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Browser automation
The Playwright connection lets Pencel use a web browser for you. Use it for websites with no other way in: portals you sign in to, pages that only show results after you click, and documents you have to download from a page.
What Pencel can do with it
- "Sign in to our bid portal, check the Harbor County janitorial RFP, and tell me if an addendum was posted."
- "Download the new addendum and tell me what changed in it."
- "Every morning, check my three watched solicitations and tell me only if something changed."
- "Check each of these 12 links and tell me which ones are broken."
For reading an ordinary public page, Pencel's built-in web access is quicker. See Web search and utilities.
How to connect
- Open Settings ▸ Connections and stay on the Recommended tab.
- Find Playwright and click Install.
- Optional but recommended: in Allowed websites, type the sites you want Pencel to work on, separated by commas, for example
bidhub.example, harborcounty.gov. A site also covers its subdomains. You don't have to list every site up front: when the agent needs another website, Pencel asks you, and you can allow it right there.
The first time, Pencel downloads its own browser, once: about 170 MB on a Mac and 180 MB on Windows, taking about 340 MB of disk space. You don't need Chrome installed. If your network blocks the download, Pencel says so, and you can click Retry.
You follow along without a browser window
No browser window opens. The browser works in the background, and in the conversation you see a Working in the browser row:
- A screenshot after each action, with the page address. These stay on your computer. They are never sent to the AI model.
- A list of what it did, for example Opened www.bidhub.example, Clicked "Search". Each line says how it was allowed: Allowed site, You approved, Allowed in this room, Replayed or Refused.
Click Watch live to see the browser as it works, in a panel on the right. A cursor shows where the agent points, and a ring marks each click. While you watch, the agent moves to each button and pauses for a second before it clicks, so you can follow along. When you aren't watching, it works at full speed. While the agent works, the live view is view only. The Reasoning panel closes while you watch and comes back when you close the live view.
- Take over lets you use the page yourself. The agent waits until you press Hand back, then reads the page again before it continues.
- Expand makes the live view large. Close puts it away.
To always watch, turn on Open the live view while it works in the connection's settings.
When Pencel needs you
For a sign-in, a one-time code or a "verify you are human" check, Pencel stops and asks you. The live view opens large, on the page that needs you, and you're already in control. Sign in there. When the sign-in page is gone, Pencel carries on by itself. You can also press Continue at any time. Pencel never types a password it wasn't given, and the sign-in is kept for next time.
The request always names the website the browser is really on. If that website isn't one you allowed, Pencel warns you, so check the address before you type a password.
If it needs you while you're away, for example in a scheduled check, the run stops and says what it couldn't finish, instead of waiting.
Save a sign-in for work you're not there for
Go to Settings ▸ Connections ▸ Installed ▸ Playwright ▸ Saved sign-ins and click Add: the website, your username and your password. Pencel types the password only on that website, never shows it in the conversation or the log, and stores it encrypted by your operating system.
Two-step codes and "I'm not a robot" checks can't be saved. Signing in with a Google or Microsoft account often isn't accepted by automated browsers, so portals that offer only those may not work.
What asks and what doesn't
| Reading a page | Never asks. |
| Searching and clicking on an allowed website | Doesn't ask, while On allowed websites, act without asking is on. |
| A click that looks final, such as Submit, Send, Pay, Register or Delete | Always asks, even on an allowed website. |
| Typing into anything but a search box, pressing Enter to submit a form, or uploading a file | Asks. |
| A website that isn't on your list | Always asks first. Choose Open once, or Always allow the website to add it to your list. |
| A website that isn't on your list, while you're away (a scheduled room run) | Skipped. The run tells you which website it needed. |
| No allowed websites set | Every website asks first. |
In a room, the first action of each kind asks once with Always allow in this room. After that, the room can work on allowed websites while you're away. A click that looks final, and anything on a website that isn't on your list, still asks every time. See Approvals and permissions.
Pencel reads the button's label to decide whether a click looks final, so it can be wrong in either direction. List only websites where a wrong click can be undone.
Documents it downloads
When a page offers a document, such as an addendum or a bid form, Pencel downloads it and reads it: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, text and CSV files. The agent can then quote it and say what changed. In the Working in the browser row, Add to room files saves the document to the room.
A PDF that is only a picture of text (a scan) can't be read, and Pencel says so. Pencel never opens or runs a downloaded file.
Repeating a daily check without the AI
After a room's scheduled check works, Pencel remembers the browser steps. The next runs repeat them directly, without the AI:
- Nothing changed. The run finishes with No change since and the date, and uses no AI credits.
- Something changed. The AI reads only the pages that changed, once, and tells you what's different.
- A saved step no longer fits, or the website signed you out. The AI takes over and saves fresh steps.
Every seventh run, the AI does the whole task again, so pages the saved steps never visit still get looked at. A run that needed your approval or a saved password isn't saved.
To see or remove the saved steps, open the workflow and find Saved browser steps. Forget saved steps makes the next run use the AI again.
Good to know
- It's a separate browser. It isn't your everyday Chrome, so your own accounts aren't in it.
- Sign-ins are kept in the browser's own folder on your computer until you remove the connection. Removing Playwright deletes them, along with its screenshots, downloads and saved sign-ins.
- One task at a time. If two chats or rooms want the browser together, the second waits.
- Some websites block automated browsers or forbid them in their terms. Check before you use one. Pencel hands human checks to you and doesn't try to get around them.
- Pages can't give Pencel orders. What a page says is treated as information, and the same rules above apply to whatever it does next.
Disconnect or change what it can do
Go to Settings ▸ Connections ▸ Installed and open the Playwright card's ⋯ menu:
- Manage Tools: switch individual actions off, or choose which run without asking in chats and workflows under Auto-Approval. Rooms keep their own approvals.
- Disconnect stops it for now and keeps your sign-ins. Remove deletes the connection and everything the browser kept.