# Pencel.ai — Agents run the operations. You run the business. > Pencel is a local-first desktop app where knowledge workers and AI agents run business operations together: plug-and-play solutions for the inbox, expenses, RFPs and shipments, each in its own room, with your approval where it matters. macOS, Windows, Linux. Canonical: https://pencel.ai ## About Pencel Pencel (pronounced "pencil") is a desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux that gives business teams AI teammates for the operations they run every week — research, reporting, briefings, monitoring, follow-through. It is built for the person who knows the work but does not write code: you judge the output; Pencel handles prompts, tools, and evals underneath. Why it exists: AI models keep getting smarter while most business users feel little of it. Work is scattered across a dozen tools; a general assistant knows nothing about your company, policies, or past decisions; agents can reason but cannot be trusted with anything irreversible; and agent tools assume you are an engineer. Pencel closes those four gaps. How it works: - **Programs and rooms** — each recurring responsibility becomes a Program with its own room, a Slack-style conversation with the AI teammate that owns that work. Ask it for something, drop in a file, set a standing rule; it acts, drafts, and reports back in the room. - **Knowledge graph and memory** — Pencel builds a graph of your company's people, projects, and facts from your own documents (with a confidence level on every fact) and keeps a memory of your rules and decisions, so it gets better with every run instead of starting over. - **Compiled, governed workflows** — anything that should run the same way every time is compiled from the conversation into a concrete plan: scheduled, scoped to specific tools, with approval gates before an external send or a financial write, and an evidence trail on every run. - **Home and to-dos** — results roll up to Home, a chief-of-staff view of what needs your decision, and into one to-do list across every Program; any to-do can be handed to an agent to run now or turned into a standing responsibility. - **Real documents** — agents produce and edit documents, spreadsheets, slide decks, and email drafts, including tracked changes in your existing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files that you accept or reject. - **Your tools, your model** — connects to Google Workspace (Gmail, Calendar, Drive), Slack, QuickBooks Online, GitHub, Notion, Atlassian, Linear, Stripe, databases, browser automation, and any MCP server; runs on Claude, GPT, Gemini, or an open-weight model. - **Local-first** — your workspace, documents, and run history stay on your machine; only model calls leave it. Ready-made Programs install in minutes — RFP Operations (scan procurement portals, score fit, draft proposals), Email Chief of Staff (scheduled Gmail triage with held drafts), Accounting (QuickBooks questions and confirmed expense entries) — or define your own around any connected system. Company: Pencel.ai was founded by Bo Wang (Founder & CEO), who spent over a decade shipping AI/ML products used by millions — most recently as an Applied Science Manager at AWS leading GenAI launches, and before that leading data science at Ford Motor Company. Today Pencel is a single-user desktop app; shared team workspaces are offered on the Enterprise plan. Pricing: Free (bring your own model API keys, local only), Pro Desktop at $49/month with managed AI credits and no API keys needed, and Enterprise (custom, annual) for shared workspaces, SSO/SCIM, approval workflows, and audit export. Getting started: download the installer for macOS, Windows, or Linux at https://pencel.ai/download — no invitation code is required. A ready-made Program gives a first real result in one session. ## Page text ✎ Pencel Desktop Private beta Human and agent collaboration for knowledge workers # Agents run the operations. You run the business. Hand off the day to day. Keep the judgment where it matters. [Download for Mac](https://pencel.ai/download) Join the private beta → Hand off today Win the RFPs you can win Close the books every week Inbox handled by 9am Know the moment a shipment slips Right now 01 · Watch ## It knows what's happening right now. Pencel sits on your inbox, ledger, CRM and shipments all day. Not a search over last quarter's files: **a live picture of the business**, so the moment a customer goes quiet or a lane slips, it already knows. So do you. **Pencel** learning Slack Gmail Salesforce QuickBooks Jira Notion Postgres Docs Policies Sales Ops Finance Hover a node to see what Pencel found live Say it once 02 · Name it ## Name the outcome. Pencel builds the how. Say what you want in a sentence. No flowcharts, no agent to configure. Pencel compiles a plan you can read, binds the right tools with guardrails, and **stops at the gate you set** before anything irreversible. Run it, then approve the send → You "No customer should hear about a delay from the carrier before they hear it from us." Weekly workflow Plan ready · 3 guardrails Read shipment status & customer record logistics · crm ~0.9s Draft the delay notice in your voice write ~1.4s Send delay notice to **Acme Logistics** email · send ~1.1s Approve Log the note & update the ETA update ~0.4s Guardrails Scope · shipping + email Gate · external send Evidence · recording Run ↺ Reset Workflow complete: notice sent, ETA updated evidence saved · 4 sources · 1 send · fully auditable 6:04 am 03 · Hand it off ## It owns it end to end. You only see the calls that are yours. Each program runs in its own room. Pencel does the reading, the reconciling, the drafting, the follow-ups, and posts the result. When a decision is genuinely yours, **it asks, right there**. Nothing else lands on your plate. **#** expenses **#** inbox **#** rfp-scout **#** ops **#** weekly-brief ✎ Acme Freight Rooms \# inbox \# expenses \# ops \# rfp-scout \# weekly-brief Colleagues Finance agent Inbox agent Ops agent \# expenses Finance program · QuickBooks 3 agents + you Finance 8:04 am Reconciled this week's receipts against QuickBooks. **12 of 14 match.** Two need a look: Needs a look Uber · Sam · Mar 12 no receipt $48.20 Adobe · Mar 14 duplicate of Mar 3? $59.99 Finance 8:04 am ◆ Needs your approval Submit the 12 matched expenses to QuickBooks? Total $1,284.10. Approve 12 Hold You 8:07 am Approved. Ask Sam for the Uber receipt and hold the Adobe one. Finance is working… Finance 8:07 am Done. Outcome submitted 12 expenses → QuickBooks $1,284.10 sent Asked Sam for the Uber receipt in #inbox held Adobe $59.99, flagged for next week Ops is typing in #ops… ✎ Message #expenses… ↻ replay 8:13 am 04 · Delivered ## The outcome lands in your files. Not a to-do, not a draft in a chat window. Pencel edits your real Word, Excel and PowerPoint, **as tracked changes you can see and accept**. Nothing is applied until you say so. Accept the change → \# Inbox reply W Doc edit \# Slack · #cs-acme-corp 11m ago Acme Co Customer escalation thread "This is the third API timeout this week. Are we considering switching providers?" ✦ AI-drafted reply for Slack in your voice Thanks for flagging this directly. I've pulled the timeout logs and looped in engineering. Root cause is identified and a fix ships tonight. I'll send a short postmortem by Friday, and I'm glad to hop on a call before then. Approve & send to Slack ↻ Regenerate Sent to #cs-acme-corp · just now reset demo You "Make the summary lead with the outcome, not the method." brief-Q3.docx 2 changes #### Executive summary This document summarizes our weekly operational review across shipping, billing, and customer accounts. Newark lanes ran 2 days slow, one $40k invoice slipped to Q4, and Acme is trending toward churn. Details below. Accept Reject +31 / −18 words Changes accepted brief-Q3.docx updated · saved to your workspace undo ✕ Changes rejected brief-Q3.docx unchanged undo Not another agent builder Agent tools - You write the plan. - You dispatch the tasks. - You check the work. - You're still the manager. ✎ Pencel - You name the outcome. - It runs, watches and follows up. - It asks only when the call is yours. - It reports back. *You keep the judgment.* Connect ### The hard parts of connecting are already done. Every integration arrives **pre-vetted**: security reviewed, OAuth tested, permission scopes documented. Credentials live in your **OS keychain**, never our database, never the model. Each workflow is **scoped** to only the tools it needs. Slack Gmail Salesforce QuickBooks Jira Notion Postgres + Bring your own Run it your way ### Start on your laptop. Move to the cloud when you're ready. Pencel Desktop #### Own your data A full workspace for AI operations, running entirely on your Mac or PC. - **Nothing leaves your machine.** Workspace, memory and credentials stay on-device, encrypted. - **Bring your own model.** Claude, GPT, or local. Never used to train. - **Full visibility.** Inspect every source read, tool call and action taken. Pencel Cloud #### Runs 24/7 Same product, hosted securely, for teams that need always-on operations. - **Workflows that never sleep.** Overnight and event-driven runs, even when your laptop's closed. - **Shared workspace.** Knowledge, workflows and memory travel with the whole team. - **Enterprise-ready.** SSO, audit logs, per-user permissions, SOC 2 in progress. Get in touch ## Let's talk. Whether you want to use Pencel, invest, or just say hello — drop us a note and we'll get back to you. A real first result in one session ## Hand off one outcome at a time. Installs in a minute. Your first outcome is handled in a single session. Real work, not an empty workspace. [Download for Mac](https://pencel.ai/download) Join the private beta → **Inbox agent** *idle* **Finance agent** *idle* **You** *reviewing* **Sales agent** *idle* **Ops agent** *idle* **Research agent** *idle*