Reference
Glossary: tavern, character cards, and AI reading, defined
Half the vocabulary in the tavern ecosystem is community slang, half is spec terminology, and a newcomer often reads three forum threads to decode one word. This page defines the high-frequency terms in one place — each entry self-contained and quotable, with further reading where it exists. Missing a term? Email us.
Characters & cards
- #Character card
- A portable file holding an AI character's full definition: description, personality, scenario, greeting, example dialogue, plus optional embedded lorebook and regex scripts. Usually a PNG (data hidden in image metadata) or JSON file, interchangeable across apps. Card import spec →
- #chara_card_v3
- The third-generation community spec for character cards: adds assets (sprites, audio), nickname, multilingual creator notes, group greetings, and lorebook decorators on top of v2's versioned envelope. Backward compatible with v2; the current mainstream format. The spec family →
- #.charx
- The zip container defined by chara_card_v3: card JSON packed together with images, expression sprites, and audio as one distributable file. Suited to media-heavy cards.
- #First messagefirst_mes / Greeting
- The card-defined opening line, spoken by the character, that sets scene and tone. Strong greetings give a concrete situation and a hook to respond to rather than a generic hello.
- #Alternate greetings
- Multiple switchable openings on one card, each a different starting scene or route. In the spec since v2; pick one when starting a chat.
- #Persona
- The definition of you in the conversation: name, identity, appearance, background. Where the character card describes the AI's side, the persona describes the user's.
Lorebooks
- #LorebookWorld Info
- An on-demand dossier system: each entry carries keywords, and when recent chat text matches them, the entry is injected into the prompt. It is not model memory — it is a mechanism that hands the model files about whatever got mentioned, keeping long-story lore consistent. Worldbook spec →
- #Constant entry
- A lorebook entry injected every turn without keyword matching, for load-bearing world rules (magic system, era). Each one is rent paid every turn; keeping them in single digits is standard advice.
- #Recursion
- Injected lorebook content triggering further entries. Deliberately writing related keywords inside an entry's text builds an association web: mention the sect, and the sect's heirloom sword rides along.
- #Scan depth
- How many recent turns the lorebook scans for keyword matches. If a keyword last appeared beyond the window, the entry stays silent — the most common cause of 'works sometimes, not others.'
- #Token budget
- The per-turn cap on lorebook injection. Matched entries inject by priority until the budget fills; the rest drop silently. 'Lore stops working in long chats' usually means a few oversized entries ate the budget.
- #V3 decorators
- @@-prefixed directives on chara_card_v3 lorebook entries (@@activate, @@dont_activate) for finer control of activation and injection. V2-only apps ignore them.
Chat & automation
- #Tavern
- Community shorthand for SillyTavern and compatible roleplay frontends, and by extension the whole import-a-card-and-chat playstyle. Core tavern capabilities: cards, lorebooks, regex, presets, group chat. Foreverse vs SillyTavern →
- #Preset
- A switchable conversation configuration: how the system prompt is organized, sampling parameters, context assembly order. Famous community presets are prompt-engineering know-how, packaged.
- #Regex script
- Find-and-replace rules applied to chat text, shipped with a card or global. Uses range from fixing a model's verbal tics to full beautification (turning plain-text markers into themed HTML). Scope can be display-only so fed-back history stays clean. The beautify pipeline →
- #Beautification
- The craft of rendering chat as themed interfaces with regex plus HTML/CSS: status bars, collapsible reasoning, clickable choices, whole chat skins. The chain: model outputs plain-text markers, regex replaces them with HTML, a sandboxed WebView renders it. Beautify spec →
- #Quick Reply
- Stored one-tap command buttons, often combined with STscript into automation: one button runs 'summarize the scene and archive it.'
- #STscript
- SillyTavern's slash-command scripting language (/send, /setvar, ...) for chat automation. Foreverse supports its high-frequency subset.
- #Macros{{char}} / {{user}}
- Placeholder variables in prompts: {{char}} expands to the character's name, {{user}} to yours. They expand at prompt time only — not at display time.
- #Swipe
- Multiple alternative replies for the same turn: swipe to regenerate while keeping earlier candidates switchable. The key difference from plain rerolling is that nothing gets destroyed.
- #Group speaking strategy
- The rule deciding who speaks next in a multi-character chat. Natural rotation arbitrates in three tiers — mentions first, talkativeness-weighted draw, list-order fallback — with list order, manual, and random as alternatives. Turn-taking explained →
- #Talkativeness
- A standard card field weighting how eagerly a character volunteers lines in group chat. High for extroverts who grab scenes, low for the laconic.
Models & billing
- #BYOKBring Your Own Key
- Connecting your own API key directly to a model provider. The test: the key lives only on your device, requests hit the official endpoint, and prices are the provider's list prices. The alternative is platform proxying, where your chats pass through someone's server. BYOK in Foreverse →
- #OpenAI-compatible endpoint
- A third-party service implementing the OpenAI API protocol. A custom API host plus key connects any compatible service; the host must include its full version prefix (such as /v1).
- #Prompt cachingKV cache
- Provider discounts for repeated prefixes: the part of a request identical to recent requests bills at cache rates (commonly 10-50% of base). Long chats resend full history every turn, so hit rates decide the bill's order of magnitude. Caching field test →
- #Context window
- The token ceiling a model handles per request — persona, lorebook, history, and your message all share it. When it overflows, old history gets truncated or summarized: the direct cause of 'long chats forget.'
- #Thinking budget
- The internal reasoning tokens a reasoning model spends before answering, billed as output. Any output cap for such models must include this budget, or the visible reply can come back empty.
Reader
- #Branch
- The structure AI continuations land in: each continuation attaches beside the original text, which is never overwritten; multiple directions coexist, comparable and continuable. Version control for narrative — rerolling destroys, branching keeps. Branching explained →
- #VN Theater
- A reading mode that performs the novel you are reading as a visual novel in place: typewriter dialogue, speaker nameplates, story choices that pause for you — choices write back as real branches. Entry and exit share one reading position; no converted project is created. About VN Theater →
- #Speaker attribution
- Deciding which character a quoted line belongs to. Foreverse's stance: attribute only on strong structural evidence and send everything uncertain to the narrator — misattribution costs more than abstention. The attribution rules →
- #Moving box
- The whole-package export for AI companion data: persona, individual memories, stickers, avatar, and transcripts in one zip, restorable on another device. Import validates against a whitelist and rolls back on failure. Data ownership architecture →