Skip to main content
You can open Puffin in two places. From the left sidebar any time, or from a selection on the schedule when you already know which cells you’re asking about.

​
Open from the sidebar

Click the Puffin icon in the left sidebar. The Puffin panel opens. Type your question and press send. The panel stays open while you work, so you can keep going back to it. Follow-up questions in the same thread share context with what you’ve already asked.

​
Open from a selection on the schedule

If you already know which cells are causing the trouble, highlight them first. Puffin opens with that selection as context, so you don’t have to describe what you’re looking at.
1

Highlight cells on the schedule grid

Click and drag to select a person’s slots, a column for one week, or a rectangular range across several people.
2

Click 'Ask Puffin' in the selection bar

The button appears at the bottom of the screen alongside the other actions for that selection.
3

Type your question

Puffin already knows what you’ve selected. You can write things like “why is this week short” or “find a swap for this person” without naming names or slot numbers.

​
What kinds of questions work well

Puffin is best at questions about your specific schedule. Some examples that work:
  • Why is CCU short in week 7?
  • Who can cover the Thursday night shift?
  • Show me unresolved alerts by rule type.
  • Suggest a way to fix Patel’s leave conflict in week 12.
  • Compare two options for filling the gap in week 14.
  • What changed between the last two versions?
  • Give me the call counts per person for sharing with surgery.
Plain English is fine. You don’t need to use the platform’s terms (block, rule, constraint). Puffin translates.
The more specific the question, the better the answer. “Why is week 7 broken?” works. “Why is CCU short in week 7?” works better.

​
What Puffin reads

Puffin sees the same data you see. Your schedule, the people on it, the blocks, the assignments, the rules, the alerts, your labels, and any backup coverage you’ve set up. It only sees the schedule you’re currently looking at. If you’re working on one schedule, Puffin is only thinking about that one.

​
Your conversation is saved

Each schedule has its own conversation history. Close the tab, come back tomorrow, and the same thread is waiting for you. You can also start a fresh conversation at any time if you want a clean slate.

​
Next steps