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First Manuscript Workflow

This guide walks through the shortest serious workflow for a manuscript in Scriptoria. The goal is not only to describe which buttons to press, but to explain what state the system is building at each step.

1. Resolve The Source In Discovery​

Start in Discovery with the strongest reference you have available. Best case is a direct IIIF manifest URL. A supported provider URL, shelfmark, provider-specific identifier, or free-text query can also work, but they are progressively less stable depending on the provider.

When the preview looks correct, use Add item.

That action is intentionally limited. It stores the local manuscript record and normalized metadata, but it does not start a heavy asset acquisition pipeline on your behalf.

2. Register The Item In Library​

Once the item is in Library, it becomes part of your local workspace model.

At that point you decide whether the item should remain a metadata-only local record, move immediately into a full download, or resume a previous partial acquisition. This is the moment where an external manuscript becomes a managed local object. The workspace may still be thin, but the identity and current state are now under Scriptoria's control.

3. Understand The Initial State​

Before opening Studio, understand the three states that matter operationally:

  • saved: local record exists, but a complete local scan set does not;
  • partial: some local assets exist, but the workspace is incomplete;
  • complete: local coverage is good enough for stable local-first reading and export.

These are not decorative labels. They drive later behavior in Studio and Output.

4. Open The Item In Studio​

Open the manuscript from Library into Studio.

At this point Scriptoria resolves several things at once:

  • whether the manifest should come from local cache or remote source;
  • whether page images should be local or remote;
  • whether the current state satisfies the configured local-reading policy;
  • whether the item opens as a local manuscript or an online manuscript.

This is why the correct question is not "does the item exist in Library?" but "what local coverage does the item currently have?"

5. Inspect And Repair Only What Needs Attention​

If the manuscript is incomplete or some pages are weak, do not assume you need to redownload everything.

Use Output for:

  • thumbnail-based page inspection;
  • page selection;
  • Scarica, Hi-res, and Opt actions on individual pages;
  • PDF inventory review;
  • export job creation.

This is one of Scriptoria's strengths: page-level repair exists because real-world manuscript pipelines often fail unevenly rather than uniformly.

6. Export Deliberately​

When the manuscript is ready, create the export from Output.

Use a PDF profile as the normal control surface. Only open job-level overrides when the current export is exceptional.

The final export can depend on:

  • whether a native provider PDF exists;
  • the quality of the current local scans;
  • whether remote temporary high-resolution fetch is needed;
  • whether all pages or only a subset should be included;
  • whether temporary assets should be cleaned after the job.

That is why Scriptoria treats export as a tracked workflow instead of a one-click side effect.

Common Failure Modes​

If the first workflow feels wrong, the cause is usually one of a small set of predictable cases: the provider input was too vague and should be replaced with a direct URL or identifier, the item is only saved and not yet locally complete, Studio is correctly staying in remote mode because coverage is still incomplete, staged pages have not yet been promoted because storage policy is conservative, or the provider itself is better handled through URL-driven or browser-assisted discovery.