Template
General Brief template
A Brief is not a document format, but it does have a shape. This is the shape that works across projects, accounts, and roles.
What sections should a Brief contain?
Six: orientation (what this is and where it stands), people and ownership, decisions with dates, open items with owners, timeline and key dates, and evidence — the source documents themselves. Anything that does not serve one of those six is usually history the recipient does not need.
Why blank-page handoffs fail
- Authors write chronology instead of current state.
- Ownership is implied rather than stated.
- Decisions appear without dates, so nobody knows what superseded what.
- Evidence is referenced but not attached.
Filling the template
- Step 1
Gather sources first
Collect PDF, DOCX, TXT, Markdown material before writing anything. Most sections fill themselves from extraction.
- Step 2
Write only the orientation
One paragraph on what this is and where it stands. That is the only prose the template really needs from you.
- Step 3
Correct the extraction
Fix roles, dates, and ownership. This is faster than authoring and more accurate.
- Step 4
Test against the question list
Below. If a question comes back unknown and it should not, a source is missing.
The six sections
Orientation
- What this project or engagement is
- Current state in one paragraph
- What happens next
People & decisions
- Who is involved and what they own
- Who approves
- Decisions with dates and sources
Open & timeline
- Open items with named owners
- Blocked work
- Fixed dates
Evidence
- Contracts and plans
- Status updates
- The threads where things were agreed
The template, applied
The example Briefs are this template filled in for different kinds of work.
Open an example BriefThe test set
A finished Brief must answer all seven from your sources alone.
- What is this and where does it stand?
- Who owns what?
- What has been decided, and when?
- What is open, and who owns it?
- What are the fixed dates?
- What is the biggest risk?
- Where did that come from?
Evidence rules for this template
- Every decision needs a source.
- Every date needs a source or an explicit 'stated verbally'.
- If two sources conflict, keep both.
Copy this checklist
- Orientation paragraph written.
- Every person has a role and an ownership line.
- Every decision has a date.
- Every open item has a named owner.
- All seven test questions answered from sources.
- Review queue empty.
Common questions
- What information belongs in a Brief?
- Include the material that answers the questions the recipient will actually ask: who decides what, what has been agreed, what is still open, what the timeline is, and where the numbers came from. Source documents, decision emails, status notes and the current financial model matter more than polished summaries.
- What is a Brief?
- A Brief is a structured, shareable AI Context Package. It organizes the people, decisions, status, open items, timeline, files, and evidence surrounding a project or engagement, then lets recipients converse with that accumulated knowledge.
- How is Brieflin different from a document?
- A document answers the questions its author thought of. A Brief answers the questions the recipient actually has, because they can ask. The document is still useful as a source — Brieflin reads it and keeps it as evidence — but the recipient no longer has to find the one paragraph that matters to them.
Review before publish
The template only works because you correct the extraction before anyone sees it.
What is a Brief?