Archives

An intelligence database workbench for fictional universes.
Clone it. Seed it. Feel like you're inside the lore.

Archives is a structured lore platform with a classified-database aesthetic, not a freeform wiki. Every entity has a type, typed relationships, and a rich set of structured records: infection histories, mutation stages, intelligence assessments, timeline positions, and more. The frontend is a Multiple Document Interface workbench where dossiers, relationship graphs, maps, and search results open as draggable windows inside a single workspace styled after an in-universe government intelligence terminal.

Live demo

What it does

Archives is a structured lore database. It is not a freeform wiki and not a CMS. The goal is to give a fictional universe, any universe, the same depth of organized, cross-referenced data that a real intelligence archive would have.

You define entity types. You add entities. Each entity can carry free-text sections, a dynamic attribute set, typed relations to other entities, and a collection of structured records covering everything from pathogen exposure to recorded dialogue. Timelines order events. Media sources track appearances. Interactive maps place entities in physical space.

The whole thing is readable by anyone (public API, SEO-friendly wiki pages) and writable by authenticated users with the right permissions.

Data model

The central concept is the entity. An entity is anything with an identity in the universe: a person, a location, an organization, a pathogen, a creature, a weapon, a facility, a research project, a historical incident, or a recorded transmission. Entity types are not hardcoded, they are rows in the meta_entity_types table and can be created, renamed, or deleted through the admin panel.

Every entity can have:

Core fields

Name, slug, short description, long-form content (rich text), featured flag
Type and status (both from configurable lookup tables)
Tags (global, polymorphic) and categories (universe-scoped, hierarchical)
Aliases, alternative names and codenames, each with a type label
Sections, ordered, titled content blocks with a section type (biography, notes, abilities, etc.)
Attributes, typed key-value data grouped by definition (e.g. Height, Blood Type, Clearance Level)
Images, polymorphic, sortable, with alt text, caption, and credit fields

Relations

Typed, directional links between entities. Each relation has a relation_type from the configurable lookup table, optional temporal metadata (start/end dates in both real and fictional calendars), and a notes field. The relation graph is available as a lightweight JSON payload for graph rendering.

Structured records (10 types, all CRUD via a single unified controller)

Record type	What it captures
Infection records	Pathogen exposure: the infecting pathogen, cure, symptoms, side effects, stage, reversibility
Mutation stages	Transformation progression: stage number, trigger entity, physical changes, abilities gained
Affiliation history	Organization membership over time: role, rank, start/end dates, circumstances
Death records	Death and revival: cause, death type, killer, incident, location, revival method, body modifications
Consciousness records	Consciousness transfer or vessel possession: origin, target vessel, transfer method, current state
Intelligence records	Analyst observations: observer, subject, classification level, reliability rating, redaction flag
Power profiles	Ability assessments: power name, level, source entity, description
Quotes	Recorded statements: content, source media, fictional date, context
Transmission participants	Entities involved in a transmission (radio/document/dialogue): role (speaker, listener, interceptor, mentioned, etc.)
Transmission records	Individual lines within a transmission: content type (dialogue, narration, action, static, redacted), speaker, sort order

Timelines and events

A timeline is an ordered sequence of events scoped to a universe. Events have real and fictional dates, a location, participants, and a type. Entities are attached to timelines via a pivot table.

Media sources

Track which games, films, books, or other works an entity appears in. Media sources belong to a universe and entities are attached via a pivot.

Interactive maps

A map is itself typed as an entity (type: map). It has one or more floors, each with an uploaded image. Markers and regions are placed on floors using percentage-based coordinates so they stay aligned regardless of display size. Markers link back to entities.

The workbench interface

The frontend is a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) workbench. There is a persistent left sidebar for navigation and a central workspace area where content opens as internal windows.

Windows are individually draggable, resizable, minimizable, and maximizable. You can have multiple entity dossiers open at once alongside a search terminal, a timeline view, and a map, all within the same browser tab. Clicking an entity link inside a dossier opens that entity in a new window rather than navigating away.

The visual design is modeled after a classified government intelligence terminal: monospace type (JetBrains Mono), sharp corners throughout, a navy/ice-blue/white palette, dot-grid backgrounds, and unfocused windows rendered at reduced opacity. Status badges are color-coded (alive, deceased, active, dormant, classified).

There is also a public-facing wiki layer under /w/ that renders SEO-friendly, server-rendered pages for every entity and universe, no login required.

Advanced search

Beyond standard keyword search (which searches names, descriptions, aliases, and section text), Archives includes a natural-language advanced search engine.

How it works:

The SearchQueryParser tokenizes the raw query, strips stop words, and detects intent signals. It loads all entity names from the current universe at query time and treats multi-word names (e.g. "Albert Wesker", "Mother Miranda") as protected phrases that are not split during tokenization. Universe-specific compound names can also be stored in universes.compound_names for the same treatment.
Action words in the query are mapped to relation types and record types. Searching for "who infected" resolves to infection records. "who killed" resolves to death records with a specific killer. "allies of" resolves to affiliation or relation type slugs. There are 50+ mapped action verbs, supplemented at runtime by any relation type slugs in the database.
The AdvancedSearchService runs a multi-signal scoring pass across names (100 pts), aliases (85 pts), descriptions, section text, quotes, attributes, cross-references, power profiles, relations (50 pts), and structured records (35-40 pts). Each matching signal produces a context excerpt.
The result includes ranked entities with excerpts, a connection subgraph for the matched entities, and a generated intelligence briefing.

The advanced search endpoint is GET /api/universes/{universe}/advanced-search?q=.... The frontend exposes it through the workbench's Brain icon in the taskbar, which opens a dedicated Intelligence Analysis panel with three tabs: briefing, subjects, and a mini force-directed graph.

Tech stack

Backend

PHP 8.3+ / Laravel 13
Inertia.js (server-side rendering bridge for the SPA)
Laravel Sanctum (API token and session authentication)
Laravel Fortify (login, registration, two-factor auth)
Laravel Telescope (request/query inspection, development only)
Laravel Wayfinder (generates typed TypeScript route helpers from PHP routes)
Pest 4 (testing)
SQLite (development default) / MySQL 8 (production)

Frontend

React 19 with the Babel Compiler plugin (automatic memoization)
TypeScript in strict mode
Tailwind CSS 4 via the official Vite plugin
Vite 5 for bundling
Zustand for window and application state management
Inertia.js React adapter for page hydration
Radix UI for accessible headless component primitives
React Hook Form with Zod schema resolvers
Tiptap 3 for rich text editing (entity sections)
React-Leaflet with CRS.Simple for floor-plan map rendering
Recharts for data visualization
Sonner for toast notifications

Requirements

PHP 8.3 or higher
Composer 2
Node.js 20+ and npm
SQLite 3 (development) or MySQL 8+ (production)

Local development

git clone https://github.com/bywyd/archives.git
cd archives
cp .env.example .env

The .env.example defaults are configured for SQLite. No database server is needed for local development. Open .env and adjust only if you want to point at a MySQL instance instead.

composer install
php artisan key:generate
php artisan migrate

npm install --legacy-peer-deps

The --legacy-peer-deps flag is required because react-simple-maps and react-leaflet have conflicting React peer dependency declarations.

composer run dev

This starts three processes concurrently: the PHP development server, the queue worker, and the Vite dev server. The application is available at http://localhost:8000.

Seeding

The included seeder populates database with common initials with Attributes, Metadata, Rbac and a super user.

php artisan db:seed

The seeder also creates a default user: check database/seeders/DatabaseSeeder.php for the email and password. After seeding, assign the user the super-admin role through the admin panel at /admin.

Credentials after seeding: Email : test@example.com password : password

Docker

A multi-stage Dockerfile builds the application in one stage and copies the result into a minimal PHP-FPM Alpine image with Nginx and Supervisor. docker-compose.yml adds MySQL 8 with a health check.

cp .env.example .env

Set the following values in .env before starting:

APP_KEY=           # generate with: php artisan key:generate --show
DB_DATABASE=archives
DB_USERNAME=laravel
DB_PASSWORD=secret
DB_ROOT_PASSWORD=rootsecret

docker compose up -d
docker compose exec app php artisan key:generate --force
docker compose exec app php artisan migrate --force
docker compose exec app php artisan db:seed --force   # optional

The application is exposed on port 80 by default, configurable via APP_PORT in .env. Storage and database volumes are named and persist across container restarts. A queue worker service is defined in the compose file but commented out, uncomment it if you need background job processing.

API reference

All GET endpoints are public and rate-limited. All POST, PUT, and DELETE endpoints require a valid session or Sanctum token and the appropriate permission.

Global

GET    /api/search                                                  full-text search across all universes
GET    /api/tags
GET    /api/meta/entity-types
GET    /api/meta/entity-statuses
GET    /api/meta/relation-types
GET    /api/meta/attribute-definitions

Universes

GET    /api/universes
GET    /api/universes/{universe}
POST   /api/universes                                               requires universes.create
PUT    /api/universes/{universe}                                    requires universes.update
DELETE /api/universes/{universe}                                    requires universes.delete
PUT    /api/universes/{universe}/lock                               requires universes.lock

Entities

GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/graph            lightweight relation graph payload
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/preview          card-level summary
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/relations
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/revisions
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entity-locations                   entities with lat/lon attributes
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/sidebar-tree
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/search
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/advanced-search?q=...
POST   /api/universes/{universe}/entities
PUT    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}
DELETE /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}
PUT    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/lock             requires entities.lock
POST   /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/revisions/{revision}/rollback
POST   /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entityId}/restore        restores soft-deleted entity

Entity sub-resources (per-entity read endpoints)

GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/infection-records
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/mutation-stages
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/affiliation-history
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/death-records
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/consciousness-records
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/intelligence-records
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/power-profiles
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/quotes
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/transmission-participants
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/transmission-records
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/sections
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/attributes
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/maps
GET    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/maps/{map}

Unified record write endpoint

All 10 structured record types share a single controller with a {recordType} path parameter:

POST   /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/records/{recordType}
PUT    /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/records/{recordType}/{recordId}
DELETE /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/records/{recordType}/{recordId}

Valid recordType values: infection-records, mutation-stages, affiliation-history, death-records, consciousness-records, intelligence-records, power-profiles, quotes, transmission-participants, transmission-records.

Other resources

GET/POST/PUT/DELETE  /api/universes/{universe}/timelines
GET/POST/PUT/DELETE  /api/universes/{universe}/timelines/{timeline}/events
GET/POST/PUT/DELETE  /api/universes/{universe}/media-sources
GET/POST/PUT/DELETE  /api/universes/{universe}/categories
GET/POST/PUT/DELETE  /api/universes/{universe}/relations
GET/POST/PUT/DELETE  /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/sections
GET/POST/PUT/DELETE  /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/attributes
GET/POST/PUT/DELETE  /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/maps (floors, markers, regions)
POST/PUT/DELETE      /api/images
GET/POST/PUT/DELETE  /api/meta/* (requires meta.manage)
GET/POST/PUT/DELETE  /api/rbac/roles, /api/rbac/permissions

The API is JSON-only. All responses use Laravel API Resources. Paginated endpoints include a meta object with total, current_page, and last_page.

Roles and permissions

Archives uses a custom RBAC system. Roles have many permissions, users have many roles. The is_super_admin flag on a role implicitly grants all permissions and prevents modification through the API.

Permissions are grouped and checked via the permission: middleware on protected routes. The entity-mutation middleware additionally enforces lock state before allowing writes.

Default permission slugs seeded by RbacSeeder:

Group	Slugs
Entities	`entities.create`, `entities.update`, `entities.delete`, `entities.lock`, `entities.rollback`
Universes	`universes.create`, `universes.update`, `universes.delete`, `universes.lock`
Meta	`meta.manage`
RBAC	`rbac.manage`

Roles and permissions are fully manageable at runtime through the admin panel at /admin/roles.

Locking

Both universes and entities support a soft lock. When a universe is locked, all write operations against entities and records within it are blocked unless the requesting user has the entities.lock permission. When an individual entity is locked, the same check applies to that entity specifically.

Locks do not affect read access.

Caching

Frequently read payloads are cached using Laravel's cache layer (database driver by default, configurable to Redis or Memcached).

Cache key	TTL	Contents
`entities:{id}:show`	30 min	Full entity with 30+ eager-loaded relations
`entities:{id}:graph`	30 min	Lightweight relation graph for graph rendering
`universes:{id}:sidebar-tree`	30 min	Type/timeline/category/media counts for sidebar
`universes:{id}:entity-locations`	30 min	Entities with geographic coordinates
`entity_maps:{id}:show`	30 min	Map with floors, markers, and regions

Cache invalidation is automatic. Three model traits watch for saved and deleted events:

HasCaching, used on root models (Entity, Universe, Map). Clears own contexts on change and cascades to parents.
BustsEntityCache, used on all 16 entity sub-record models. On save or delete, clears the parent entity's show cache.
BustsUniverseCache, used on Category, MediaSource, Timeline. Clears the parent universe's sidebar-tree cache.

When an EntityRelation is saved, both the from_entity and to_entity caches are cleared.

Revision history

The HasRevisions trait is applied to Entity and Universe. It automatically records a revision on every created, updated, and deleted event, storing the old and new values alongside the authenticated user's ID.

Revisions are viewable per entity at GET /api/universes/{universe}/entities/{entity}/revisions and on the public wiki at /w/{universe}/{entity}/history. An authorized user can roll back an entity to any previous revision via POST .../revisions/{revision}/rollback, or restore a soft-deleted entity via POST .../entities/{id}/restore.

Project structure

Folder structure has typical full-stack laravel application, but I'll leave quick details below:

app/
  Http/
    Controllers/Api/      EntityController, EntityRecordController, SearchController,
                          MapController, UniverseController, RbacController, and 10 others
    Controllers/          WikiController (public pages), SitemapController, settings
    Middleware/           entity-mutation (lock enforcement), permission (RBAC check)
    Resources/            API resource transformers for every model
    Requests/             Form request validation classes
  Models/                 36 Eloquent models
  Services/               AdvancedSearchService, SearchQueryParser
  Concerns/               HasCaching, BustsEntityCache, BustsUniverseCache,
                          HasImage, HasRevisions, HasRoles

database/
  migrations/             53 migrations
  seeders/

resources/
  js/
    components/
      archives/           Entity dossiers, lists, relations, records, maps, search
      workbench/          MDI window system (InternalWindow, WindowManager, WindowTaskbar)
      ui/                 48+ Radix UI-based primitive components
    pages/                Inertia page components (archives, wiki, dashboard, admin, settings)
    lib/                  Typed API client (65 endpoints), utilities
    types/                TypeScript types for all API responses and UI props
    hooks/                useAppearance, useClipboard, useMobile, useTwoFactorAuth, and others
  css/
    app.css               Tailwind 4 entry point, light/dark theme variables
    archives.css          Workbench theme: palette, typography, status badge colors,
                          dot-grid background, window chrome

routes/
  api.php                 JSON API (public read + authenticated write)
  web.php                 Inertia pages + public wiki routes
  settings.php            User settings routes

Roadmap

The project is actively developed. Current priorities:

Traditional wiki page editor improvement and fixes
Content validation pool and volunteer moderation
Vandalism hardening
User workspaces and personal collections
SEO layer improvements
Multi language support for database and UI
Improving dockerizing
Automated Tests

Feel free to contribute outside of these roadmap scopes.

Screenshots

Entity Graph View

Entity Custom Interactive Map

License

Apache 2.0

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 6 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
app		app
bootstrap		bootstrap
config		config
database		database
docker		docker
public		public
resources		resources
routes		routes
storage		storage
tests		tests
.dockerignore		.dockerignore
.editorconfig		.editorconfig
.env.example		.env.example
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
.npmrc		.npmrc
.prettierignore		.prettierignore
.prettierrc		.prettierrc
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
Dockerfile		Dockerfile
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
artisan		artisan
components.json		components.json
composer.json		composer.json
composer.lock		composer.lock
docker-compose.yml		docker-compose.yml
eslint.config.js		eslint.config.js
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
phpunit.xml		phpunit.xml
pint.json		pint.json
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json
vite.config.ts		vite.config.ts

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Archives

Table of contents

What it does

Data model

The workbench interface

Advanced search

Tech stack

Requirements

Local development

Docker

API reference

Global

Universes

Entities

Entity sub-resources (per-entity read endpoints)

Unified record write endpoint

Other resources

Roles and permissions

Locking

Caching

Revision history

Project structure

Roadmap

Screenshots

License

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Archives

Table of contents

What it does

Data model

The workbench interface

Advanced search

Tech stack

Requirements

Local development

Docker

API reference

Global

Universes

Entities

Entity sub-resources (per-entity read endpoints)

Unified record write endpoint

Other resources

Roles and permissions

Locking

Caching

Revision history

Project structure

Roadmap

Screenshots

License

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