Professional artifacts

Holaryn can create polished Word documents (.docx), Excel workbooks (.xlsx),
PowerPoint presentations (.pptx), and PDF files as durable, reviewable artifacts. Ask in
ordinary language, for example:

Create a two-page launch brief as a Word document. Include an executive summary,
milestones, risks, and a table whose nonvisual description says it lists the release
owners and dates.

The agent uses a typed document specification rather than writing arbitrary Office XML. A
separate, resource-bounded worker creates the file, reads it back structurally, produces
deterministic previews, and records validation evidence. The binary file is never placed back
into the model conversation.

Open an artifact

Open Artifacts in the Chat sidebar (or a project under Projects) and select an
artifact's title. It opens in a dialog inside Holaryn, never in a new tab or window, so it works
the same in a browser and in the desktop app: a Word, Excel, PowerPoint or PDF document opens in
its review workspace (below); Markdown, plain text and JSON are shown as text; any other type
says "Download this artifact to view its contents." and offers Download artifact. Screen
readers announce the title as a button that opens a dialog, and the dialog is named by the
artifact. In a narrow window, where the sidebar is the Library panel, the dialog opens above
that panel and the panel stays open behind it. If the artifact cannot be loaded, the dialog stays
open and says that its contents could not be loaded (it does not say why), with Retry,
Download artifact and Close artifact; each new failure is announced again. Closing it (Escape, or Close artifact, which a document's workspace also
has at the top) returns focus to the artifact's title. If that title is gone or hidden, focus goes
to the same artifact elsewhere in the library, then the next artifact in the list, the previous
one, the Artifacts heading, the Library button, and last the page's main area; for
example, if the window narrowed while the dialog was open, focus lands on the Library button.

The dialog keeps showing the version it loaded. If the artifact is revised while it is open, a
notice at the top says "A newer version was saved after this view opened. This view still shows
the earlier version.", screen readers hear it once for each newer version, a document's "Current
version" reads "Version shown", and nothing moves: not the text you are reading, not focus. Choose
Show the newer version to load it; the earlier one stays until the new one has arrived, then
the dialog returns to its top with focus on it and says "Now showing the newer version." If the
artifact is deleted while open, the dialog stays open with a notice that it was deleted. A text
artifact's Download artifact always saves the version the dialog shows, so the file and the
text on screen agree; after Show the newer version, it saves the newer one.

On the Workflows page, a run's Open artifact first looks the artifact up: the button stays
focusable but busy, "Still working" is announced if that takes more than a second, and then the
same dialog opens, named by the artifact. If the artifact cannot be found, a message right after
the button says so and focus stays on the button. While that dialog is open, it looks the artifact
up again every few seconds (not while the page is hidden), so a revision or a deletion shows the
same notice as above; the notice is spoken through the dialog itself. A look-up that fails changes
nothing and says nothing.

Review an artifact

Select a document's title, or open any artifact's menu and choose Review versions…. The
workspace shows:

the target format, current immutable version, status, and validation summary;
every current and prior version with byte size, semantic summary, and exact download;
one preview for each document section, workbook sheet, presentation slide, or PDF page;
structural, visual, and accessibility results, including the exact page, slide, sheet,
cell, or section affected by a warning;
the operation and actor that produced each revision; and
a semantic comparison between any two versions.

Each version's Download exact version button (screen readers also hear which version, for
example "v2") fetches the file with your sign-in and saves it
to the browser's downloads folder; no link on the page carries your sign-in token. The button
keeps focus and shows a small spinner while the file is prepared. Holaryn says "Download started"
with the file name (and "Preparing…" first if the file takes more than a second), and shows the
reason next to the button, in your interface language, if the download could not start. A canvas
artifact card works the same way, except that its messages do not repeat the card's label, which
the agent wrote: they say "Preparing the download…" and "Could not download the file". A file
name with no letter or digit in it is not read out either: Holaryn just says "Download started."
Previews load the same way; a preview that cannot load reads "Preview unavailable:"
followed by its description. From an artifact's menu, Save as… uses the browser's own save
dialog when it has one; without one, or when the browser refuses it, the file downloads instead
and Holaryn says so.

A generated preview is evidence, not a promise that the file looks correct in every
third-party application. Review the current version's previews before relying on its layout.
For high-impact distribution, also open the downloaded file in the target Office or PDF
application.

Revise without losing history

Ask for a change and name the artifact when several are present:

In the Launch brief artifact, version v2, add a Verification section stating that the
Windows, macOS, and Linux package checks passed.

Revisions name their exact base version. If somebody has already created a newer version, the
stale revision is refused instead of overwriting it. Supported high-level changes include
replacing a semantic specification, appending a document section or PDF page, updating
workbook cells or charts, and adding or updating presentation slides. Earlier versions remain
downloadable and comparable.

Canvas can display a professional-artifact card pinned to an exact version, with an optional
validated preview and exact download. Code and chat sessions use the same artifact tools and
version store. The public automation API returns the current format, status, version id,
version count, validation summary, content digest, and authorized download.

Format behavior

Word

Documents support a title, subtitle, author, language, heading hierarchy, paragraphs, tables,
captions, nonvisual table descriptions, and review comments. Missing table descriptions are
reported as accessibility warnings.

Excel

Workbooks support named sheets, typed values, formulas beginning with =, number formats,
basic heading/currency/percent/date styles, bar/line/pie charts, chart descriptions, hidden
sheets, and sheet summaries. Preview and validation locations name the sheet and, when
applicable, the cell.

PowerPoint

Presentations support titled slides, subtitles, bullets, speaker notes, and a required visual
description for every slide. The preview list and validation findings use one-based slide
numbers.

PDF

PDF creation supports titled pages, paragraphs, annotations, basic form-field descriptions,
author metadata, and required page descriptions. The worker reopens the emitted PDF before
recording structural success.

Templates and repeatable work

For repeatable output, describe the desired structure once and ask the agent to reuse that
structure in later artifacts. A project instruction or skill can hold the headings, required
sheets, slide sequence, field names, tone, and accessibility requirements. Record an approved
artifact version as the visual reference and compare later output against it.

This release does not import arbitrary .dotx, .xltx, .potx, macro-enabled Office files,
remote templates, embedded documents, or external-linked assets. That limit is intentional:
unknown templates can carry macros, hidden data, tracking links, or unsupported relationships.
Convert a trusted template into a plain semantic structure instead.

Privacy and safety

Artifact content and previews use the same optional encrypted-state protection as other
local artifact payloads. Metadata such as identifiers, formats, sizes, timestamps, status,
and digests can remain visible as documented in Encrypted local state.
The renderer receives a minimal environment without application secrets. It cannot open
network connections or start child processes.
Generated Office packages contain no macros or external relationships. Rendering is bounded
by request, result, preview, node, text, page, slide, sheet, time, and file-size limits.
Artifact routes require the host's normal authorization and serve content with no-sniff,
anti-framing, sandbox, and restrictive content-security headers.
Validation findings and content are untrusted data. Do not put passwords, API keys, signing
material, or regulated personal data into a prompt or template unless your provider and
local retention policy explicitly allow it.

Deleting an artifact removes its version rows and locally managed payloads. Exports or files
you already downloaded are separate copies and are not recalled.

Open and Export only ever produce document, data, and image files: Word, Excel,
PowerPoint, PDF, plain text, Markdown, CSV, JSON, PNG, JPEG, GIF, and WebP. An artifact the
model published under any other content type exports as .txt, and Open refuses it so a
model-chosen type can never be handed to the operating system as a program or script.
publish_artifact itself accepts only text types (Markdown, plain text, CSV, JSON).

Recovery and troubleshooting

If creation fails, no artifact version is committed. If a revision fails, its staged payload is
removed and all earlier versions remain current and readable. Retry with a smaller document or
correct the named validation problem.

For Python-package installations, re-run the installer with the documents extra (see
Installation):

./scripts/install.sh --extras web,documents

.\scripts\install.ps1 -Extras "web,documents"

From a source checkout, use uv sync --extra documents. Do not install holaryn-agent by name
from a package index; Holaryn is not published to one.

Desktop and official Compose builds already include them. If an artifact remains needs
review, open its version workspace: an empty sheet, missing table/chart description, malformed
range, unsupported operation, or inaccessible structure is reported at the closest available
locator.

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