AO3: [Wrangling] Rel Helper

on unwrangled rels, build the proper canonical tag name with minimal typing

Install this script ?

Ask a question, post a review, or report the script.

Author

escctrl

Daily installs

Total installs

Ratings

0 0 0

Version

3.0

Created

2025-08-24

Updated

2025-12-21

Size

17.2 KB

License

MIT

Applies to

archiveofourown.org

💖 What it does

Build the proper canonical name of rels faster, with minimal typing:

Add characters via button-click, have them sorted by alphabet automatically, drag & drop them into the proper order.
Toggle the relationship type, remove disambigs, and add NF chars via button-click.
Set the proper rel name as Synonym Of via button-click.

🪴 How to use it

Open the Edit Page of an unwrangled relationship tag.
Click Add Chars to pull individuals names into the autocomplete, and pick the correct char from the suggestions. Repeat for each character.
- You can also add a character the regular way, by typing into the textfield.
- While you add characters, the script guesses their alphabetical order. Select the order of Given- and Familyname in your chars' names by toggling the Given Family button. The setting is remembered.
Once you have added all characters, drag & drop them into the correct alphabetical order.
- The characters are links to their wrangle pages (open in new tabs), so you can check how they were sorted in other rels.
- The heading has an alphabet for reference.
The script has automatically recognized the relationship type as romantic or platonic. If it chose the wrong one, use the / or & button to switch.
Click Remove () to remove fandom disambigs from all characters in the preview, if needed. Click Keep () to add them back.
You can type in the Preview field! If there's something that requires manual adjustment, such as the removal of only one char's disambig, you can do that directly here. Do this last, since any other button-clicks will undo your manual changes.
- The script will warn you if the rel exceeds the tag length limit (150).
- If the tag you're editing is already the correctly formatted canonical, you'll see a message instead of the next workflow buttons.
Depending on your workflow preferences, you'll have
- a Set Syn Of button to copy the entire previewed tag name into the Synonym Of field
- a Copy Rel button to copy the entire previewed tag name to the clipboard (so you can paste it into a New Tag page)
- a Copy Chars button to copy a comma-separated list of the selected chars (to add them on the new canonical). This will also remove them from this tag, since syns generally don't need to have the chars attached.

🎨 How to configure it

Go to any Edit Tag page.
In the main navigation of AO3, next to “About”, there’s a new menu item “Userscripts”.
From the “Userscripts” menu, select the “Rel Helper Workflow” option. It toggles between the options "SynOf" and "Copy". The page refreshes with each change so you'll see the corresponding buttons.

🐞 Known limitations

When chars were already added and you refresh the page, they won't be links anymore. The preview will also be empty at first, but you can reorder the chars or click a button to make the preview appear again.

It only works on unwrangled rel tags. If the tag's already a synonym of something, or a canonical tag, you won't see its buttons.

Automatic sorting logic/limitations:

Fandom disambigs and anything after a pipe is ignored for sorting.
Names starting with "The" will ignore the article and sort by the next letter.
Alphabetical sorting in the style of Givenname Familyname is limited. The script recognizes ONLY names like
- "X Y" (e.g. James Lester sorts as Lester James)
- "X Y's Z" (e.g. James Lester's Wife sorts as Lester James's Wife)
- including nicknames in quotes (e.g. Simon "Ghost" Riley sorts as Riley Simon Ghost)
- including Sr./Jr. suffixes with or without the dot (e.g. Ray Narvaez Jr. sorts as Narvaez Ray Jr.)
- CAUTION: Other two-part names will be miscategorized and probably sorted wrong by the script
  - single names with titles (e.g. Princess Bluebelle)
  - single names with suffix (e.g. Gaston Jr)
  - descriptive names (e.g. Red Guy)
- Single names and names with more parts (e.g. when containing middle names without quotes, titles before full names, containing variations of "of") are always sorted by the first letter of the tag because it becomes impossible for the script to determine what the familyname is.
Numbers in the name, even when preceded by a dash, will be ordered numerically. For example "Agent 9" will be before "Agent 17", "T-800" will be before "T-1000". This does not(!) work when letters or other punctuation is mixed with the number (e.g. "CT-41/14-0301", "8XJ").
Names containing "Original Character(s)", "Original Member(s)", and "Original Child(ren)" will always be sorted after all other char tags.

The automated sorting applies your selected style to all char tags; if you have a rel where some some chars' names are Givenname Familyname style while others are Familyname Givenname, you'll have to sort them manually.

🏛️ History

v3
- automatically sort characters alphabetically
- toggle to switch between "Familyname Givenname" and "Givenname Familyname" order
- alphabet next to heading for reference
v2
- improved Remove Disambigs logic
- add NF characters at the end
v1 - initial functionality

🏅 Credit

I'm a huge fan of the Add Characters from relationship script and needed to take this one step further. Also vaaas' keyboard shortcuts script had a Rel Helper (which I ditched when making my version of Keyboard Shortcuts). Including the auto-sort feature was pitched to me as a replacement for Synonym Autofill.