Debugging

margin logs every AI request and response locally so you can inspect what's happening under the hood.

AI Logs

Every time you send a request to the AI (in edit mode or chat mode), margin saves a log entry that includes:

• Your input prompt / instruction
• The complete context sent to the writer agent (characters, styles, additional context, etc.)
• The full AI response
• Token usage information
• Session ID and timestamp

These logs are stored as JSON files in the outputs/ai_logs/ folder inside your workspace.

Viewing Logs

You can view logs directly in the app through the AI Assist panel -- look for the log/book icon that opens the request inspector. This shows the last API request, the input and output context, the total session context, and remaining context window.

Editing or Clearing Logs

• Logs are plain JSON files -- you can open, edit, or delete them with any text editor.
• To clear all logs for a session, use the delete option in the log viewer.

Logs are purely local. They never leave your machine.

Inspecting Prompts

The prompt templates used by the Planner and Writer agents are stored as markdown files in the prompts/ folder at the project root:

File	Purpose
prompts/simple-planner.md	Instructions for the Planner agent
prompts/simple-writer.md	Instructions for the Writer agent
prompts/simple-chat.md	Instructions for Chat mode

You can read these files to understand exactly what instructions are being sent to the AI. Edits take effect immediately -- no restart needed.

Editing prompts changes how the AI behaves. If something breaks, you can restore the original from the project's git history.

Telemetry

margin has no external telemetry. There are no analytics, no tracking scripts, and no data sent to external servers (except the AI provider you explicitly configure).

The only "telemetry" is local:

• AI logs stored in outputs/ai_logs/ for debugging your own requests
• Settings saved in your platform's config directory — ~/.config/slm-writing-engine/settings.json on Linux, ~/Library/Application Support/slm-writing-engine/settings.json on macOS, %APPDATA%\slm-writing-engine\settings.json on Windows
• No crash reports, no usage stats, no pings home

Everything stays on your machine.