[HN Gopher] Show HN: Pane - An agent that edits spreadsheets
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       Show HN: Pane - An agent that edits spreadsheets
        
       Hi HN,  I built Pane, a spreadsheet-native agent that operates
       directly on the grid (cells, formulas, references, ranges) instead
       of treating spreadsheets as text.  Most spreadsheet AI tools fail
       because they: - hallucinate formulas - lose context across edits -
       can't reliably modify existing models  Pane runs inside the
       spreadsheet environment and uses the same primitives a human would:
       selecting cells, editing formulas, inserting ranges, reconciling
       tables.  I launched it on Product Hunt this weekend and it
       unexpectedly resonated, which made me curious whether this approach
       actually holds up under scrutiny.  I'd love feedback on: - obvious
       failure modes you expect - whether this is fundamentally better
       than scripts + formulas + copilots  Happy to answer technical
       questions.
        
       Author : rbajp
       Score  : 21 points
       Date   : 2026-01-12 15:41 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (paneapp.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (paneapp.com)
        
       | smallerfish wrote:
       | What's your experience with the competition? I have never tried
       | gemini in sheets, but don't you think google will get there soon
       | if they're not already?
        
         | subpixel wrote:
         | Gemini in sheets is not that hot yet, but I think it's got
         | hancuffs on to prevent people destroying their valuable work
         | product.
         | 
         | But if I ask Gemini to build be formulas and than just paste
         | them into Google Sheets the results are pretty darn good.
        
       | SkyPuncher wrote:
       | How do you handle documents with Macros?
        
         | rbajp wrote:
         | Not implemented yet - they should be imported but will not be
         | executed.
        
       | ashwindharne wrote:
       | I'm building something similar, but as an Excel add-in instead of
       | a standalone product.
       | 
       | In real use-cases, it seems that by far the hardest part is
       | figuring out the right representation for a spreadsheet workbook
       | and the right primitives for the agent to be able to navigate it
       | adeptly and cost-effectively; structure is incredibly variable
       | and the data just compresses rather poorly (values, formulas,
       | formatting, charts, pivots, etc.).
       | 
       | Great stuff though, think we'll see a lot of movement in the
       | space in the coming years!
        
         | rbajp wrote:
         | Agreed, there's a few neat tricks that can get performance to
         | increase significantly
        
       | rubenflamshep wrote:
       | I fell out of the funnel during the demo. Not sure if there was a
       | browser issue but the video had no sound and watching spreadsheet
       | navigation with no context left me completely lost as to what was
       | happening.
        
         | rbajp wrote:
         | Super valuable feedback. Thank you! Will work on improving the
         | demo.
        
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       (page generated 2026-01-12 23:01 UTC)