What's new in Beat.

Every release, and what changed. Beat is free, built in the open, and shaped by the people who use it.

Beat 2.0currentAugust 2026
  • A whole new look: flat, calm surfaces in ink and amber, one rail of tools down the left, and all thirteen card types on one quiet sheet.
  • Writing Mode: your board as a live written document beside the canvas. Type in the document and the card updates; edit a card and the document follows.
  • On set: a full-screen room for the shoot day. Shots marked done or skipped, a chosen take, a day clock against your call time, and a printable day sheet.
  • The call sheet writes itself, and one button wraps the day with a report and carries unshot setups to tomorrow.
  • Drop a Fountain or Final Draft screenplay on the canvas and it becomes the board: acts as groups, scenes as beats, characters as cards.
  • The shot list listens to your beats: type, description, duration, cast and location flow live from the linked beat, so the board, the list, On set and every export agree. — Eli Jackson (Legacy Productions)
  • Sun path: a pinned location gets the sun's true path for any day of the year, and a beat's planned moment prints in every document.
  • The inspector and Elements: press I for everything about the selected card, and a panel where every character, location and prop opens a full profile. — Casey Cross
  • Audio timeline, Sketch cards with a 45-piece stamp library, checklists, and custom fields on beats. — Bert Verlinden, Casey Cross
  • Treatment and Print layout exports: a cover, one section per page, or page frames on the canvas for a print-ready PDF. — Chris Walton (Steyer)
  • Nothing gets lost: failed saves retry until they land, deleted photos survive for undo, and unused files move to a recoverable trash.
  • Claude can build a whole project through MCP: write the beats and groups, place images, build linked shot lists, dress set plans, and check its own work.
Beat 1.5June 2026
  • Location scouting: drop a real place on a map next to your story, pull up street view, and keep your locations living on the board with your beats, references and Set Plan. — Vivien Hackenhaar
  • A big speed pass across the whole app, so it feels noticeably lighter.
  • The Set Plan gets a proper image editor.
  • Production breakdown sheets and a Fountain screenplay export.
  • A clearer first launch walkthrough, including a zoom tip that now names the mouse gesture, hold Control and scroll. — Dale Dunbar
Beat 1.1June 2026
  • Redesigned node connectors: cursor accurate dragging, correct ports, reliable snap, one to many links, and Resolve style rewire handles, each coloured to its own line.
  • Customizable beat nodes: choose which fields show, per project.
  • A new dark theme, cool slate with a warm amber accent.
  • Smarter Link to Claude: Claude lays out your canvas and it updates live as it edits. Native File and Edit menus restored.
  • Authorship: put your name and a credit line on every export cover.
  • Editable outline: drag to reorder groups and beats, with Auto or Custom ordering.
  • Fuller Word exports: every card type exports now, cleaner professional pages.
  • 10 new director prompts for AI development, from shot lists to a full screenplay pass.
  • Import spreadsheets: drop an .xlsx or .csv onto the canvas.
  • Faster, more reliable Set Plan with native offline rendering.
Beat 1.0June 2026
  • First public release of Beat.
  • Universal build: runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, signed and packaged as a clean .dmg.
  • The full canvas: story beats that branch, references from almost any link, characters and locations.
  • The Set Plan: an overhead lighting and blocking planner with real cameras and fixtures.
  • Works with Claude through MCP. Local first and free. Exports to Markdown, Word and PDF.
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