QUILL

QUILL stands for Quality, Usable, Inclusive, Lightweight, Literate.

QUILL: A quality, usable, inclusive, lightweight, and literate editor built for everyone who writes, codes, learns, and creates.

What Quill is

Quill is a screen-reader-first Windows writing and document environment focused on practical keyboard workflows, stable editing, and accessible diagnostics/support flows.

Quill is designed to stay focused and useful:

• Quality -- dependable, polished, and serious enough for real work.
• Usable -- built around practical keyboard, screen reader, and low-friction editing needs.
• Inclusive -- designed from the beginning for blind users, screen reader users, keyboard users, and people with different skill levels.
• Lightweight -- fast, focused, not bloated, and friendly to people who just want to write or edit.
• Literate -- about words, code, Markdown, documents, learning, and thoughtful communication.

Current release line

Current release line: 0.1.2

Highlights in 0.1.2 include:

• Insert menu with searchable Markdown/HTML insertion.
• Word Prediction with Ctrl+Space plus HTML/Markdown tag IntelliSense.
• New snippet system with Ctrl+Alt+Space insertion, trigger expansion, and starter packs.
• Release-safety default for 0.1.2 testing: Word and CSV open in the normal plain-text editor surface.
• Structured Word view and CSV grid code paths remain in-repo behind an internal gate for continued verification.
• Expanded structured intake for .doc/.docx, .ppt/.pptx, .xlsx/.xls, .pages, and low-confidence PDF fallback via MarkItDown when available.
• Writing Assistant shell with prompt presets, generated tool suggestions, and a sandboxed Python runner.
• AI Connection workflow from both Preferences and the AI menu, with provider-aware host defaults.
• Verify Connection, List Models, and Recommend Model actions in AI Connection settings.
• AI menu status line with plain-language detail (Ready or Needs attention) and immediate accessible feedback.
• Optional Ollama cloud key mode over HTTPS (no local Ollama required for cloud endpoint access).
• In-App Preview and Side-by-Side Preview with a dedicated Focus Preview command.
• Heading styling tools to apply font family, size, and alignment to current-level or all headings in Markdown/HTML.
• Heading Organizer (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H) with keyboard-driven heading level changes, section reordering, and accessibility validation.
• Search menu simplification with replace-all inside the Replace dialog.
• Unified diagnostics-backed support flow under Help -> Report a Bug.
• Menu IA refinement, including Insert before View and Search after View.
• Documentation refresh with regenerated Markdown/HTML/EPUB artifacts.

AI quick start:

1. Open AI -> AI Connection....
2. Choose provider (Ollama (local), Ollama Cloud (API key), or Custom HTTP).
3. Enter host/model/key as needed.
4. Save settings; Quill auto-verifies and updates the AI status line.
5. Use List Models to choose a provider-returned model.

Ollama Cloud onboarding is available in this same flow. If you have an API key, Ollama Cloud offers a free personal-use tier with lower usage limits.

Snippet workflow quick start:

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Space to open Insert Snippet.
2. Type to filter by snippet name, trigger, or body text.
3. Use arrow keys to choose, press Enter to insert, and fill placeholders when prompted.

Related commands:

• Ctrl+Space: Word Prediction (words, HTML tags, Markdown tags).
• Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Space: Manage snippets (create, edit, delete, import/export, starter packs).
• Preferences -> Install Starter Snippet Packs: install sample packs for writing, developer flow, and accessibility/support notes.

Project layout

• quill/ -- application code.
  • quill/core/ -- core logic and document operations.
  • quill/ui/ -- wxPython interface and dialogs.
  • quill/platform/windows/ -- Windows integration points.
• docs/ -- product docs and generated artifacts.
  • QUILL-PRD.md (+ .html, .epub)
  • userguide.md (+ .html, .epub)
  • announcement-beta.md (+ .html, .epub) -- published on GitHub Pages
  • engineering/ -- implementation-facing docs surfaced on GitHub Pages
• tests/ -- unit/integration/accessibility/performance tests.
• scripts/ -- release, validation, and maintenance helpers.

Run Quill locally

1. Install Python 3.12.
2. Install dependencies:
   • pip install -e ".[ui,dev]"
3. Launch:
   • python -m quill

Optional launch flags:

• --safe-mode
• --reset-profile

Development checks

• Lint: ruff check .
• Tests: pytest -q

Documentation workflow

Generate docs artifacts from docs/*.md with Pandoc:

• HTML: pandoc docs\\<name>.md -f gfm -t html5 -s -o docs\\<name>.html
• EPUB: pandoc docs\\<name>.md -f gfm -t epub3 -o docs\\<name>.epub

Artifact parity guard:

• python scripts/check_docs_artifacts.py

This fails when a docs/*.md source changed but matching .html/.epub files were not updated. The installer ships the user-facing guides, while the GitHub Pages docs hub exposes the PRD and engineering docs for anyone who wants the deeper implementation detail.

One-command release readiness

Run the full 0.1.2 readiness flow:

• python scripts/release_readiness.py

This runs:

1. Lint (ruff check .)
2. Tests (pytest -q)
3. Docs rebuild for docs/*.md (HTML + EPUB)
4. Docs artifact parity check
5. Release corpus verification

CI and release automation

• CI workflow: .github/workflows/accessibility-ci.yml
• Windows release workflow: .github/workflows/windows-release.yml
• Docs site workflow: .github/workflows/github-pages.yml (publishes the docs hub and updates feed)

Support and issue reporting

Use Help -> Report a Bug inside Quill. The flow supports diagnostics bundle generation, report preview, clipboard copy, and browser handoff to support submission.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.