macOS Silly Tavern card edit workflow: backups, folders, and round-trip PNGs
Edit Silly Tavern character cards on macOS with a simple loop: backup, locate files, edit, verify, reload in Silly Tavern. Complements ST card editor on macOS (tool types) and Silly Tavern on macOS (paths).
1) Duplicate before you touch anything
Character cards are PNG images with embedded JSON. A bad save can ruin a card—copy the file first (Finder Duplicate), or snapshot the whole characters/ directory you use for ST.
2) Find the live files your Silly Tavern reads
Install layouts differ; many setups keep imported cards under a data/characters/ (or similarly named) directory next to the app’s data root. If you are unsure, export from ST once and compare where new files appear—see How to download and what you installed.
Finder tip: Go → Go to Folder… (⇧⌘G) is the fastest way to jump to ~/… paths mentioned in docs.
3) Choose your edit surface
- Inside Silly Tavern: fastest for small text tweaks.
- External editor / Mac app: better when you want structured JSON editing or preview of embedded data—still re-import or overwrite the file ST uses, depending on your workflow.
4) Round-trip sanity check
After editing:
- Confirm the file size/date updated where ST expects it.
- Reopen the character in ST and skim key fields (
personality,first_mes, lorebook). - Run a short test chat—models surface issues no schema check will catch.
5) Design and AI passes (optional)
- Character card design checklist: Character card design.
- LLM-assisted drafting: AI character card design.
See also
Browse, preview, and edit embedded JSON in PNGs locally on Mac with Sillycard.