About this guide

This guide is for writers. It says how to install Cold Open, write a first scene, and use each feature, in the order you’re likely to meet them.

• New to Cold Open? Start with Install, then Getting started.
• New to Fountain? A Fountain primer takes five minutes.
• Working with a production? See .fdx exchange, Track changes, Production revisions and Compare drafts.
• Worried about losing work? Your work is safe explains the crash journal.
• Using an AI agent? See AI agents.
• Looking for a key or a command? The keyboard, command-line and command references list every one. They’re made from Cold Open’s own code, so they match the version they came with.

Two things are worth knowing from the start:

• The command palette (Ctrl+K, or Cmd+K on a Mac) lists everything Cold Open can do, with its keys. If you can’t find something, type a word of it there.
• This is an alpha. Known limitations lists what isn’t there yet. Keep copies of scripts that matter.

In this guide, Mod means Ctrl on Windows and Linux, and Cmd on a Mac. So Mod+S is Ctrl+S or Cmd+S.