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Practical guides for setup, projects, stakeholders, reporting, and access management. Search, filter by category, or jump straight to a featured walkthrough.
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Use categories to jump to the part of the workflow you are trying to understand or improve.
Featured getting-started guides
Guides backed by the same typed content registry used throughout the docs center.
Getting started
What pencilit.in is and when to use it
Understand the five-state project lifecycle (Proposed → Penciled → Validating → Inked, with Expired) and the core building blocks - workspaces, projects, slots, stakeholders, invitations, and prerequisites - so you can decide whether pencilit.in fits your work.
Getting started
Create your first workspace
Create or join a workspace so members, projects, the stakeholder directory, templates, reminder defaults, communication templates, and reporting all sit inside one scoped operating context.
Getting started
Understand your dashboard
Use the dashboard as your daily starting point: glance at Coordination health, work through Active coordination, clear the Invitation and Prerequisite queues, then start new projects from 'Draft a project'.
Featured role-based guides
Guides backed by the same typed content registry used throughout the docs center.
Getting started
What pencilit.in is and when to use it
Understand the five-state project lifecycle (Proposed → Penciled → Validating → Inked, with Expired) and the core building blocks - workspaces, projects, slots, stakeholders, invitations, and prerequisites - so you can decide whether pencilit.in fits your work.
Getting started
Create your first workspace
Create or join a workspace so members, projects, the stakeholder directory, templates, reminder defaults, communication templates, and reporting all sit inside one scoped operating context.
Projects
Create your first project
Use the project workbench to create a Proposed project with an identifier, name, timezone, candidate slots, stakeholders with explicit roles, and optional templates, tags, and groups.
Stakeholders and invites
Invite stakeholders and collect responses
Send signed invitation links, collect Available/Maybe/Unavailable votes from each stakeholder, and use the Invitations and Responses panels to follow up until a working slot can be selected.
Popular workflow guides
Guides backed by the same typed content registry used throughout the docs center.
Projects
Create your first project
Use the project workbench to create a Proposed project with an identifier, name, timezone, candidate slots, stakeholders with explicit roles, and optional templates, tags, and groups.
Stakeholders and invites
Invite stakeholders and collect responses
Send signed invitation links, collect Available/Maybe/Unavailable votes from each stakeholder, and use the Invitations and Responses panels to follow up until a working slot can be selected.
Validation and finalization
Manage prerequisites before finalization
Walk every required prerequisite through PENDING → SUBMITTED → SATISFIED (or WAIVED with a note) so the Ink action unlocks with a clean readiness record.
Validation and finalization
Ink a project and download the summary PDF
Move a project to INKED once the working slot and required prerequisites are in place, then download the server-generated summary PDF for sharing and archive.
Reporting
Export reports for outreach and finalized work
Choose one of four report kinds (Project pipeline, Outreach queue, Prerequisite readiness, Finalized projects), set a time window, optionally save a preset, then export to CSV.
All matching guides
Browse the published guide set or narrow it with search and category filters.
Getting started
What pencilit.in is and when to use it
Understand the five-state project lifecycle (Proposed → Penciled → Validating → Inked, with Expired) and the core building blocks - workspaces, projects, slots, stakeholders, invitations, and prerequisites - so you can decide whether pencilit.in fits your work.
Getting started
Create your first workspace
Create or join a workspace so members, projects, the stakeholder directory, templates, reminder defaults, communication templates, and reporting all sit inside one scoped operating context.
Projects
Create your first project
Use the project workbench to create a Proposed project with an identifier, name, timezone, candidate slots, stakeholders with explicit roles, and optional templates, tags, and groups.
Stakeholders and invites
Invite stakeholders and collect responses
Send signed invitation links, collect Available/Maybe/Unavailable votes from each stakeholder, and use the Invitations and Responses panels to follow up until a working slot can be selected.
Stakeholders and invites
Use stakeholder-proposed slots
Allow specific stakeholders to suggest alternative times from the invitation page, then review the 'Stakeholder slot proposals' panel to accept, decline, or message back without leaving the project.
Validation and finalization
Manage prerequisites before finalization
Walk every required prerequisite through PENDING → SUBMITTED → SATISFIED (or WAIVED with a note) so the Ink action unlocks with a clean readiness record.
Validation and finalization
Ink a project and download the summary PDF
Move a project to INKED once the working slot and required prerequisites are in place, then download the server-generated summary PDF for sharing and archive.
Stakeholders and invites
Manage stakeholders across projects
Keep one clean directory of reusable stakeholders, view per-stakeholder project history, and use Archive (not Delete) to retire records while preserving the audit trail.
Workspaces and access
Configure templates, tags, and reminder defaults
Configure Project templates, tags, groups, communication templates, invitation/prerequisite reminder cadences, default project expiration, and the workspace timezone to make every future project faster and more consistent.
Reporting
Export reports for outreach and finalized work
Choose one of four report kinds (Project pipeline, Outreach queue, Prerequisite readiness, Finalized projects), set a time window, optionally save a preset, then export to CSV.
Workspaces and access
Security and access overview
Use Settings to manage your profile, enable TOTP and passkeys, revoke unknown sessions, and confirm your role in each workspace you belong to.
Getting started
Understand your dashboard
Use the dashboard as your daily starting point: glance at Coordination health, work through Active coordination, clear the Invitation and Prerequisite queues, then start new projects from 'Draft a project'.
Stakeholders and invites
Work with a stakeholder record
Use the stakeholder detail page to keep profile and notes current, review the stakeholder's full project participation history, and archive (not delete) records you no longer use.