Powers

Sources

Docs: Ponder Primer, Panes, Perceptions, Policies, and Pets. Web App: Type @ in the Ponder input to pick a Power. A Power is a reusable set of instructions for a particular kind of work. Select one when you want Ponder to follow a known method—such as preparing an executive brief, reviewing a data-quality issue, or writing in a house style—without changing the model that answers. Parable stores each Power using the portable Agent Skill contract. The product name is Power; the lowercase handle and Markdown instructions remain portable when that contract is exported or used by an AI runtime. The portable contract also allows reference files—recipes, checklists, examples—beside a Power’s instructions. Ponder sees their paths and reads or searches them only when the work calls for it, so a large reference set never crowds the request. A Workspace Power created in the editor contains instructions only.

Built-in Powers

Every Workspace includes these built-in Powers. Each built-in Power is the maintained source of truth for its area of Parable: what the area is, why it exists, how it works, the rules and permissions that matter, the common jobs to do with Ponder, and how to check the result. Anyone with Ponder access in that Workspace can discover them and pick them with @ in the input; picking one does not grant editing or data access. Each built-in Power has its own page, which shows the instructions Ponder reads.

Power	What it covers
Parables	Follow the eight principles of the Parable Philosophy in every design, see how a Parable fits together, and pick, rank, or probe with Ponder’s judgment tools before acting.
Pings	Ask a person a question or tell them news from a Problem, as rows of the Pings Platform Parable that only the sender and the people named read, and follow the answer back into the work.
Problems	Keep one outcome, question, risk, or decision in a shared Ponder thread with its context and Messages.
Pages	Compose a destination from Panes so people can arrive, understand, act, and move on, and write Prose, Presentation, Playbook, Proceedings and Probe Pages.
Panes	Build the reusable parts of an application: a typed value, owned logic, styling, and access rules.
Plots	Write the named computations a Pane owns, check their typed results, and draw charts that explain them.
Perceptions	Declare a Pane’s one type, its own data, the Panes it uses and the fields that feed them, in scalar-lib types with typed links.
Packages	Group related Panes so people can find, reuse, and maintain a capability.
Pro Parables	Understand and work with Parables built and maintained by Parable Pros.
Lab Parables	Run an imported React app as a Lab Parable and keep it working in the Workspace.
Palettes	Style Panes with scoped CSS, shared design tokens, and shared chart palettes.
Artifacts	Restyle a Parable to a brand design system with the files people add: brand fonts, logos, colors from SVG and Figma files, photos, video and data files.
Policies	Decide who can view, create, edit, and delete each part of a Pane, and which values and rows they see.
Participants	Assign people and Roles to a Parable and give each the participation their work needs.
Publishing	Take Changes from draft to a published Version and deploy it to the right Workspaces.
Preferences	Keep the values people save on a Pane as rows of its type, for themselves, a team, This Parable or the Parable’s default, layered for each reader.
Providers	Connect data sources, query the Provider Pool, and choose the model providers Ponder uses.
Populate	Declare a Parable’s Provider groups once, show readers the groups their Workspace does not meet in the one Improve panel, and never claim data it does not have.
Workspaces	Understand the Workspace boundary: members, roles, data, Parables, and what access each person has.
Pool search	Search the Workspace Pool and the Provider Pool for the tables, columns, and fields that hold the data a question needs, before writing SQL.
Row search	Find Provider records by what their text says, then read those records from their source tables.
Pipelines	Store any expensive query a Parable’s Pages read as a Pipeline, produced once and kept, so every Page opens fast. Make a Pipeline incremental (by, grain, sources, lookback, onSourceChange, split) so a source change runs again only the time intervals it touched.
Reports	Run a Parable’s Pipelines on demand or on a schedule and read the saved results.
Pets	Adopt, place, and manage Parable Pets, the visual companions that never change how Ponder works.

Each built-in Power ends with the related Powers to read next. With Automatic, Ponder searches Power titles and descriptions, then reads only the instructions it needs. Selecting a Power explicitly applies it to your next response. The complete catalog of instructions is not added to every response; reference files are also read only when needed. Parable updates an unedited built-in Power in place when its guidance changes. When a Workspace edits a built-in Power, that Workspace keeps its edited copy, and later platform updates do not overwrite it. A built-in Power that is not in this list is retired. An unedited copy does not appear in the catalog, cannot be selected, and does not apply to new responses. A Workspace-edited copy stays available as that Workspace’s own Power, and completed response history keeps the instructions it used.

Select Powers for a response

Type @ in the Ponder input.
Keep typing to search by title, portable handle, or description.
Choose a Power. It becomes a Power chip in your Message.
Finish your Message and send it normally.

You can pick more than one Power when their instructions are compatible. With no Power chip, Ponder works on Automatic and finds the Powers it needs. Delete a chip when that Power should not apply to the response. A change affects future work only; it does not rewrite a completed message. If a selected Power is deleted before you send, Ponder declines that message with Power not found, drops the missing Power from the composer, and names it in a notice. Send again to continue without it.

Tools

A Power is the only way a Parable tool reaches Ponder. Every Parable tool (one Parable operation) starts in one built-in Power, and Ponder can use it while at least one of the Workspace’s Powers uses it, whether or not anyone selected that Power for the message. Edit a Power and open Tools to see what it brings. Used lists its tools and Not Used lists the rest, each grouped by area (the built-in Power a tool starts in) with a count per area. Used areas start open and Not Used areas closed; one search filters both and opens every area with a match. The search stays off until the tools load, and its hint says so. Hover a row to Remove a tool or Add it. Changes save with the Power. Each row shows what Ponder does before calling the tool:

Badge	Meaning
Ask	Ponder pauses for a person’s decision. Deletions ask every time by default.
Always	Ponder calls the tool without asking. A tool that changes data still asks when a Workspace default set it to Always; only the operation’s own default can skip the question for a change.
Never	Ponder never calls the tool, even though a Power uses it.

The badge shows the Workspace default, or the operation’s own default when the Workspace has none. You cannot change it here. A Power does not set policy. Choosing Remember… on an Ask request sets the Workspace default. These settings also hold for an agent outside Parable that uses an OAuth sign-in or an MCP token. A tool at Never, or a tool that no Power uses, is not listed for the agent, and a call is refused with a message that names this setting. Ask and Always both run, and the agent’s host asks the person about a tool at Ask (Workspace tool policy). List Powers and Read a Power are Required: Ponder always has them so it can find and read Powers, and they cannot be removed from the Power they start in. Elsewhere they show as Always on. Read who you are signed in as is not Required. You can remove it from its Power, and Ponder then does not use it. The MCP server reads it to admit each agent credential, so it stays open to agents, and it cannot be set to Never. A built-in Power keeps the tools the platform gives it, with your additions and removals on top, so a tool that Parable adds to a built-in Power arrives unless you removed it. A Power you create starts with no tools.

Know when to use a Power

Use a Power when the same method should be discoverable and repeatable across a Workspace.

Use a Power for	Put it somewhere else when
A repeatable review checklist	It applies only to this one message—write it in the message.
A required writing or analysis method	It needs a stronger model or more effort—choose that in the composer.
A reusable output structure	It grants access or approval—a Power cannot do that.
Domain guidance people should be able to find by name	It changes often—keep it with the code it describes.

Create a clear Power

A person with the Build Parables permission can create a Power or edit an existing one in the Power editor. On the Admin site, the permission is Build Parables from Admin. Without it, Create Power is off, and its hint names the permission. Save Power stays off until the Power has each part below. Its hint names the first part that is missing. Built-in guidance does not replace your Workspace-authored Powers or discard your edits. Give each Power:

a short title people can recognize in search;
a description that says what it does and when to select it;
a stable lowercase handle using letters, numbers, and hyphens; and
focused Markdown instructions that change the quality or consistency of the work.

Write the Power for someone who does not know why it was created. State the desired outcome, important boundaries, and any evidence or format that matters. Avoid credentials, customer data, private links, provider-specific secrets, or instructions that depend on an employee-only tool.

If the description cannot help someone decide whether to select the Power, make the Power narrower before adding more instructions.

Powers do not grant authority

A Power can guide what Ponder tries to do. It cannot expand the current person’s Workspace access, reveal protected context, make a restricted action available, or waive an approval. Which tools Ponder has depends on the Workspace’s Powers, not on which ones are selected, and each call is still checked against the current person’s access. If a Power asks for something unavailable, Ponder should explain the boundary or ask for an authorized alternative.

Changes are safe for existing history

Editing a Power changes later responses that select it. Existing messages keep the instructions that applied when they were created, so a later edit does not silently change the meaning of prior work. Before making a large change to a widely used Power, update its description and test it in a low-risk Problem. Create a separate Power when the new method has a different purpose or audience.

Ponder Primer for the composer, context, approvals, and durable history.

Parables

Popular

​Powers

​Sources

​Built-in Powers

​Select Powers for a response

​Tools

​Know when to use a Power

​Create a clear Power

​Powers do not grant authority

​Changes are safe for existing history

​Related guides

Powers

Sources

Built-in Powers

Select Powers for a response

Tools

Know when to use a Power

Create a clear Power

Powers do not grant authority

Changes are safe for existing history

Related guides