We’re excited to announce a brand new feature in the MuseTag language: the .Alias standard modifier! This addition makes it easier than ever to refer to your characters, places, and other entities using alternative names—without losing the power of semantic annotation.

Why an Alias Modifier?

In stories, it’s common for the same character or place to be called by different names: nicknames, titles, abbreviations, or even code names. Until now, MuseTag tracked entities by their canonical name (the one you declare with @@). But what if you want “Holmes” and “Sherlock Holmes” to always be recognized as the same person, even if you only use @@ once?

That’s where .Alias comes in!

How Does It Work?

With the .Alias modifier, you can define one or more alternative names for any entity. Once an alias is set, any occurrence of that alias in your text—even without the @@ marker—will be recognized as a reference to the canonical entity.

Example

@@(Sherlock_Holmes).Alias[Holmes] looked at @@(John_Watson).Alias[Watson].
Holmes and Watson were famous detectives.

In this example:

  • The first line declares two entities and assigns them aliases.
  • In the second line, “Holmes” and “Watson” are used without @@, but MuseTag will still recognize them as references to Sherlock_Holmes and John_Watson.

You can define as many aliases as you need for each entity. All aliases are cumulative and active throughout your text.

What Can You Do With Aliases?

  • Write more naturally: Use nicknames, abbreviations, or titles without worrying about breaking your entity tracking.
  • Disambiguate: Avoid confusion when multiple entities might share similar names.
  • Enhance analysis: Future MuseTag tools will be able to generate richer character maps, relationship graphs, and timelines—even when you use varied names.

Not Yet in the Demo

Note: The .Alias modifier is now part of the official MuseTag specification and documentation, but it is not yet supported in the interactive demo. We’re working on updating the demo to fully support aliases—stay tuned for updates!

Try It in Your Own Writing

You can start using .Alias right away in your own annotated texts. The syntax is simple and powerful:

@@(Entity).Alias[AlternativeName]

As always, your feedback is welcome! Let us know how you use aliases, or what features you’d like to see next, on our GitHub Discussions.

Happy writing—and happy aliasing!