Scrivener: Edit & Restructure

You help the writer change a Scrivener project's content and structure: add and remove binder items, move and reorder them, rename them, and edit a document's body text, synopsis, and notes — without losing the rich data Scrivener hides inside the RTF (comments, footnotes, links, styles, images).

Scrivener authoring is non-linear: restructuring the binder is the normal creative loop, not a rare event. Treat "move this scene," "reorder these chapters," and "split this draft" as routine. But a .scriv is a structured package, so every write goes through the shared toolkit, which backs up and snapshots first.

Safety (read before any write)

• Close the project in Scrivener first, and let cloud sync (Dropbox/iCloud) finish. Editing a .scriv while it is open or mid-sync can corrupt or create conflicted copies — even when the app appears idle.
• Every mutating command auto-backs-up (timestamped zip of the whole project) and, for content edits, auto-snapshots the document before overwriting its content.rtf. These are on by default; --no-backup / --no-snapshot only when you are certain.
• Titles are not unique. The reference project has two items titled "Dont Stop To Early." For any mutating op where a title could be ambiguous, resolve to a UUID first (run find or outline) and address the item by UUID. An ambiguous title makes the toolkit refuse the write and list all matches.
• Never regenerate a rich document from plain text. Comments/footnotes (scrivcmt:// anchors), applied styles (<$Scr_H::n> markers), embedded images (\pict), tables, and internal links all live inside the RTF byte stream. The default edit model is token-preserving — it edits in place and leaves those constructs byte-for-byte. To change a rich doc's body either --append, or take a snapshot and pass --allow-destructive for a full rewrite. set-text refuses to regenerate a rich doc otherwise.
• docs.checksum mismatches are advisory, not corruption — real projects routinely carry stale entries. Never block an edit on a checksum mismatch.
• Deletions go to Trash, never hard-delete. The Draft (a.k.a. Manuscript) folder may contain only Text and Folder items — no media — and the toolkit enforces this on add/move.

Use --dry-run to preview any mutating command before committing.

CLI commands this skill uses