Pencel

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Why Pencel? ​

Pencel is a local-first desktop app for building AI agents that handle your recurring business operations — research, reporting, briefings, monitoring, and follow-through. It is built for the person who knows the work but doesn't write code.

Here's what makes it different.

Build agents with no code ​

Describe what you want in plain language and Pencel sets up the agent for you — its role, instructions, knowledge, and which tools it can use. You refine it in a form-based editor, not a config file. See Agents and Creating your first agent.

Build governed workflows with no code ​

When a task should run the same way every time, turn it into a Workflow. You describe the process; Pencel compiles it into concrete, ready-to-run steps and adds the guardrails that keep it safe — approval gates before anything is sent, read-only boundaries, and cost ceilings. No scripting, but with the oversight a business process needs. See Approval workflows.

Curate your own knowledge — from a local folder ​

Point Pencel at a folder on your machine and it imports your documents into a searchable Knowledge base. From there it builds a knowledge graph of the people, projects, and facts it finds, and links them to the source files. Your agents draw on this when they work — grounded in your material, not the open web. Files stay on your computer.

Self-learning memory ​

Agents accumulate Memory as they work — preferences, facts, and decisions worth remembering — so they get more useful over time instead of starting from scratch each run. You can review, edit, and prune what they remember.

Multiple models — including an open-weight option ​

Pencel isn't locked to one provider. Choose Claude (Opus 5, Sonnet 5), GPT (5.6 Sol, 5.6 Terra), or Gemini (2.5 Pro, 2.5 Flash). The managed Auto and Private plans can also route to an open-weight model (GLM-5.2) when it's the right fit. Match the model to the job — a cheap fast model for routine scans, a frontier model for hard reasoning. See Supported models.

Quick-start industry solutions ​

The Marketplace ships curated solution packs — bundles of agents, workflows, guidelines, and recommended connections for a specific job (federal RFP scouting, competitive intel, and more). Install one and you have a working setup in minutes instead of building from a blank slate.

Manage to-dos as agent context ​

To-dos aren't just a checklist — they're working context for your agents. Capture a task (type it, or use the /todo quick form), and an agent can pick it up, act on it, and report back. See Using to-dos.

Create and edit real documents ​

Agents produce editable Artifacts you can keep working on: documents and reports, notes and drafts, spreadsheets, slide decks, HTML pages, and email drafts. Edit them in-app, or ask an agent to revise them in place.

See what matters in Pulse ​

Pulse is your home surface — a running feed of briefings and results from your jobs, plus roll-up cards that group related items so the important topics rise to the top. Opt into Radar and Pencel quietly scans in the background and posts insight cards about things worth your attention (read-only — it never acts without you).

Local-first and private ​

Your workspace — documents, agents, runs, and knowledge — lives in a local SQLite database on your machine and is never synced to Pencel's servers. Only model calls leave your computer, and on Private mode they route through a zero-retention proxy. See Data handling.

Where Pencel is headed ​

Today Pencel is a single-user desktop app. Team features — sharing agents and knowledge in a collaborative workspace — are on the roadmap. For now, curated solution packs from the Marketplace are the way to share a working setup across people.

Start here ​