Set up VS Code like a writer's binder.
You don't need to be a programmer. VS Code is a free, fast text editor — and a folder of Markdown files is all a novel needs. This guide walks you from a blank editor to a project layout where every Prose Minion tool knows exactly where your characters, chapters, and research live.
Grab VS Code — it's free.
Prose Minion runs inside Visual Studio Code, Microsoft's free editor for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Download it first — everything in this guide happens inside it.
Download VS Code ↗Add a chat agent, too.
Extensions like Claude Code or OpenAI's Codex put a chat-based agent in the same sidebar. Prose Minion runs focused craft passes; an agent gives you hands — it can build this guide's folders for you, split one long draft into chapter files, or batch-rename chapters while you chat.
Meet Frame Minion.
From the same maker: AI video generation in VS Code — generate frames, push them into video, or hand a whole song to the Music Video Orchestrator. Same bring-your-own-key, keys-stay-local design.
frameminion.video ↗
Three ideas, and VS Code makes sense.
A project is just a folder.
VS Code doesn't have "documents" — it opens a folder (it calls this a workspace). Everything inside that folder is your project. One novel, one folder.
Everything is plain text.
You write in Markdown — ordinary .md files. No proprietary format, no lock-in, works with every backup and versioning tool ever made. Prose Minion reads .md and .txt.
The Explorer is your binder.
The file tree in the left sidebar is the same thing as a three-ring binder with tabs — folders are the tabs. Prose Minion uses those tabs to know what's a character sheet and what's a chapter.
That last idea is the whole trick: your folder structure is metadata. Name the folders well and the Context Assistant, Metrics, Word Search, and Category Search all inherit a map of your book for free.
Create your project.
Install VS Code
Free, from code.visualstudio.com — Mac, Windows, or Linux. Open it once so it's in your dock.
Make one folder for your book
In Finder or File Explorer, create a folder named after the project — my-novel. Put it somewhere that gets backed up (Documents, iCloud, Dropbox).
File → Open Folder…
In VS Code, open that folder. If it asks whether you trust the authors, click Yes, I trust — it's your own folder. The Explorer sidebar now shows your (empty) project.
Install Prose Minion & add your key
Extensions view → search Prose Minion → Install. Click the gear in the panel header and paste your OpenRouter key — it's stored in encrypted SecretStorage, never in a settings file.
Turn on autosave (File → Auto Save) so you never think about saving again. And make a new file with right-click → New File in the Explorer — type the name including .md at the end.
Build your binder — nine folders.
These names match Prose Minion's default Context Resource Paths, so everything works with zero configuration. Skip any you don't need — an empty folder costs nothing. The tags show which tools lean on each folder.
Characters/ or characters/ — the default patterns match both. Just be consistent so your Explorer sorts cleanly.
Don't reorganize your book — point the extension at your names instead. Every group's pattern is editable in Settings → Context Resource Paths.
One chapter, one file — under 5,000 words.
Both Manuscript/ and Drafts/ hold chapters — polished versus working. Either way, keep each chapter in its own Markdown file and aim for under ~5,000 words per file.
chapter-01.md, not chapter-1.md — so chapter 10 doesn't sort before chapter 2 in the Explorer.
A 9,000-word chapter can live as chapter-07a.md and chapter-07b.md. The tools don't care about your chapter numbering — only file size.
Write in Drafts/; when a chapter is submission-ready, move the file to Manuscript/. Both stay searchable.
Set up once — four tools get smarter.
Every tool that asks "which files?" answers itself from your folder structure.
Context briefs
Click the assistant button next to a context field and the Context Assistant scans your folder groups — Characters, Locations, Themes — reviews only the files it believes are necessary, and lists every file it read under the context box. If Mira is in the excerpt, her sheet gets attached; the other forty don't.
Metrics
Run prose statistics on the active file, all of Manuscript/, all of Drafts/, or a path you type. Separate chapter files mean per-chapter pacing, dialogue %, and readability — and honest page-count comparisons against your publishing standard.
Word Search
Hunt a tic — "suddenly," "just," a pet gesture — across one chapter or the whole book. With chapter files, results come back as a per-file table with hit counts, average gaps, and clusters, so you know chapter 12 has the problem, not "somewhere."
Category Search
Semantic search by idea — "colors," "prepositions," "weather words" — scoped the same way. Ask for every color word in Drafts/ and see which chapters lean on the same palette. Scoping to a folder keeps the semantic pass focused and cheap.
Glob patterns, demystified.
The Context Resource Paths settings use glob patterns — a shorthand for "which files count." There are exactly two you need to know, and they differ by one star.
Rule of thumb: always write the recursive form. Characters/**/* finds every character file no matter how you reorganize later. Separate multiple patterns with commas: characters/**/*,Characters/**/*. Only .md and .txt files are ever reviewed.
Every setting, explained.
Open Prose Minion, then click the gear icon in the panel header. The defaults are good — you can ship a whole book without touching most of these. Settings save automatically.
settings save automatically — no save button, no config file to break