Guides

QuestLog for journalists: end-to-end

Interviews organized by source, protected sources shown only as codes, and a living draft of the piece.

The full workflow for a journalist or researcher: every interview filed under its source automatically, protected sources anonymized end-to-end, and a Book folder that assembles the piece as you report it.

One-time setup

  1. Turn on voice matching (sidebar → People ✨ → SET UP). After each first interview, name the source's speaker label - QuestLog recognizes their voice on every later recording.
  2. A folder per source: Folders → + NEW → 💬 Discussion → pick the person. Every interview with them now auto-files there, and the folder keeps a running dossier: what they've told you, newest first, with a Working on list (follow-ups you owe them, documents they promised).
  3. Protected source? Use 🛋 Counseling-style protection: anonymize them (the 🕶 toggle in Manage voices, or just create the folder as Counseling). They become a stable code - say P-2B9C - in transcripts, summaries, exports, share links and AI answers. The name never reaches the AI at all, so it can't surface in generated text. See Anonymizing a person.

Working the story

  • Receipts: every claim in a dossier or draft carries a [t…] marker - click it to jump to the exact second of the recording where they said it. Fact-checking is one click.
  • Stories tab: each interview's distinct anecdotes are extracted with who told them - a quote mine for the piece (Stories & anecdotes).
  • Ask QuestLog: "what did P-2B9C say about the contract dates?" - answers come from your transcripts, with sources' codes respected.
  • A recording can live in several folders - an interview that covers two investigations goes in both (A recording in several folders).

Drafting the piece

Create a 📖 Book folder for the story and add your outline (the sections of the piece). File key interviews into it - each one folds into the draft under the right chapter, newer information supersedes older (with a note), and everything keeps its [t…] receipts back to tape. Sections you rewrite by hand are locked - QuestLog proposes updates instead of overwriting your prose (Book folders: dictate a manuscript).

Sharing with an editor

Open the story folder → REPORT row → ⇪ SHARE LINK: a read-only snapshot of the draft-so-far (full or last-7-days), expiring in 24h/7/30 days, revocable in Settings → Shared links. Protected sources appear as codes even there - safe to send outside the newsroom.