🧰 Optional AI help

👤 For: Game Masters · 💳 Plan: All plans · 🔄 Updated 2026-10-17

Wovenkeep works without AI. If you like, Tantu suggests first drafts: portraits, NPC suggestions, loot, recaps. Tantu answers with the help of AI. You decide what makes it to the table. Each use costs a few Threads, your credit for optional extras. With your own AI key, text suggestions cost no Threads — images and sound still do. If your table wants no AI at all, you can hide the AI help for your whole Realm.

The principle: suggestions, you decide

The AI help is designed to remove friction, not to make decisions:

• It drafts a session recap so you don't have to start from scratch — you edit it
• It suggests a scene image so you don't have to find one — you decide whether to push it
• It suggests a line for an NPC so you don't have to improvise — you deliver the line
• It sketches a session plan so you have a scaffold — you run the actual game

There is no "AI GM mode". Wovenkeep is a tool for you to GM better, not a replacement.

What it does

The AI help shows up in two places:

• Prep — let Tantu suggest portraits, scene images, ambient sound, NPCs, story analysis, loot, and custom monsters before the session starts.
• Live — let Tantu suggest NPC lines and multi-NPC conversations on the fly while you run the game; what you keep goes to your players with a single push.

Nothing Tantu suggests reaches your players until you press Push.

The AI help at a glance

A spoken voice interview is planned but not yet in the tool (more).

💡 Tip: Voice Input (the microphone icon in text fields) costs no Threads at all. It uses your browser's built-in speech recognition; for browsers without it, the Voice Input page explains the fallback.

Hide AI features

Some tables want no AI anywhere near their game. One checkbox hides the AI help for your whole Realm:

1. In the sidebar, open Admin → ⚙️ Tantu Settings.
2. Tick Hide AI features at the top. It takes effect at once — there is no save button; the card confirms ✓ AI features hidden.

The box is unticked by default. The setting applies to your whole Realm: every campaign, every GM device and every player phone — other devices pick it up the next time they load the page. Untick the box to bring everything back (✓ AI features shown).

What disappears

• Every button that shows a Thread price (🧵) — suggestions for NPCs, items, monsters, loot, images, sound and recaps, Generate story in the Story Web, the quick actions on the Overview
• In the sidebar: Documents, Story Coach, Ask Tantu and Customize Tantu — also in the quick access and as Story in the phone's bottom bar
• The card 📈 AI Tension Arc, the live NPC dialogue suggestions (🎭 What does the NPC say?) and NPC conversations, and the AI checkboxes when you create an NPC and in the deicide (Rewrite world description via AI)
• Create a new image when you pick a picture for a Rulebook entry, Import document in Story & World, and the 🖼️ picture button for the loot of NPCs and monsters
• On player phones and the invite page: Suggestion from 3 questions (AI) in character creation, the portrait step of the guided wizard (Create portrait right away (AI)), 🎨 Generate portrait (AI) with Copy prompt on the character sheet, and 🎨 Generate Portrait (AI) after a character is created on the invite page

If you open a hidden area anyway, it only says AI features are hidden. with the link Show them again: Tantu Settings.

What stays

• Everything you already made with AI — portraits, scene images, sounds, analyses — stays and keeps working. Nothing is deleted; your own AI keys stay saved.
• The Tension Arc you rate yourself, 💬 NPC speaks in Live, 🎤 Voice Input and the Threads chip in the top bar.
• ⚙️ Tantu Settings itself, so you can show the AI help again.
• The bubble at the bottom right — it shows a ❓ instead of Tantu, and its menu still opens the tour, the Lazy DM checklist and the keyboard shortcuts.
• The TV view — it has no AI buttons.

Hiding changes only what you see: prices, your plan and your Thread balance stay the same.

How Threads work

Every use of an AI help debits Threads from your account balance — a small number each time (pay-per-use).

Every AI help button in the tool shows its Thread cost as a small badge (with your own key, text actions show 0 🧵). Before each paid action, a confirmation shows the cost and your current balance, and the topbar displays a live Threads chip so you always know where you stand. With Hide AI features, these buttons are gone; the Threads chip stays.

You can buy Thread bundles or earn free Threads via signup bonuses and in-app achievements. See Threads & costs.

Your own AI provider

In Admin → ⚙️ Tantu Settings, you can configure your own AI provider: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, or OpenAI-compatible — your own endpoint, for example Mistral, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, IONOS, or something you host yourself. An OpenAI-compatible provider needs an endpoint address and a model name; the API key is optional. Only https:// addresses are accepted — no internal/private network addresses.

With your own provider configured, it takes priority over Wovenkeep's bundled AI: text suggestions go to it first and spend no Threads — you pay the provider instead. With Provider preference: Auto, the try order is OpenAI-compatible, Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini. Use Test connection in ⚙️ Tantu Settings to check your endpoint before relying on it.

If your own provider is unreachable, Wovenkeep's built-in AI steps in instead (spending Threads as usual), and you see a one-time notice that your own provider was unreachable and Wovenkeep's AI was used. Your own provider is then skipped for 5 minutes, so a single outage doesn't slow down the rest of the session. If your own provider rejects a request instead, that reply is not retried against Wovenkeep's AI.

Image and voice input suggestions still work exactly as before. Most GMs skip this and use bundled Threads. See Instance Settings.

Player AI access

By default, only the GM can trigger paid AI actions. In Admin → ⚙️ Tantu Settings, enable Players may use paid Tantu functions (charged to my Thread credit) to let players create their own portrait suggestions or get help with character creation — those actions debit the Realm's Thread balance, not a separate player wallet.

Which providers are behind it

Which providers we use for the AI help is listed in the privacy policy.

With your own key, text suggestions use your provider; image suggestions use your own image key if you've added one, otherwise the platform.

Where to start

• Want to see it all in one evening? AI helpers in practice follows one example from prep to recap.
• New to the AI help? Read Threads & costs first.
• Want better prep? Story Coach is the highest-leverage feature.
• Want NPCs that feel alive in play? NPC dialogue suggestions.
• Need scene art and ambient sound? Suggestions: items, monsters, images, sound covers images, sound, loot, and monsters.
• Hate typing? Voice Input works in every text field, free.

Plans & Threads

The AI help (portraits, NPC suggestions, character creation, NPC dialogue, text, sound, loot) is available on every plan, including free Adventurer — you pay per use with Threads, and everything is available from day one. You get Threads by:

• Buying bundles — top up any time from the Thread shop
• Earning free Threads — 100 on signup, +10 for your first campaign, +20 after 10 played sessions, plus bonuses for verified bug reports, adopted feature suggestions, and beta feedback
• Monthly Threads with a plan — Game Master (4,99 €/mo): 60/mo · Storyteller (9,99 €/mo): 130/mo · Guild Master (19,99 €/mo): 300/mo — Threads never expire

On the free Adventurer tier, the AI help buttons are visible — unless you hide them. You need a positive Thread balance (or, for text actions, a configured BYO key) to use them; otherwise clicking opens the Thread shop.

Troubleshooting

Related articles

• 🧵 Threads & costs — your credit for optional extras
• 📖 Story Coach — dramaturgy analysis and session planning
• 💬 NPC dialogue suggestions — in-character lines and multi-NPC conversations
• ⚒️ Suggestions: items, monsters, images, sound — images, sound, loot, and monsters
• 🎤 Voice Input — free dictation in every text field
• 🪶 Tantu: name & voice — customize Tantu's name and tone