AI#

GDD Manager integrates language models to speed up tedious tasks without taking control away from the designer. You always review before accepting — the AI proposes, you decide.

What it does#

Supported providers#

The app supports 3 providers. You choose in Settings → AI:

• Anthropic Claude (recommended for long GDDs — large context window)
• OpenAI GPT (balanced cost/speed)
• Groq (fastest, smaller models — great for prototyping)

Each provider needs your API key (you create it in the provider's console and paste it into the app). Keys are stored only in your browser — we never send them to our servers.

Design principles#

The integration was built around 3 rules:

1. You review before accepting#

Every AI generation appears in preview mode. You read it, edit if you want, and click "Accept" to commit it to the project. Nothing goes in automatically. If the suggestion doesn't convince you, discard it.

2. The AI knows it's inside a GDD Manager#

The prompts were tuned so it understands:

• That a GDD is organized into the five canonical groups (Overview, Design, Content, Presentation, Production)
• That important concepts get their own page, referenced with $[...] instead of repeated in the text
• That callouts have 4 intentional variants (note / warning / design decision / balance note) — used with judgment
• That the doc is fictional but concrete — it invents names, numbers, and scenarios (no generic placeholders like "Character 1")

3. It doesn't invent systems outside the theme#

The strongest guardrail in the prompt is not adding mechanics the user didn't ask for. Asked for a puzzle game? No crafting. Asked for a visual novel? No combat. The AI is forced to respect the described scope.

Full template generation#

The most powerful feature — describe your game in 3 sentences and the AI generates the initial GDD with:

• 5 hierarchical groups (Overview, Game Design, Content, Presentation, Production)
• Typed pages inside each group (attributes, characters, items, economy)
• richDocBlocks filled with 3–5 callouts per page
• attributeDefinitionsOverrides with stats coherent with the genre (RPG: HP/ATK/DEF/MAG/SPD ~100/10/5/8/5; Platformer: HP/Speed/Jump ~3/1.0/1.5)
• domainTags on each section (combat, economy, progression, etc.)
• dataId suggested per page

Typical time: 30–60 seconds. You open a ready GDD and start editing.

Example input#

Type: Top-down roguelike
Description: A wizard explorer descends 10 floors of a tower with procedurally
generated dungeons. A rune system where combinations create unique spells.
Death is permanent, but rare runes permanently unlock new combinations
for future runs.
Additional info: Pixel art, single player, build-crafting focus.

Example output (structure)#

📖 Overview — Spire of Echoes
🎮 Game Design
  ├── Core Loop
  ├── Core Mechanics
  └── Progression
📦 Game Content
  ├── Base Attributes
  ├── Explorer Wizard
  ├── Enemy: Floor Goblin
  ├── Runes (Fire, Ice)
  ├── Spell: Fireball
  ├── Essence (permanent currency)
  └── Rune Table
🎨 Presentation
  └── Visual Style / UX / Audio
🏭 Production
  └── Technology / Roadmap / Risks / KPIs

Each page comes with rich prose, callouts explaining jargon, and cross-references between subjects.

Prose improvement#

In any richDoc, the "Improve with AI" button sends the current content plus a refinement request (more concise, more technical, more visual, etc.) and returns a revised version. You compare side by side and accept or discard.

Connecting Claude to your GDD#

GDD Manager can be connected to Claude — in claude.ai, Claude Desktop or Claude Code. Once connected, it can:

• List and read the content of your pages
• Create new pages and reorganize the tree
• Rewrite or complete descriptions, with $[...] references and tables in the right place
• Search by topic across all your projects
• Build a page's flowchart from a description of the flow

A common scenario: your game's programmer opens Claude, asks it to read the page where you described the core loop, and implements from there. You don't even need to send the document.

In claude.ai or Claude Desktop#

No key and nothing to install — you sign in with your own GDD Manager account.

1. In GDD Manager, open your account menu → Connect to Claude and copy the connector URL
2. In claude.ai (or Claude Desktop), go to Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector
3. Give it a name (e.g. GDD Manager), paste the URL and click Connect
4. A GDD Manager page opens: sign in with your account if it asks, then click Authorize

Done. In a new chat, try: "list my GDD projects".

In Claude Code#

Same path, from the terminal, also with no key. The Connect to Claude page shows the command to copy; after running it, type /mcp inside Claude Code, pick gdd-manager and Authenticate — the browser opens GDD Manager so you can sign in and authorize.

Disconnecting#

On the same page, Connected apps lists everything you've authorized. Disconnect cuts access right away — to come back, just connect and authorize again.

Privacy#

• API keys: stored only in your browser (localStorage). Never sent to our servers.
• Content sent to the AI: goes directly from your browser to the provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, or Groq). GDD Manager's servers never see or store it.
• History: we don't store any AI usage history.

See also#