Ghost Writer

Description

GhostWriter – Secure Metadata Stripper & Archiver
Sentry Series Addition: The offline counterpart to our Sentry KDP Metadata Validator. While the Validator optimizes your listing metadata, GhostWriter ensures the source files themselves are surgically clean before upload.
In an era of aggressive platform tracking and AI content scraping, one leaked revision history or embedded author tag can compromise your pen name or entire operation. GhostWriter delivers military-grade local sanitization with zero external dependencies.
Key Capabilities
EPUB Deep Clean: Unpacks Open Packaging Format archives in temp memory. Regex + structural scrubbing of DC elements, modification dates, contributors, and remote tracking images.
DOCX Structural Purge: Directly manipulates OpenXML streams to eliminate creator data, revision counts, last-modified stamps, and hidden edit markup.
PDF Metadata Destruction: pypdf byte-level operations that completely clear the Document Information Dictionary and XMP metadata blocks.
Auto-Archiving: Creates timestamped encrypted backups of originals before processing.
Technical Specifications
Cross-platform Tkinter GUI with drag-and-drop
Python core with PyInstaller portable executables
Full setup/build scripts included (Windows .cmd + Linux/macOS .sh)
No internet required post-download
Perfect For
Indie KDP authors
Digital publishers
Security-conscious freelancers
Anyone distributing documents publicly
Pricing: $39 One-Time Lifetime License
Delivery: Instant digital download (ZIP containing executables, source, documentation, and build tools)
Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux

# GHOST-WRITER // Secure Metadata Stripper

A lightweight, zero-dependency, local desktop utility built specifically for digital publishers, independent authors, and information security professionals. **Ghost-Writer** performs deep binary-level and structural sanitization on common digital manuscript formats (`.epub`, `.docx`, `.pdf`) to completely obliterate tracking pixels, embedded revision histories, metadata tags, and corporate author leaks before you upload your files to public distribution networks (like Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, or Smashwords).

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## Key Security Engineering Functions

* **EPUB Ebooks:** Recursively unpacks the compressed Open Packaging Format archive directly into memory. Parses the internal manifest XML files, scrubs standard Dublin Core metadata elements (“, “, “), clears modification timelines, and searches for hidden remote phone-home image tags or 1×1 tracking pixels.
* **Microsoft Word (DOCX):** Targets the core structural property streams inside the Microsoft OpenXML standard (`docProps/core.xml` and `docProps/app.xml`). It purges detailed file author profiles, actual active revision counts, total editing duration stamps, and document template creation timelines.
* **PDF Documents:** Directly executes byte-level stream modifications using `pypdf`. It completely swaps out the classic global Document Information Dictionary framework (`/Info`) and overwrites XML-based Extensible Metadata Platform (`/XMP`) data blocks, leaving a sanitized binary file structure.

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## Repository Architecture

“`text
ghost_writer/
├── src/
│ ├── engine.py # Core file structure parser & scrubbing logic
│ ├── gui.py # Tkinter native desktop interface
│ └── main.py # Runtime application entrypoint
├── requirements.txt # Strict version pin for production libraries
├── setup.sh # Automated UNIX configuration script (Mac/Linux)
├── setup.cmd # Automated native Windows CMD setup file
├── run_app.cmd # One-click runtime execution for Windows users
├── build_executable.sh # Native compiler automation for Linux/macOS
└── build_windows_executable.cmd # Native compiler automation for Windows