Managing habits

The habits section on the home screen lists everything you've taught, with a status pip, its schedule, and when it last ran. Click a habit's name to open its detail screen to rename it, read its steps, or change one.

Status

• Active (green): Published and ready. A scheduled habit runs automatically when its current version is allowed on this Mac.
• Paused (amber): Kept, but skipped by the scheduler until you resume it.
• Failed (red): Its last run didn't finish. The row shows when.
• Draft (grey): Taught but not yet published.

Controls

Each row has:

• Run: Run it now, regardless of its schedule.
• Pause / Resume: Stop or restart automatic runs. Paused habits can still be run by hand.
• Delete: Remove the habit permanently.

A draft habit shows publish instead of run/pause. Publishing makes it active.

Sharing pills

A habit shared with your organization carries a pill next to its name: shared for one published to the team library, and org-wide for one every member has. No pill means it's private to you. See Shared & org-wide habits.

Across your devices

Your habits are saved to your Plainwork account, so teaching, editing, pausing, resuming, or deleting one on a device is reflected on the others you sign into. Each device keeps its own run history.

While a habit runs

A live panel shows each step's progress.

If a scheduled habit is new on this Mac or changed since you allowed it, choose:

• Run once: Run this occurrence without remembering the decision.
• Always run this version: Allow this exact version on this Mac.
• Skip: Stop without running.

Irreversible steps, like sending a message or deleting something, still ask for approval. Changing a habit never inherits authority from the prior version.

If you've turned on Guide via Screenshots, a step Plainwork can't drive precisely may be finished by looking at a picture of the app instead — and the approval you're asked for shows you that picture.

The background browser beta runs only built-in test habits. These use the same progress and per-run approval panel. If a browser step fails, the run stops unless that habit opted into bounded browser recovery. Recovery actions need approval and stay in the same browser. Desktop control and Guide via Screenshots are never browser fallbacks.

Run history

Each habit remembers its recent runs and shows its last result inline ("Ran 2h ago", "Failed 1d ago"), so you can tell at a glance whether it's healthy.