# What is Skaz?

Source: https://docs.skaz.io

> Skaz is a no-code editor for interactive, branching stories and training scenarios. What it is, who it's for and how the pieces fit together.

Skaz is a tool for creating and sharing **interactive, branching stories** —
the kind where the reader makes choices that change what happens next.

If you've ever made (or played) a "choose your own adventure" book, a visual
novel, or a branching dialogue tree in a game, that's the shape of a Skaz
story. You write it in a visual editor — no code — and publish it as a link
anyone can open and play in their browser.

## Where things live

Skaz has two places you'll use:

- **Studio** ([studio.skaz.io](https://studio.skaz.io)) — the visual editor
  where you build your stories. You lay out blocks for text, questions, and
  logic on a canvas and connect them with choices. Studio also has an
  [AI co-writer](/guide/ai-cowriter) that can draft whole branches for you,
  and a [preview](/guide/previewing) mode to play-test before you publish.
- **The player** ([skaz.io](https://skaz.io)) — where a finished story lives
  once you publish it. Anyone with the link can open it and play through,
  no account required (unless the story is marked 18+). See
  [Playing a Story](/playing-stories).

Both share one account, so signing in once covers building and reading alike.

## Core concepts

Every story is built from a few simple pieces:

- **Story** — the project itself: a title, description, cover image, and one
  or more [categories](/guide/creating-a-story#categories). It holds
  everything else below.
- **Blocks** (also called *nodes*) — the individual steps of your story: a
  piece of text, a question for the reader, or a bit of hidden logic that
  updates the story's memory. See [Blocks](/guide/blocks) for the full list.
- **Choices** — the buttons a reader taps to move from one block to the next.
  A block can have a single choice (just "Continue") or several (real
  branching). See [Choices & Branching](/guide/choices).
- **Variables** — named values (numbers, text, or true/false flags) your
  story remembers as someone plays, used to track things like a score or a
  name and steer the story down different paths. See [Variables](/guide/variables).

## Accounts and plans

You need a free account to build stories; reading a published story doesn't
require one. See [Account & Sign In](/account) for how sign-up works, and
[Plans & Pricing](/plans) for what each plan includes — the free plan lets
you publish up to 3 stories, and paid plans raise that limit and unlock the
AI co-writer.

## Where to go next

- **New here?** Start with [Getting Started](/getting-started) to build your
  first story end to end.
- **Learn by doing?** The [Tutorials](/tutorials) walk you through complete,
  hands-on examples — a branching story, a personalized adventure, and a
  scoring system with multiple endings.
- **Looking something up?** The [Editor Guide](/guide/editor-basics) is the
  full reference for the canvas, every block type, variables, and publishing.
- **Just want to read a story someone shared?** See
  [Playing a Story](/playing-stories).

> **Heads up:** Skaz is in beta. The whole toolbox described in this guide —
> branching, variables, input blocks, the AI co-writer, publishing and session
> tracking — is live and in use. A few smaller things are still being built out,
> and those are called out where they come up.

> Whatever you build, it has to fit the [content rules](https://skaz.io/rules).
> Stories for grown-ups are welcome under an [18+ flag](/guide/creating-a-story#18-content);
> pornography and sexual content involving minors are never allowed.