Pencel

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Guided Task ​

Guided Task is how you author a workflow in Pencel — a single "Your job" pane where you describe an outcome in plain language and Pencel builds testable steps with you.

You don't write workflow steps by hand. You describe the job, Pencel drafts a plan, and you refine it together in one view — no multi-tab editor, no code.

Starting a guided task ​

  • From Home, click Build, or open Workflows → New.
  • The New Task modal (or the composer) opens the guided setup. Describe what you want to happen.
  • Pencel drafts a plan and opens the "Your job" pane.

While you're building, the task is unlisted (it won't clutter your workflow list until you finalize it).

The "Your job" pane ​

Everything about the job lives in one pane:

  • Steps — expand any step to see exactly what it will do. Pencel filters out scaffolding steps so you see the real work, not bloat.
  • Inputs, Connections, and Won't-do — collapsible sections that make the job's contract explicit: what it needs, what it touches, and what it deliberately won't do.

Test before you trust ​

You can validate the plan safely before it ever runs for real:

  • Test this step — dry-run an individual step against real tools. A step is only marked Validated after a test actually passes — status is honest, never assumed.
  • Ask Pencel to fix — when a step fails its test, ask Pencel to repair it inline.
  • Run once now — run the whole job a single time from the pane's footer, watching progress and cancelling if needed.
  • Save anyway — if you want to finalize despite an unvalidated or risky step, Pencel asks you to acknowledge the risk first.

Finalizing ​

When you're satisfied, Finalize. The task becomes a real job on the Jobs surface, where you can run it on demand or put it on a schedule. Its results then publish to Pulse.

What's next ​