What is Brief Mode and how do I use it?

Click the Pencil logo in the top left to open Brief Mode.

The main view lists every brief in your workspace, showing its name, who submitted it, current status, due date, and the number of deliverables attached to it.

You can start a brief in two ways: upload a document you already have, or build one from scratch. Both produce the same structured brief.

Drag a PDF, DOCX, or XLSX file into Brief Mode. Pencil reads the file, extracts the relevant details, and populates a structured brief, usually within 20 to 40 seconds depending on the size of the document. The source file stays attached to the brief as a reference. Review what the AI has extracted, edit anything that needs sharpening, then submit.

Open a blank brief and complete the structured fields. Each field has a clear label and guidance, so you know what to enter.

A brief captures:

At the top of every brief, Pencil generates a short AI summary: a synopsis of what the brief is, what needs to be delivered, and what success looks like. Anyone opening the brief can get the gist without reading every field.

Briefs follow the same structure every time: objective, deliverables, success metrics, regions and language, reviewers, due date, and reference material. Validation runs when you submit, so an incomplete brief cannot move into production. The recipient list and default reviewers can be set per workspace, so the right people are notified automatically.

Logos, brand assets, source files, and creative reference attach directly to the brief. You can pull from your existing asset library or upload new files. Anything you add through Brief Mode flows into the asset library, and existing assets can be linked to a brief without creating duplicates.

When a brief is accepted, Pencil creates a canvas and ties it to the brief. Reference material from the brief is already laid out on the canvas, with a deliverable sub-canvas set up alongside it.

The link runs both ways. As your team produces work and drops it onto the deliverable sub-canvas, those items appear automatically as deliverables on the brief. The brief and the canvas stay in sync, with no one copying status between them.

After creating a brief, you will find a canvas for it, with the same name, under Canvas in the main Pencil platform.

Every deliverable carries a status: work in progress, awaiting approval, changes required, or approved. New deliverables start as work in progress, so clients can see that something is being built before it is ready to review.

When a deliverable is ready, select Send for Review. The assigned reviewers are notified by email and the status moves to awaiting approval. You can assign more than one reviewer to a single deliverable.

Each reviewer has a My Approvals view: a to-do-style list of everything assigned to them, filterable by status. Clients can download a deliverable only once it is approved. When a brief is marked completed, it locks.

Every brief carries one of these statuses:

You change a brief's status with the status button at the top right. The options shown depend on the brief's current status.

Time from submission to completion is tracked automatically, so average delivery time becomes a metric your team can report on. Deliverable counts begin as an AI estimate and update to the true count once production begins.

Comments and @mentions live directly on the brief, so clarifications and discussions stay with the work rather than in a separate email thread. The activity log records who created the brief, who changed it, and when.

You can re-use previously loaded briefs using the Duplicate command in the Briefs list view, which creates a new copy of the brief with Status set to Draft.

You can also create your own Brief Templates. You can add custom fields of various types; write the default text for each; and set which fields are mandatory for the brief to be intelligible, vs which are optional details. This allows you to set up Brief templates that make sense for the unique way your organisation works.