Qualitative Coding

Qualitative coding helps you analyze interviews, workshops, and sessions in a structured way. You mark passages in a transcript, assign them to codes, and compare patterns across multiple sessions.

Note

The Coding module is enabled per tenant. If you do not see Codebook, Coding Reports, or the Coding tab, ask an administrator to enable the module.

Typical Workflow

1. Open Codebook and select a project.
2. Create codes, such as themes, needs, barriers, or decision patterns.
3. Open a session and switch to the Coding tab.
4. Highlight a transcript passage and save it with the matching code.
5. Use Coding Reports to compare frequencies, quotes, and relationships.

Codebook

Codes belong to a project. A code has a name, an optional description, a color, and optionally a parent code. This lets you build hierarchies such as:

• Need
• Need > Funding
• Need > Staffing
• Barrier > Data Protection

Codes can be reordered later, moved into subcodes, or restored from trash.

Coding in the Transcript

In the session Coding tab, select a code in the sidebar and then highlight a passage in the transcript. StoryVault stores the quoted text, its transcript position, and, when available, the timestamp in the recording.

• Multi-line selections are supported across paragraphs.
• Multiple codes can point to the same passage — useful when a statement touches a topic, a problem, and a target group at the same time. All markers are shown inline in the transcript.
• Memos can be attached to codes, segments, or whole sessions, e.g. to record the reasoning behind a coding decision.
• Jump from segment: clicking a segment in the sidebar jumps to its position in the transcript.

Build a Codebook from Existing Transcripts

Instead of starting with an empty codebook, you can derive it from a project’s transcripts via full-text search: enter terms, review hits, and promote matching passages into new codes. This anchors the codebook in the actual material.

AI Suggestions

Managers and admins can generate AI suggestions for suitable projects. StoryVault proposes possible codings based on the codebook. You accept or dismiss suggestions in a dedicated review view that batches them for fast triage.

Open suggestions do not count toward reports — only accepted suggestions become regular codings.

Tip

Clear code descriptions improve suggestions. Briefly describe when a code should be used and when it should not.

Coding via MCP / Claude

The Coding module exposes an MCP endpoint, so Claude or another LLM assistant can read codebooks and segments and propose new codings. Details: developer docs under MCP / Coding.

Reports and Exports

Coding Reports help compare work across sessions:

• summary and key metrics
• frequencies per code
• matrix views for sessions and codes
• code cloud
• co-occurrence view for codes that appear together
• quote reports with original passages
• styled exports for sharing and documentation

After Re-Transcription

When a recording is transcribed again, existing codes are preserved. StoryVault tries to find the coded passages in the new transcript. Codes that need review are marked accordingly.