> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.pendpost.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction

> What pendpost is, who it is for, and the five things that set it apart.

## What pendpost is

pendpost is agent-operated social ops with a human approval gate. It is an operations layer for the agent-plus-human workflow, not another social scheduler. An agent (or you) drafts posts; a human approves before anything goes live. pendpost handles the planning, the scheduling, the brand checks, and the publishing engines, while keeping a person in the loop on every post that reaches a real account.

It is built for developers, agencies, and technical solopreneurs who want their tooling to be local, inspectable, and scriptable rather than a hosted black box.

## Positioning

pendpost is the operations layer between an agent that writes and a human who decides. The agent can plan a whole campaign, but by default you approve before anything ships. Publishing is gated, rate-limited, and protected by circuit breakers so an automated workflow stays inside the bounds a person set.

A note on responsible use: by default pendpost holds every post for your approval, and nothing publishes until you approve it. You can opt into auto-approve, an owner-only setting you can revoke, to let matching posts publish on their own and scale to fully hands-off. You own your own accounts and are responsible for each platform's terms of service.

## Local-first by design

* Zero runtime dependencies in the server.
* Plans are local JSON you can read and edit.
* Media is local.
* Secrets live in your own `.env`.
* The server binds `127.0.0.1` (loopback) by default.

There is no telemetry. Nothing phones home; there is nothing to opt out of because none exists. If telemetry is ever added it will be opt-in and documented.

## License and support

pendpost is MIT licensed. Copyright 2026 Nomadik GmbH. It is maintained part-time by a small team, so please set your expectations on response time accordingly.

## The five differentiators

> **1. Human approval gate**
>
> Every post carries an approval state (`draft`, `pending`, `approved`, or `rejected`). Both `draft` and `pending` render as the amber needs-approval status. The gate is fail-closed: a post with no approval will not publish. `plan_create_post` always creates a draft. Only `approve_post` and `reject_post` flip approval. Nothing publishes until it's approved. By default that's you; auto-approve is owner-only and revocable.

> **2. Anti-ban circuit breakers**
>
> Meta error 368 (an action block) trips a breaker that halts the Meta lane and never auto-resumes, because 368 carries no machine-readable clear time. A cadence cap defers (never drops) bursts, and a lane pause kill switch lets you stop publishing on demand.

> **3. Humanizer brand-lint**
>
> Captions are checked before publish against rules in an editable `rules.json`. The humanizer layer flags English AI-writing tells. Errors block; warns are advisory.

> **4. Honest native scheduling**
>
> Where a platform supports it (YouTube `publishAt`, Mastodon, WordPress, Ghost), pendpost uses native scheduling, so those posts go out even when your computer is off. Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X go out at their time from the optional 24/7 cloud service or from your computer. pendpost is honest about which cover and thumbnail mechanics actually apply per platform.

> **5. Dual interface**
>
> A web dashboard and any MCP client drive the same contract. A parity test enforces that every capability ships on both faces.

## Where to go next

> **[Quickstart](https://docs.pendpost.com/quickstart.md)**
>
> Install via npx, git, or docker and open the dashboard.

> **[Mock mode](https://docs.pendpost.com/mock-mode.md)**
>
> Run the full loop risk-free with `PENDPOST_MODE=mock`.

> **[MCP](https://docs.pendpost.com/mcp-server.md)**
>
> Connect Claude Code or Claude Desktop, or drive onboarding headless: `pendpost_health`, then `plan_list` (a fresh install shows the example Acme Launch campaign), then `campaign_create` to start your own.

> **[Architecture](https://docs.pendpost.com/architecture.md)**
>
> The one-process, four-faces design.

> **[Localization](https://docs.pendpost.com/localization.md)**
>
> Run the dashboard and digest in English or Swiss German (de-CH).


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.