Latest Update: 6-4-2026
Manny is purpose-built for CPM schedule analysis. This article covers Manny's core capabilities and what to expect from features like what-if scenarios and the prompt library.
What Manny Can Do
Manny excels at CPM-related questions and generating schedule reports. Key use cases include:
Automated schedule narratives: Generate clear, owner-ready summaries of current status, recent changes, and forward-looking risks.
Change intelligence: Track how the schedule has evolved, what changed, why, and the downstream impact on milestones and critical paths.
Natural-language schedule querying: Ask plain-English questions like "What's driving the next milestone?" or "What changed since last month?"
What-if scenarios: Explore potential schedule changes, then have Manny update your schedule with the changes.
For more information on what Manny can and can't do read this help article.
What-If Scenarios
Manny can run what-if scenarios to model potential changes. After reviewing the impact, you can apply the changes, save them as a new version, or leave the schedule untouched. Use what-if scenarios to explore the downstream impact of a delay, a resource change, or a logic shift and then return to the actual schedule untouched.
Prompt Library
When you open a new Manny chat, the empty state shows several suggested prompts curated by the Planera team to help you get started. Click any prompt to load it into the chat input, where you can edit it before sending. This is a great starting point if you're not sure what to ask or want to explore what Manny can do.
Continuous Chat Processing
Manny continues processing your question in the background even if you navigate to a different webpage tab or project while it's working. Return to the Manny panel whenever you're ready to see the response. A chime will sound when a response is complete.
Roles and Permissions
All Planera users, including those with Commenter or Contributor roles, can use Manny to ask questions and get answers about the schedule.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Manny explain what's happening in my current view?
Yes. You can ask Manny to summarize or explain what's happening in your current view, including the activities, milestones, and schedule elements visible on screen.
Does Manny understand dependencies and logic ties?
Yes. Manny understands CPM logic, including dependencies and logic ties, and can answer questions about how they affect your schedule and critical path.
Can Manny analyze schedule health or risk?
Yes. Manny can identify schedule risks, surface slippage trends, and analyze the downstream impact of changes on your critical path. Try asking questions like "What are the biggest risks to my next milestone?" to get started.
What types of questions is Manny best suited for?
Manny is optimized for CPM schedule questions: status summaries, risk identification, critical path analysis, change impact, and what-if modeling. It works best when you ask questions about a specific project schedule that is open in Planera.
Can Manny make changes to my schedule?
Yes. Manny can apply what-if results, make direct changes, and save changes as a new version. You approve a summary of the changes before anything is applied, and applying changes requires edit permissions.
Can all users access Manny, regardless of their role?
Yes. All users, including Commenters and Contributors, can use Manny to ask questions.
Does Manny keep working if I leave the page?
Manny continues processing in the background. Return to the Manny panel when you're ready, a chime will sound when the response is complete. Note: Refreshing your browser tab, navigating away from Planera to another webpage, or logging out/back in will cause Manny to stop processing.
What are the suggested prompts in the prompt library, and can I customize them?
The suggested prompts are curated by the Planera team and appear in a new chat's empty state. You can click any prompt and edit it before sending, but the library itself is managed by Planera and not customizable by individual users. Contact our Customer Success team if you would like to discuss company-specific prompts.
Who can apply schedule changes with Manny?
Applying changes is an edit-only feature, so it is restricted to users with edit permissions. All users, including Commenters and Contributors, can still ask Manny questions and run what-if scenarios to model changes.
Are the changes Manny makes recorded anywhere?
Yes. Any change you apply through Manny is recorded in the project Change Log, just like a manual edit, so there is a full audit trail of what changed and when.