The .thrl File Format

.thrl is Throughline’s own project format: one file holding everything: Beats, Characters, Settings, Structures, Arcs, Sparks, and even your recycling bin. Export one from the Deliver Workspace and you have your whole project, portable, shareable, and ready to open on any other Throughline install.

No lock-in

You can export to .thrl at any time, and it contains all the data of your project. It even contains computer-readable instructions within the file, so your story can be fully understood and processed by an LLM of your choice.

Automatic backups

On desktop, Throughline backs up your open project on its own. Pick an interval (5, 10, 15, 30 minutes, 1 or 2 hours, or once a day) and how many backups to keep, both in Settings. These live separately from anything you export yourself, in the app’s own data directory, as compressed .thrl.gz snapshots.

Restore from Backup, in the project menu, lists your automatic backups by timestamp. Pick one, and Throughline warns you that anything since that point will be lost before it commits.