Connect Your Lore Server
StudioBrain can use a lore repository as the authoritative store for your project’s content. Instead of writing entities and assets into object storage (S3, Google Drive, OneDrive), StudioBrain writes each change directly into a version-controlled lore repo — so every edit becomes a tracked revision you can branch, diff, merge and revert.
This guide walks through connecting a lore server end to end: configuring the connection, testing it, granting write consent, and confirming that an edit shows up as a new lore revision.
Lore is Epic Games’ next-generation version control for source code and large binary assets. The open-source LoreGUI desktop app can host a lore server for you, or you can point StudioBrain at any reachable lore server you already run.
What “connecting a lore server” actually does
StudioBrain supports two kinds of content backend:
| Bring-your-own object storage | Lore federation | |
|---|---|---|
| Source of truth | Markdown/asset files in your S3, Google Drive or OneDrive | Revisions in your lore repository |
| History | Object versions (provider-dependent) | Full lore revision history — branch, diff, merge, revert |
| Best for | Solo and simple cloud projects | Teams who want real version control over canon and assets |
When lore federation is connected, a product edit (PUT of an entity) is
written as a new lore revision — the Markdown commit in your repo is the
source of truth. StudioBrain’s cloud search index and vector store are kept in
sync as a cache derived from those revisions; if they ever diverge, they’re
rebuilt from lore.
Before you start
- A lore server you can reach — either hosted for you by the StudioBrain desktop app (see the one-flow install below) or one you run yourself.
- The relay URL, repository name and branch for that server (only needed for the bring-your-own path).
- The right plan. Lore federation is a gated feature. Your account must be entitled to it (included on Team and above). If you don’t see the Lore option under storage settings, your current plan doesn’t include it yet — see Billing.
Entitlement is read from your signed session, not configured locally. Upgrading your plan unlocks the Lore storage option automatically the next time you sign in.
Choose your path
Desktop one-flow install
The simplest way to start. The StudioBrain desktop app bundles LoreGUI and sets everything up for you — there’s no separate server to install or expose.
Install the StudioBrain desktop app
Download and run the installer from studiobrain.ai. LoreGUI ships inside it as a sidecar; you don’t install it separately.
Pick “StudioBrain Lore” on first run
On first launch, choose StudioBrain Lore as your project’s backend. The app spawns a local lore server over your project folder and begins hosting it.
Let it host, activate and connect
The desktop app advertises the hosted server through a secure relay, activates a write grant for your account, and connects StudioBrain to it — all in one flow. You don’t copy a URL or paste a token by hand.
Start working
Create entities and assets as usual. Each edit is written into the hosted lore repo as a new revision. You can open LoreGUI at any time to branch, diff or merge that history.
Granting consent (“Connect StudioBrain”)
Connecting is a deliberate, explicit grant. When you click Connect StudioBrain, a secure consent dialog opens and asks you to allow StudioBrain to read and write the repository you configured.
Why the consent screen looks a little different. Consent, sign-in and anything touching your identity are handled by the StudioBrain accounts service in an isolated, same-origin window — never by the rest of the app. That separation is intentional: the product only ever receives an opaque grant reference, never a raw access token. Your write credential is minted and held on the server side, scoped to exactly the repository you consented to. You can revoke the grant at any time from your account settings.
After you approve, the dialog hands an opaque grant reference back to StudioBrain and the connection finishes establishing. The storage status flips to Connected.
Verify the write round-trip
To confirm everything is wired up, edit an entity and watch it land in lore:
Make an edit
Open any entity and change a field, or create a new one. Save it.
Confirm a new revision
The edit is written into your repository as a new lore revision. In LoreGUI (or your lore history view) you’ll see a fresh commit whose Markdown path matches the entity you changed.
Check status stays healthy
Back in Settings → Storage → Lore, the status should remain Connected with a recent “last OK” time and zero consecutive failures.
If your relay briefly goes offline mid-edit, StudioBrain parks the write and replays it when the connection returns — without creating a duplicate revision. You don’t lose the edit.
Troubleshooting
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Lore option missing under storage settings | Your plan doesn’t include lore federation | Upgrade to Team or above (see Billing), then sign in again |
Invalid relay URL | The URL isn’t in lore://host:port/repo form, or the port is missing | Re-check the scheme, host and explicit port |
Relay unreachable | StudioBrain couldn’t reach the relay host | Confirm the server is running and the relay/tunnel is up; re-run Test connection |
Grant rejected / status shows Token expired | The write grant is missing or expired | Click Connect StudioBrain again to re-grant consent |
| Status Reconnecting / Offline | A transient connection drop | Usually self-heals; if it persists, verify the host and re-test |
A Test connection failure always names the stage it reached
(parsed, tcp, authenticated, repo_resolved). The stage tells you where to
look: a tcp failure is networking/relay; an authenticated failure is the
grant; a repo_resolved failure is the repository name or branch.
For developers: the configuration API
The web and desktop UIs drive a small, stable set of product endpoints. These are internal to your StudioBrain tenant (authenticated with your session) — useful if you’re scripting setup:
GET /api/tenant/lore-config— read the current config (404withERR_LORE_NOT_CONFIGUREDif none).POST/PUT /api/tenant/lore-config— upsert{ relay_url, repo_name, branch? }. The grant reference is never settable from the request body; your tenant is always taken from your signed session.POST /api/tenant/lore-config/test-connection—{ reachable, stage, health, error? }.GET /api/lore/status—{ configured, health, last_ok_at_secs_ago, repo_name, branch, relay_host }. The response never includes any token or grant reference.
Consent (the write grant) is not part of these endpoints — it’s always minted by the accounts service through the secure consent dialog, so a token never passes through a browser request body.
Next steps
- Sync and Collaboration — how cloud sync and team access work alongside lore federation.
- Self-Hosting StudioBrain — run the whole StudioBrain stack on your own infrastructure.
- Settings and Configuration — the full storage and project settings reference.
- LoreGUI — the free, open-source desktop app that can host a lore server for you.