Features

Everything First Mate does.

Every check, every card, every button and every report, as shipped in Salt of the Page 6.0. Nothing on this page is a promise about later.

Get First Mate How it works

As you type
Spelling and grammar
Consistency
Review and cards
The Captain’s Log
Reports
With your AI
Settings and targets

As you type

Typos fixed before you notice.

About 390 obvious typos fixed: teh, recieve, thier, alot, a lone i and so on. A chip shows Fixed “teh” → “the” · Undo. Ctrl/⌘ Z right after a fix undoes just the fix, and First Mate won’t change that word again in this book.

Real words are never “corrected” (fro, tot, ill, wont and lets were left out on purpose), and neither are names or your book’s own words.

Tidy-ups, each with its own switch

Curly quotes and apostrophes. If the book already uses straight quotes, they stay straight.
One space after a full stop.
Turn -- into a dash (unavailable while the no-dashes house rule is on).
Turn ... into an ellipsis (…).
Show marks while I write, off by default. The paragraph you just left gets soft dotted underlines under any slip. The text itself is never touched. Click a mark for a small card under the line.

Spelling and grammar

Checked on your device. Built for fiction.

Grammar: agreement, missing or extra words, word forms and similar slips. It uses a real grammar engine that runs on the device (harper.js, Apache-2.0), loaded the first time First Mate runs. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Fiction-aware: with Fiction mode on, nothing inside quotation marks gets a grammar or style card. “I dont know,” she said. produces no card.

Mixed-up words: lose/loose, breath/breathe, peek/peak, free rein, more then, could of and similar. A word is only flagged when the words around it make the mix-up clear.

Name slips: “Caloway” when the Source of Truth says “Calloway”, or a character’s name written without its capital. Never flagged: Source of Truth names and aliases, and the book dictionary.

Craft checks: emotion tells (“she was scared”) and redundancies (“nodded her head”), in narration.

Speed: about 120,000 words reviewed in about 5 seconds the first time. After that, unchanged paragraphs come from memory.

Fiction mode, on by default

The crew was tired, but there work wasn’t done.

Narration: checked

“Ain’t nobody sleeping tonight,” Ruth said. “Not till the nets is mended.”

Dialogue: the character’s voice, left alone

Silence. Then the bell.

Fragments on purpose? Mark them Intentional once

Consistency

The same thing, the same way, every time.

The consistency pass reads the whole book and finds everything you’ve written two ways. The less common form is the one flagged, and Fix everywhere changes the rest in one go, with Undo.

It catches about 40 US/UK spelling pairs, hyphenation, straight and curly quotes, three dots against an ellipsis, and digits against spelled-out numbers.

Examples of consistency findings
Found both	Kind
grey / gray	One of about 40 US/UK pairs
sea-plane / seaplane	Hyphenation
“ ” / " "	Straight vs curly quotes
... / …	Three dots vs an ellipsis
twenty-one / 21	Digits vs spelled-out numbers

Review and cards

One pass at a time.

Choose what to review: this chapter, a run of chapters, or the whole book.

Work through it in passes: Spelling and typos, Grammar, Consistency, Style, Fiction craft, Dialogue, and AI proofread. Each pass shows how many are left and a progress bar.

Every card shows the sentence, a before and after when there’s a fix, one line saying why it was flagged, and the target where the rule has one.

↓ ↑next / previous card
Enteraccept
Iignore
Nintentional
Kkeep the passage
Ffix everywhere
Escback to the page

Spelling and typos6 of 6
Grammar3 of 11
Consistency0 of 4
Style0 of 18
Fiction craft0 of 7
Dialogue0 of 5
AI proofreadwith your AI

GrammarChapter 3

The gulls circled and ~~there~~ their cries carried over the harbour.

Use “their” for something that belongs to them.

AcceptFix everywhereShowWord is fineIgnoreMore ▾

The buttons on each card

Accept

Makes the change. A chapter version is saved first, and Undo puts back both the text and the card.

Fix everywhere

For single-answer rules: the same fix in every place it appears.

Show

Jumps to the sentence on the page.

Word is fine

Adds the word to the book’s dictionary. Never flagged again.

Ignore

Dismisses this one, and the Captain’s Log remembers it.

Intentional

With an optional note in your own words. Stays decided for that passage.

Keep this passage as is

No check touches the passage again.

Turn this rule off in this book

For the whole book.

Why?

The reason behind the rule, in plain words.

Ask my AI

Optional: send the card and the sentence to your own AI for a second opinion.

The Captain’s Log

A decision stays decided.

Captain’s LogFirst Mate remembers 42 decisions in this book.

Ignored here“sea-plane”Chapter 4 · hyphenation
Intentional“Silence. Then the bell.”Chapter 7 · fragment · “on purpose, it’s the cliffhanger”
Kept as isThe letter from Ruth’s motherChapter 12 · no check touches it
Rule off in this bookLong sentencesWhole book
Word is fine“Caloosa”Added to the book’s dictionary
Never auto-fix“Ruthe”You pressed Undo in chapter 2

Every Ignore, Intentional, Keep, Rule off, Word is fine and Never auto-fix is remembered for that book, for good, and every part of First Mate obeys it, including the AI proofread.

Entries are matched by the flagged words and the sentence around them, so edits nearby don’t bring a flag back. If you rewrite the flagged words themselves, the entry shows as stale, with a button to clear it.

Remove any entry and First Mate can raise it again. The log lives in the book, so it travels with it.

Reports

Ten reports on the whole book. Unlimited.

For this chapter or the whole book. Each metric is compared with the book average, and every one runs on your device.

Reading grade

How hard the chapter is to read, against the book’s own average.

Average sentence

Words per sentence, chapter by chapter.

Dialogue share

How much of the chapter is talk.

Sentence variety

How much your sentence lengths change.

Sentence-length chart

Every sentence, drawn as a bar, so runs of the same length stand out.

Pacing by chapter

A bar for each chapter. Click one to open it.

The five senses

Sight, sound, touch, smell and taste in the chapter.

Dialogue tags

Said, asked, and the ones that stand out.

Overused words

The words you lean on, per chapter and per book.

Repeated three-word phrases

The phrases you’ve written more than once.

Compared with you, not a hidden average. Each number is shown against your book’s own average, so you see where this chapter drifts from the rest. Run them on a chapter or the whole book, as often as you like, with no AI and no internet.

With your own AI (optional)

The story layer: critique you can check.

Connect the AI you already use and First Mate can read for story, not just sentences. Before anything is sent, it shows you exactly what will go and waits for you to press Send. Nothing on this page needs it.

Proofread with my AI

Each part of up to 1,500 words is read 3 separate times (5 in Careful mode). Only the fixes most reads agree on are shown, labelled 3 of 3 agree. Anything that isn’t on the page, touches dialogue beyond a typo, or that your device already caught is left out.

Critique this chapter

Strengths and problems, each tied to an exact quote. Quotes that aren’t on the page, or that credit a character who isn’t in the passage, are dropped, and the small print says how many. On each note choose Done, Intentional (it won’t come back in later rounds) or Reply. Each run is kept as a round.

Ask the beta readers

Four readers, each with reactions tied to quotes and a verdict on whether they’d keep reading. A reader map shows where each one was hooked, confused or bored.

You see what’s sent

Before anything goes, First Mate shows the exact text, your Source of Truth entries and the decisions it will send, and nothing leaves until you press Send. Your key stays on your device, and you pay your AI company directly: no credits, no mark-up.

The beta readers

The genre fan

Reads your genre by the shelf. Wants the promise of the cover kept.

The skeptic

Looks for what doesn’t add up. Always included, so the feedback is never all praise.

The editor

Structure, pacing and clarity.

The first-time reader

Confusion, names, and who’s who.

Settings and targets

Every threshold in the open.

No hidden scores. Where a rule has a number, you can see it and change it.

Fiction mode

On by default. Dialogue inside quotation marks is left alone by grammar and style rules.

Genre targets

Long and sticky sentences use your genre profile’s targets. Every target is shown on the card and can be changed under Settings, then Targets.

As-you-type switches

Typo fixes, curly quotes, one space, dashes, ellipses and marks while you write each have their own switch.

Careful mode

For the AI proofread: five reads instead of three, so only the most agreed-on fixes show.

The status line

A small anchor and the open count, for example “⚓ 6 to review”. Click it to open First Mate. Hidden when the count is zero.

Open it anywhere

The First Mate button in My Books, the pelican in the dock, or Ctrl/⌘ Shift K.

Every check, on your device.

Bring a First Mate aboard and run it on the whole book as often as you like.

Get First Mate How it works