From idea to working software
Go from an idea to useful software and recurring work with Continual.
Start with something you want to make easier: a report to prepare, a process to coordinate, or an app your team needs. Describe the outcome to Continual, work through the details with the agent, and try the result. You can add more as you learn what works.
1. Choose a project
Create a project for the work, or open an existing one if it already contains the relevant apps and context. Keep related work together so it can share source, connections, and data.
Learn how projects organize your work.
2. Describe what you want
Start a thread and tell the Continual agent who the work is for, what should happen, and what a good result looks like. Include relevant files and any constraints or decisions you want to review.
For example: “Build an invoice dashboard for account managers. Show overdue invoices by customer and let me review a reminder before it is sent.”
3. Connect what the work needs
If the work depends on an external service, add a connection and authorize the account Continual should use. Choose the access needed for the work. You can start with files or information you provide and connect services later.
Learn about connections and permissions.
4. Work through the details
Continue in the thread to answer questions, clarify assumptions, and give feedback. Ask for a plan when the work needs discussion before implementation. The agent can inspect source, use tools, and build or update software as you work together.
Requests that need a person can become tasks, keeping the question, context, and response together until they are resolved.
5. Try and share the result
Review the output against your original goal. If you are building an app, try its preview and ask for revisions in the thread. When it is ready, ask the agent to publish it and choose who should have access before sharing its URL.
Learn how to preview, publish, and improve apps.
6. Make useful work repeatable
When a piece of work should happen regularly, create an automation to run instructions on a schedule or in response to an event. Try a run, inspect its results, and refine the instructions before relying on it. You can keep working manually in threads for anything that needs more exploration.