Sharing
One link. No accounts. Revocable.
The reason handoffs end up in email attachments is that every alternative asks the recipient to create an account first. A Brief does not.
Can recipients view a Brief without an account?
Yes. A recipient opens the share link and can read and ask questions immediately, with no account and no software to install. The creator keeps control: links can be revoked at any time, can carry an expiry, and stop working the moment they are revoked.
The link carries a random secret token. Only a hash of that token is stored, so the link itself is the credential — treat it like one, and revoke it when a recipient no longer needs access.
The usual options, and their cost
- Email attachments: no revocation, no version control, forwarded without your knowledge.
- A shared drive folder: an access request for every recipient, then permanent access nobody prunes.
- A data room: right for executed diligence, heavy for a first conversation.
- A portal login: the fastest way to make a busy recipient stop reading.
How access works
- Step 1
Publish
Publishing mints one link for the Brief. Re-opening the share panel returns the same link rather than silently breaking the old one.
- Step 2
Send
Copy it, or use your phone's native share sheet. The recipient opens it in a browser.
- Step 3
Limit
Set an expiry when the link is only relevant for a window — a bid deadline, a diligence period.
- Step 4
Revoke
Revoking takes effect on the next request. Regenerating revokes the old link and mints a new one in one step.
What is and is not exposed
The recipient sees
- The Brief you published
- Answers from your sources
- Cited evidence passages
The recipient never sees
- Your other Briefs
- Your account or billing
- Sources you did not include
- Your review notes
Search engines never see
- Shared Brief pages are noindex, nofollow
- Share URLs are excluded from every sitemap
- No Brief title or content appears in public metadata
Questions worth asking before you send
Sharing is a decision, not a button. These are the ones that matter.
- Does this Brief contain anything I would not put in an email?
- Who might this link get forwarded to, and is that acceptable?
- Should this expire on a date?
- When this engagement ends, who revokes it?
How the link is protected
- Only a hash of the share token is stored — the raw token exists in the link you hold.
- Revocation is checked on every recipient request, including the conversation endpoint.
- Recipient questions are rate limited per link to limit abuse.
- Shared Brief routes are excluded from search indexing and from all sitemaps.
Sharing hygiene
- Publish only after the review queue is empty.
- Set an expiry for time-boxed audiences.
- Revoke when the engagement closes rather than at cleanup time.
- Regenerate rather than revoke when the audience changes but the Brief does not.
Common questions
- Can recipients view a Brief without an account?
- Yes. A recipient opens the share link and can read and ask questions immediately, with no account and no software to install. The creator keeps control: links can be revoked at any time, can carry an expiry, and stop working the moment they are revoked.
- How does a Brief work?
- You add sources, Brieflin extracts the structure, you review and correct what it understood, then you publish one link. Recipients open the link without an account and ask questions in plain language. Each answer is generated only from your sources and cites the passage behind it. You can revoke the link at any time.
What recipients can ask
Access control and answer grounding are the same problem seen from two sides.
How Ask Brief worksScope and limitations
- Anyone holding the link can open the Brief until it is revoked or expires. Treat the link as the credential.
Send one link instead of a folder
Create a Brief, review what it understood, share it, revoke it when you are done.