What a brief is

Each brief is a single page focused on one subject, and it reads like the current state of things, not a transcript or a history. It holds the facts, decisions, and open questions that matter and leaves out incidental conversation. Every line links back to its sources, so you can check where any fact came from.

Nearly anything you keep coming back to can be a brief. Common examples include:

  • An account or deal. The current truth about a customer relationship: people, positions, blockers.
  • A person. One key relationship: preferences, history, open loops.
  • A project. An initiative with a goal: status, decisions and why, open questions.
  • A team wiki. How the team operates: policies, tools, who to ask.
  • A competitor watch. The landscape, kept live: positioning, moves, what the field hears.
  • A research topic. Findings, evidence, and questions still open.

Creating a brief

Go to Briefs and create a new brief. Give it a name and describe what goes in it. You can also pick an icon and color. Clicking the selected icon a second time removes it, and the brief shows the first letter of its name instead.

Bravo builds the first version from your past conversations. This takes a few minutes. A brief can start out nearly empty if you haven't discussed its subject with Bravo yet. It fills in as those conversations happen.

“What goes in here”

A brief's description is the rule Bravo uses to decide what belongs in it. It is not an introduction or a summary of the page. Be specific about the subject, the details you care about, and the boundaries. For example:

The Northwind deal: the people involved and their roles, decisions, open blockers, and commitments we have made. Leave out other accounts.

To refine the description later, open the brief and double-click the What goes in here box, or click the pencil that appears over it. Changes take effect on the brief's next update, about half an hour after you save. Editing the description does not rebuild the brief from every past chat: it shapes what Bravo includes from conversations going forward, and narrowing it can trim information that no longer belongs.

How a brief stays current

Briefs update themselves. When a chat touches a brief's topic, Bravo notices anything new and works it into the brief after the conversation, usually within about half an hour.

Briefs draw only on your Bravo conversations, including anything you had Bravo read within those chats, such as an email, a webpage, or a file. Bravo does not search your inbox, and it does not look at the pages you visit outside your chats. If it never came up in a conversation, it won't appear in a brief.

Editing a brief

In the text box at the bottom of a brief, tell Bravo what to change in plain language, and it applies the edit right away. You can also select any text in the brief and click Edit this to attach that selection, then type the change you want. For example:

  • Add that Priya owns the security review.
  • The launch date moved to October 14.
  • Drop the old pricing section.

Click into the text box, then type your change.

To change what the brief covers, edit its description instead (see “What goes in here”). Click a brief's name to rename it, and its icon to change the icon or color. Both are also in the brief's ⋯ menu.

Seeing what changed

Open History from the brief's ⋯ menu, or click the Updated time under its name. Recent changes are listed in order. Pencil marks show the edits you made yourself, and each change links the sources behind it. Click a change to see the exact edit, with added text highlighted and removed text struck through. If a change looks wrong, Not right? starts a correction: the change you flagged is attached above the text box, and you type what is actually right.

Deleting a brief

Choose Delete from the brief's ⋯ menu. The brief is removed right away, with no confirmation step. If it was a mistake, click Undo in the message that appears. Deleting a brief does not delete the conversations it learned from.

What briefs cost

Building and updating briefs uses credits, like everything Bravo does for you. The first build is the biggest step, and the automatic updates afterward are small. In your usage report, brief work appears under reasons that start with kb_:

  • kb_build: researched your past conversations and wrote the first version of a brief.
  • kb_digest: refreshed the short summary Bravo keeps for a brief behind the scenes.
  • kb_observer: checked a finished conversation for information that belongs in a brief.
  • kb_consolidator: updated a brief with newly gathered information.
  • kb_edit: applied an edit you asked for on a brief's page.