Work with Shapes

Choose whether to reuse, create, publish, update, or fork the record structure for a project.

A Shape tells Penumbra which kinds of records a project can hold, which fields belong on each record, and how records can connect.

For example, a customer-research Shape might define participant, evidence, finding, and open_question, with a finding linked to the evidence that supports it.

Start in Runtime

Before opening the Shapes MCP, search the Shape catalog. Reuse an existing Shape when it already represents the records and relationships your job needs.

Open the Shapes MCP when you need to create a model the catalog does not have, change a published Shape, or make a separate variant from an existing one.

Choose a task

Create a Shape

Turn a concrete example and a short domain brief into a compiled draft.

Publish a draft

Review the exact change, run a dry run, publish it, and confirm it in Runtime.

Change a published Shape

Edit the existing Shape, check the effect on current records, and publish a new version.

Fork a Shape

Start from an existing Shape while giving the new variant its own future changes.

What happens before publication

Shape work stays in a draft until you publish it. While it is a draft, the agent can compile it, show the exact difference from the published version, preview the fields Runtime will expose, and check whether existing records need a migration.

Publication itself has a dry-run mode. After the real publish, inspect the Shape through Runtime; that is the version your other agents will use.

Connect the Shapes MCP

Add the Workbench to your MCP-capable agent.