Section 10: Project management and autonomous agent workflows with Manus

Scenario 93: Weekly project status from connected tools

Level: Intermediate · Tools: Smartsheet connector, Automations > Create > Schedule, Gmail or Slack connector; Smartsheet Business, Enterprise or Advanced Work Management plan [168] [181] [182] [183]

Who and in what situation

Selin is on the holding company’s PMO team. On Monday morning, she turns progress, delays, risks and next steps from the project sheets of different business units into a management update.

How it is done today

Selin filters the sheets one by one, messages the owners of delayed tasks and transfers her findings into an email. She also shortens the same text for the team channel.

How to do it with AI

Select Smartsheet in the Connectors section and authorize it with Connect. This connector requires specific Smartsheet plans. [170] [183]
Start with a read-only task: ask it to list progress, delays, risks and next steps. [183]
Ask for an executive summary, project details and source rows; generate separate Gmail and Slack drafts.
Set the day, time and time zone using Automations > Create > Schedule; check it with Test run. [168]
Review the result and failed runs in Automations > Updates. [168]

Example prompt

At every {time and time zone}, read the {sheet names} sheets in Smartsheet. Write up progress, delayed tasks, risks, owners and next steps by project. Include the source row. Do not change any rows, send emails or post to Slack. After producing the result, prepare a Gmail draft for {recipient group} and a Slack draft for {channel name}.

Evidence and real-world example

Smartsheet’s official connector page provides an example that pulls progress, delays and next steps from multiple sheets and writes a weekly update. [183]

Points to consider

Since there is no separate approval step in Smartsheet, keep write requests disabled in the initial task and ask it to list changes first. The connector is limited to the content your account can access. Before sending, check the recipients, dates and confidential project details in the email and channel text. [170] [183] [180]