# WebGAL Terre: the visual editor for the WebGAL engine > WebGAL Terre is the authoring tool for the WebGAL visual novel engine, a desktop editor written in TypeScript that exports galgame projects as web pages and Windows executables. It lives in its own repository beside the engine it drives, and the split explains both the workspace layout in the manifest and where you go to change the rendering itself. **OpenWebGAL/WebGAL_Terre** — Galgame Editing. Redefined | 视觉小说编辑，再进化 - Repository: https://github.com/OpenWebGAL/WebGAL_Terre - Website: https://openwebgal.com - Stars: 656 · Forks: 94 - Language: TypeScript - License: MPL-2.0 - Published: 2026-10-21 · Updated: 2026-10-21 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/openwebgal-webgal-terre ## The editor and the engine are two repositories The first line of the README settles the most common misunderstanding. This repository is the WebGAL visual editor project, and if you want the WebGAL source code you should go to the WebGAL code repository, which is a separate project at OpenWebGAL/WebGAL. That split is the fact that shapes everything else about this repository. Terre is the authoring tool, and the engine it targets lives elsewhere. If your interest is in how the script is interpreted and rendered at runtime, this is the wrong repository. If your interest is in writing the script, previewing it and packaging it, this is the right one. The stated purpose is to redefine how a galgame is made, to create your own galgame in the shortest possible way, and to support export as a web page and as a Windows executable. The editor also handles uploading, managing and previewing game assets, and it is a multi-tab editor so you can move quickly between scripts. The homepage is openwebgal.com, the project has a Product Hunt presence, and the README is available in English, Japanese and Chinese, with README_EN.md and README_JP.md alongside the Chinese original. The licence is MPL-2.0, and the README states that the software is free to use within the terms of that licence and may be used commercially, while still asking for sponsorship to support continued development. ## A yarn workspace with four packages and three running processes The manifest shows that this is not a single application, and understanding the workspace explains how the editor works. The workspaces array lists four packages: packages/dev-server, packages/editor-preview-protocol, packages/terre2 and packages/origine2. The dev script starts three of them at once with concurrently, named terre, origine and dev-server, and the individual scripts show which is which. dev:terre changes into packages/terre2 and runs yarn start:debug, dev:origine changes into packages/origine2 and runs yarn dev, and dev:start-dev-server changes into packages/dev-server and runs node index.js. So the editor has at least three moving parts in development: the Terre interface, something called origine, and a development server. The package named editor-preview-protocol is the obvious candidate for the contract between the editor and whatever renders the preview, which is the same question a live preview always raises, how the editor knows what the running game currently shows. The lint script mirrors the same structure, running lint:terre and lint:origine concurrently, and there is an openapi script that runs yarn openapi inside packages/origine2, which suggests origine exposes an HTTP API that is described by a generated schema. That is worth knowing if you plan to automate anything against the editor itself rather than just use it. ## Electron for the desktop, yarn 1 and Node 20 for the build The technology choices are visible in the manifest and the repository topics, and they are the ones that will shape your day to day work with the project. The application is a desktop app built with Electron, with React for the interface, PixiJS in the topic list for the canvas rendering, and FluentUI for the design system. The repository contains build-electron.sh and release-terre-electron.sh, and the manifest's nohoist list is the tell: WebGAL-electron and electron are excluded from the normal hoisting because they need to resolve to a single copy at the application level rather than being duplicated per workspace package. The toolchain is older than you might expect for a project at version 4.6.6. The packageManager field pins yarn@1.22.22, which is the classic yarn, not berry. The engines field requires node 20 or newer. And the resolutions block pins @types/react and @types/react-dom to the 18.x line, which is what keeps the type definitions consistent with whatever React version the editor packages pin. The dependency list at the root is deliberately tiny, just the React types, with the real dependencies living inside the workspace packages. For a contributor, that means yarn 1, not yarn berry and not npm, and the repository ships a yarn.lock to match. ## Six release scripts and an NSIS installer The packaging story is more visible than the feature story, and the scripts at the top level tell you exactly what the project ships. There is a release.sh, a release-terre-electron.sh for the desktop build, and separate scripts for Linux, Linux on arm64, macOS, macOS on x64, and Android, plus release-android.sh and a build-android-assets.sh. The Android entries are notable, since a visual novel editor for mobile is not the obvious first guess, and the assets build script suggests the Android side reuses the same asset pipeline. Windows is handled with NSIS. The installer.nsi file at the root is the installer script, and the manifest has a single script for it, nsis-bundle, which runs makensis against that file. That is the standard NSIS compiler invocation, so building the Windows installer needs makensis on the path, which on most systems means installing the NSIS tooling separately. There is also pr-check-linux.yml, a workflow that runs checks on pull requests, and a releasenote.md file at the top level, which is how the project accumulates notes for a release. The published versions move steadily within the 4.6 line: 4.6.6 on 2026-10-08, 4.6.5 on 2026-09-24 and 4.6.4 on 2026-08-08, with the last push to the repository on 2026-10-17. ## What the editor covers, and where the engine's limits begin The feature claims in the README are about workflow rather than capability, and that is the honest way to think about what Terre is for. The editor lets you create a galgame with as little ceremony as possible, export to web and to a Windows executable, upload and manage the game assets with a preview, and move between scripts in tabs. Nothing in that list claims new scripting features or new engine behaviour, which is consistent with the engine living in its own repository. The practical limitation follows from the same split. If your work needs the engine to render something it does not currently render, or to expose a new hook to the script, that is a change in the WebGAL repository, and Terre will only pick it up once the engine is updated and the editor is pointed at it. For a team that wants to customise the runtime, Terre is a convenience, not the extension point. There is a second, quieter limitation. The editor is a desktop application with a multi-package workspace, a no-hoisted electron tree and a classic yarn lockfile, which is a heavier setup than a single-script web tool. For a solo writer who just wants to publish a visual novel, that setup is overhead, and the alternative of writing the script and running the engine directly is fewer moving parts. ## Documentation, releases and the contribution route Three pointers are given for people arriving at the project, and each serves a different audience. The user documentation lives at docs.openwebgal.com, and it is where the usage instructions, the sponsor page and the Terre contribution guide are hosted, with the contribution guide at the developers path. The downloads are GitHub releases, and the README links the releases page directly rather than pointing at a package registry, which is what you would expect for an application distributed as a desktop build. The licence is MPL-2.0, and the README's wording is worth repeating in substance: the software is free to use within the terms of that licence, and it may be used commercially. That is a file-level copyleft licence, so modifications to the licensed files carry an obligation to publish those changes, while linking it into a larger work does not by itself drag that work under the same terms. That is a legal matter rather than an engineering one, and the LICENSE file is the authority, but the practical point for an adopter is that commercial use is permitted and the file-level obligation is the thing to check against your own distribution. For contributors, the guide is the entry point rather than the issue tracker, and the repository follows the usual conventions with CONTRIBUTING.md, a CODE_OF_CONDUCT-style community file, assets/ for shared images and a .gitattributes file for line ending handling. ## Conclusion Adopt WebGAL Terre if you want to write visual novels in a graphical editor with a live preview, manage game assets in one place, and export to both web and desktop, and you are prepared to work with a yarn 1 workspace that builds four packages at once. Skip it if you need the engine's rendering behaviour changed, since the engine source lives in the separate OpenWebGAL/WebGAL repository, or if you need a modern package manager setup, because the manifest pins yarn 1.22.22 and the electron packages are no-hoisted. Before you start, read the documentation at docs.openwebgal.com, check the releases page for the current build, and follow the Terre contribution guide if you intend to contribute rather than just use it. The last push was on 2026-10-17 and release 4.6.6 was published on 2026-10-08. ## FAQ ### Where is the WebGAL engine source code? It is not in this repository. The README states that this is the WebGAL visual editor project and that the WebGAL source code is in the separate OpenWebGAL/WebGAL repository. Terre is the editor, the engine is a different project. ### What can WebGAL Terre export a project to? The README says it supports export as a web page and as a Windows executable, and the repository contains release scripts for Linux, Linux on arm64, macOS, macOS on x64, Android and the Electron desktop build, with an NSIS installer script for Windows. ### How do I build the WebGAL Terre editor from source? The repository is a yarn workspace with the packages in packages/, and the manifest pins yarn@1.22.22 with node 20 or newer. The dev script runs the terre, origine and dev-server packages concurrently, and the Windows installer is built with makensis against installer.nsi. ### Is WebGAL Terre free for commercial use? The README states the software is free to use within the MPL-2.0 licence and may be used commercially, while asking for sponsorship to support development. The LICENSE file holds the actual terms, and MPL-2.0 is a file level copyleft licence. ## Sources - [License: MPL-2.0](https://github.com/OpenWebGAL/WebGAL_Terre/blob/main/LICENSE) - [OpenWebGAL/WebGAL_Terre on GitHub](https://github.com/OpenWebGAL/WebGAL_Terre) - [Project website](https://openwebgal.com) - [README](https://github.com/OpenWebGAL/WebGAL_Terre/blob/main/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/OpenWebGAL/WebGAL_Terre/releases) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/openwebgal-webgal-terre