Scripting guide
Give your script a head start
A few tiny marks turn a plain script into one Tellie coaches: it tracks your sections, makes sure you cover the points that matter, and warns you if you are about to run out of time. Two minutes, tops. And a script with none of them works exactly as before.
The two-minute way
Start from a ready-made script.
Every mark is already in place, with a note next to each one. Send it straight to Tellie, or download it to edit first.
Send drops it into your notch (click the notch to read); it needs Tellie installed. Download gives you a small Markdown file to open or edit.
The one rule
You can't break anything.
A script with none of these marks behaves exactly as it always has. Add them when you want them, ignore them when you don't. They stay invisible to anyone who hasn't learned them.
Three marks, and that's the whole idea
Type them in Markdown, or let them come in automatically from a Word, PDF, or Pages file (see below).
Start a section
A place Tellie can jump to and track. Tab, Shift-Tab, and the number keys move between them. Free for everyone.
Mark a must-cover
The "!" says don't let me skip this. Miss it and Tellie tells you, quietly, at the right moment. The text greens as you cover it.
Credit a must-cover off-script
Goes under a ## !. Name a phrase you'll say no matter how you word it, and that must-cover counts as covered the moment you say it, even while improvising.
> key: line goes under a ## ! must-cover heading, and is how that section gets credit when you go off script. Under a plain ## it does nothing, because Tellie only tracks the sections you marked. "Calvin cycle" works; "build rapport" has no reliable phrase, so leave that one unanchored. Separate alternatives with a comma and either one counts: > key: forty percent, 40 percent.
The whole thing, assembled
Every mark in one script. Copy this, replace the words, and it works. If you are asking an AI assistant to write you a Tellie script, paste this in as the format.
--- minutes: 10 --- # 2026 season preview ## ! Intro > key: welcome back, new era Welcome back. The season is finally here, and the roster changed more than anyone expected. ## The big signing No mark here on purpose. This section is worth covering, but if the clock gets tight it is the one to drop. ## ! The schedule > key: preseason, opening game Preseason starts the fourteenth. The real test is the opener on the road. ## ! Outro > key: predictions, comments Built to compete right now. Drop your predictions in the comments.
Or have an AI do it for you
Give any assistant this line. It will read the instructions, ask you which sections matter and what phrases anchor them, work out your timing, and hand back a finished script.
Read https://tellieapp.com/agent and use it to turn my script into a Tellie script.
The instructions live at tellieapp.com/agent if you want to read them yourself.
Kept for everyone, free
Your formatting stays. Open a Word, PDF, or Pages file and your bold, italics, and headings all come through, and those headings become sections you can jump to. No marks required, and no Pro required.
Want the details?
See a full example
Every mark on this page, working together in one short script: a lesson with everything turned on. Read it in the browser, or send it straight to Tellie and try it out loud.
There are three more, one per kind of talk.
Set a time budget (optional)
Put minutes: 15 in a front-matter block at the very top (between two --- lines) and Tellie shows a per-section finish clock and warns you against your real slot.
Leave it out and Tellie makes its own deadline: it learns your opening pace and projects the whole script from it, then warns "running long" if a must-cover section ahead will not fit. No dial to set. Writing minutes: just replaces the guess with your real number.
Make sure you reach a strong finish
Tellie's runway warning defends must-cover material that is still ahead of you. Once you have covered everything you flagged, it goes quiet. So if all your ## ! marks sit early and your strong finish is unmarked, a slow back half will not draw a warning, because nothing you flagged is still at risk.
The fix is one more bang on the last thing that matters, even if it is just:
## ! The close
Thank them, say the URL, stop talking.Now the runway defends the whole talk: "The close is still ahead and will not fit" is exactly the nudge a strong finish needs.
Using Word, PDF, or Pages?
You do not have to write Markdown. When you open a Word, RTF, or PDF document, Tellie reads its structure for you. Nothing below requires editing your document into Markdown; the import does the translation.
| You want | In your document |
|---|---|
| Sections | Nothing to do. Your Word and RTF heading styles, and a PDF's larger fonts, import as real sections automatically. The chapters you already have light up the navigator and Tab jump. |
| A must-cover section | Type ! as the first character of a heading. A heading reading !The close imports as a must-cover section, flag and all. The bang never shows in the prompter. (A bang anywhere else, like "We won!", is left alone.) |
| An off-script anchor | Type a plain paragraph starting > key: your phrase on its own line under the must-cover heading it belongs to, exactly as in Markdown. It imports as the quiet key chip, never as spoken text. |
| A time target | Usually unnecessary; with ## ! marks Tellie baselines your own pace. If you want a hard slot, type the minutes: front-matter block as the very first lines of the document. |
.docx. Reading structure straight out of Pages is a someday; for now the export path keeps your chapters.Four you can read right now
Short scripts that use the marks above, each on its own page. Open one, send it straight to Tellie, and read it out loud.
- The standup that stays short Three sections, one of them must-cover. Skip the last one on purpose and watch Tellie notice.
- The sponsored video No lines to read. Just the points you promised yourself you would hit.
- The discovery call A checklist that listens. Say the phrase anywhere in the call and the item ticks itself off.
- A lesson with everything turned on Two must-cover sections, each with an anchor, and a time budget at the top.
Any script can travel as a link, and the script rides in the URL itself so nothing is uploaded. Make one from your own writing.
Grab the starter and try it
Download the ready-made script, open it in Tellie, and read. Change a few words and it's yours.
The script needs somewhere to be read. Tellie is a free Mac app, and every new install gets 10 days of Tellie Pro.