year 61 while "Rowan takes the Watch oath", above it, carries Year 62. The order is right (the winter came first) and the date is a typo from an evening of fast typing. Fix the date on the Timeline. Run again: gone.
3. Just so you know — Readers don’t know this yet. "Readers know Lady Iseult Varnhold’s “Allegiance” as Crown." At chapter 1's story point she is presented as loyal, and canon says Ashen Circle. That is the reveal, working. Nothing to fix; Accept it so the list is empty for this session, and expect it back next time.
Ten minutes, two real fixes, one confirmation that the secret is still a secret. That is the shape of most runs: a short list, most of it quick.
Common mistakes when hunting continuity errors in a novel
Running the check on a vault of plain cards. It finds nothing, and people conclude it does not work. It compares recorded changes at points. A vault with no world points and no history gives it nothing to compare. Record the five facts that change, then run it.
Accepting findings to make the list empty. Accept and Reject only hide a finding for the session. The next run brings it back. If the list is long and you want it short, fix the Problems and switch off the categories you have decided you do not want.
Fixing a contradiction by deleting both records. Then the field has no history and every past view shows the current value with no history — current value. Keep the right one.
Splitting the moment and forgetting the effect. You add "The morning after the riot" and move the hand-recorded change there, but the event effect still points at the riot. That is correct in this example; in yours, check which record belongs where, or the event's Effects list will disagree with the History tab.
Expecting the AI pass to check the records. It reads prose. The free pass reads records. Run both; they find different things.
Scoping the AI pass to the whole book every time. Costs add up. Scope it to the chapters you changed since the last run.
What Lokee doesn't do here
The check never edits anything, which also means it never resolves anything. Every fix above is a trip to the History tab, the Timeline or the event plan, and the longer the fix list, the more the check becomes a to-do list rather than a report. The deterministic pass does not read the manuscript at all, so a continuity error that exists only in prose ("blue eyes" in chapter 2, "grey" in chapter 9) with no field behind it is invisible to it; that is what the AI pass is for, and the AI pass is a reader's note, not a verdict. And "Readers don’t know this yet" does not clear after a later reveal, as noted above, so in a mystery with twenty secrets that category becomes a list of twenty lines you have to read as information.
A ten-minute routine before every draft
Here is the routine I would suggest before starting each new draft or revision pass.
- Run the deterministic check. It takes seconds and costs nothing.
- Clear every Problem. Each is a fact your vault cannot hold at once; a contradiction left in the records will end up in the prose.
- Read Worth a look. Fix what slipped; leave what is deliberate.
- Skim Just so you know. Every "Readers don’t know this yet" should be a secret you are keeping on purpose.
- Run the AI-assisted check on the chapters you changed. Scope it to a chapter to keep the cost down, and treat each finding as a reader's note.
- Run the deterministic check once more after fixing, so the list you start drafting with is empty or deliberate.
The check is only as good as what the vault records. A vault with world points, recorded changes and story points gives it something to compare; a vault of plain cards gives it almost nothing. That is the practical argument for the habits in the earlier guides, and for the module-by-module tour in how Lokee helps with worldbuilding, which puts the check in context with the rest of the vault. The help's consistency section lists the categories in brief. The desktop app runs the free deterministic check on a local vault without an account.