One brief per agent, written like a note.
A brief tells an agent what to achieve, who to reach, what it must never do and how you’ll measure success. The agent reads it before every plan it makes.
A short interview, then a brief.
Hiring an agent asks what it should achieve, for whom, and what it must never do, with suggested answers for your kind of business. You finish with a brief you can edit before the agent does anything.
From a few answers to a published brief
- 1
What you want
Write it the way you’d brief a new hire. You don’t need to pick campaign types or bid strategies. The agent turns your brief into plans, and you judge the plans.
- 2
Who to reach and who to leave alone
Wrenfield Coffee’s audience: “Home coffee drinkers across the US who haven’t bought from us, with the most budget behind products that have deep stock and good margin.” Suggested exclusions keep spend off people who would buy anyway.
- 3
What it must never do
Write one rule per line, such as “Never make health claims” or “Don’t advertise anything with less than three weeks of stock.” Spend caps, contact limits and banned phrases hold even if a brief leaves them out.
- 4
How you’ll know it’s working
A brief ends with the agent’s funnel and a target on one of its steps: a cost per result, such as a first order under $26, or a number a month. Reports measure the week against it.
- 5
A check-up before it goes live
Every brief gets six checks: a clear objective, a funnel step with a target, a specific audience, at least one thing never to do, connected channels, and nothing that clashes with your banned phrases. Most checks come with a one-click fix.
Hiring an agent, from the first questionOne example, in order
Step 1 · Brief editor
Asks: “What should this agent achieve for Wrenfield Coffee? One sentence is enough.” It suggests three answers for a store, such as “Win back customers who haven’t ordered in six months.”
Step 2 · You
Answer six short questions: the goal, who it’s for, the channels, the budget, how you’ll know it’s working, and what it must never do.
Step 3 · Brief editor
Drafts the brief and its funnel, with a target on the step you chose. You can edit any line.
Step 4 · Check-up
Runs its six checks. On the New Customers agent’s brief, all six pass.
Every run after · The agent
Reads the published brief before it plans, and reports against the target: for the New Customers agent, first orders at under $26 each.
What a brief can and can’t do
A brief tells an agent what you want. It can’t override your company’s limits.
Edits stay drafts until you publishPer person
Your changes are a private draft until you publish them as one change. The agent never works from a half-finished edit.
The target sits on a step of the funnelBuilt in
A target is a cost per result, or a count per day, week or month, on one step of the agent’s funnel. If you remove that step, the target is cleared.
Your limits beat the briefCompany setting
Spend caps, contact limits, consent and banned phrases are checked on every proposal, whatever the brief says.
Unconnected channels are flaggedBuilt in
The check-up lists any channel a brief names that your company hasn’t connected yet.
Only owners and admins edit briefsRoles
Approvers can give an agent guidance, but changing what an agent is for is a decision for an owner or admin.
When a brief falls short
What happens when my brief conflicts with my limits?
The limit wins. The policy engine stops any proposal that would break a limit, whatever the brief says.
What happens when I remove the step my target is on?
The target is cleared, and the check-up asks for a new one. Without a target, an agent can’t tell you plainly whether it’s working.
What happens when two people edit the same brief?
Each person has their own draft. Nothing changes for the agent until one of them publishes.
What happens when the brief is vague?
The check-up says so, and the assistant offers a sharper version, such as an audience with an exclusion added. You decide whether to use it.
Do I start from a blank page?
No. Hiring is a short interview, and the editor drafts the brief from a starting point for your kind of business. You edit what it wrote.
What’s the difference between a brief and guidance?
The brief defines the job and rarely changes. Guidance is a note on how to do the job right now, such as “Keep gift sets in every holiday campaign until December 15.”
Can a brief let an agent spend more than my caps?
No. Caps are company settings, checked on every proposal. A brief can make an agent more careful, never less.
Write your first brief in a sentence.
Your work email is all we need to start.