Otto: finding the progress in a story

A recording in Otto can answer more than the question on screen. Someone asked about their childhood home might also talk about a grandparent or a Sunday routine. Assigning the whole recording to one question would miss those connections.

Otto starts with a prompt and a recording. After processing, a receipt shows which questions the recording touched and which it answered. The reader can inspect the quotation behind each result.

One story, several places to go

A conventional form assigns an answer to the field that collected it. Otto reads a recording against a bank of questions. The prompt on screen is an invitation; the recording can make progress elsewhere. Try revealing the evidence in this small reconstruction.

The distinction between touched and answered matters. A passing mention may open a thread without finishing it. In this example, the wooden table gives us a concrete detail about the kitchen. The radio suggests another question, but it does not tell us which music was playing.

Make the result inspectable

A receipt needs to earn its confidence. Otto's ingestion code checks that a proposed question belongs to the known bank and that its supporting quote occurs in the passage being stored. The interface can then connect a judgment to the speaker's actual words.

That check establishes a useful boundary, although a real quotation does not automatically make the interpretation right. A reader still needs to understand why something was marked answered, and a failed transcription or grading job needs an honest retry state.

if (typeof verdict.quote !== 'string' || !verdict.quote || !text.includes(verdict.quote)) return [];

Leave room for “not tonight”

Remembering is personal work. Otto lets someone set a question aside with Not tonight. Chapters provide a chronological spine, while threads offer other ways into the same material. The structure gives a person somewhere to begin without requiring every story to arrive in order.

The same principle extends to the finished material. Otto can export a book as Markdown, or an archive containing the book, transcripts and recordings. The interface helps assemble a story that can continue to exist outside the app.