Import & export

Exporting

Select the lorebook in the editor and click the export button (file icon, Export Lorebook). The browser downloads <lorebook name>.json with:

the lorebook and all its sub lorebooks (every level), with their names, enabled state and tags;
every entry with its content, note, order, filter, insertion mode, tags and negative tags.

Use it to keep a copy, to share a world with other users, or to move it to another installation. Entry revisions of the Lorebook VCS extension are not part of the file; the extension has its own export.

Importing a Marginalia lorebook

Click the import button (file icon) and choose Import Marginalia Lorebook.
Upload a file exported from Marginalia.

The import always creates new lorebooks - the lorebook and its sub lorebooks, with the same structure - even when you already have lorebooks with the same names. The imported lorebook is selected in the editor. Tags are matched by name with your existing tags, or created.

Files from older Marginalia versions (a single lorebook without sub lorebooks) can be imported too.

Lorebooks also travel inside book backups. Restoring or cloning a backup can link to lorebooks you already have instead of creating copies; see Restoring a backup.

Importing SillyTavern world info

Click the import button and choose Import from SillyTavern.
Upload the world info file (.json) exported from SillyTavern.

Marginalia creates a new lorebook named after the world info (or after the file) and converts each entry:

SillyTavern	Marginalia
Title / memo (`comment`)	Entry Name (the first key when there is no title)
Content	Content - macros like `{{user}}` and `{{char}}` keep working, see macros
Order	Order
Disabled	Enabled unchecked
Constant (🔵), or no keys	always active (no filter)
Primary keys, optional secondary keys with their logic	a filter, see below
Case-sensitive, match whole words	built into the filter
Position before / after character definitions, example messages	In Lore Block
Position author's note (top / bottom), at depth	Before User Prompt
Character filter	tags (or negative tags for exclude), by character name and tag

Keys become filters. A single plain key becomes a Text filter (dragon). Anything else - several keys, secondary keys (AND ANY, AND ALL, NOT ANY, NOT ALL), keys written as /regex/, case-sensitive or whole-word matching - becomes one Regex filter that does the same. For example, the keys dragon, wyrm with the secondary key fire (AND ANY) become:

(?s)^(?=.*(?:\Qdragon\E|\Qwyrm\E))(?=.*(?:\Qfire\E))

You don't need to read these expressions; edit them only if you know regular expressions.

What works differently

SillyTavern settings without a Marginalia counterpart are listed in the entry's Note, for example Imported from SillyTavern, not supported: probability 50%, inclusion group "weather". These are:

probability, inclusion groups, sticky, cooldown and delay - the entry is simply active whenever it matches;
insertion at depth - the entry goes before the user prompt instead.

The biggest difference is what the keys are matched against. SillyTavern scans the recent chat; Marginalia matches the request for the part being written - its scene, characters and instructions - not the earlier story. An entry that SillyTavern activated because a name came up in the last messages is activated in Marginalia when you mention the name in the turn instructions. Recursive activation (entries activating other entries) is not supported either.

After importing, look through the entries and decide which should be always active, which keep their filters, and which are better handled with tags.