Questions before building

#When Briks asks

Questions come once, at the start of the first build of a Website or an App. Dashboards aren't asked: their build starts straight away. Projects made from a template aren't asked either, and later changes never are; you make those in a message.

Right after you press Build it, the studio shows Preparing questions and the message box reads "Preparing a few questions…". Within a minute a card appears in the conversation and the status changes to Waiting for your answers. Nothing is read, planned or built until you answer. If the questions take too long to prepare, Briks asks about the pages alone rather than keep you waiting.

#What it can ask

There are at most 4 questions, with the pages first. Any other question has to pass a simple test: your brief leaves it open, and the answer would change what gets built. A detailed brief often gets the pages question and nothing else.

The questions are written for your business, so the wording varies from one project to the next. Each comes with a short line on why it matters, and the recommended answer is already selected.

When the brief says nothing about the business

A brief such as Make me a website names no trade, offer, audience or place. Briks doesn't invent one. The card opens with "Before I plan your site, tell me about the business, then tick the pages you want." and asks first: "What does your business do, who is it for, and where is it?" There are no choices to pick: you answer in a text box, in your own words. Decide for me takes the recommended answers for everything else but sends your words with them, so it waits until you have written something. This question is asked even with the extra questions switched off.

#Answering the card

#Decide for me

Decide for me takes the recommended answer for every question, including the recommended pages, and starts the build. The card then lists each decision with a Decided for you tag. When the first version is published, the reply repeats them: "Decided for you, as recommended:" followed by the list, and "Change any of it in a message."

It works well when your brief was detailed and the recommendations already match it. If you have a clear list of pages in your head, tick those yourself first.

#Typing your answers instead

Under the buttons the card says "Or type your answers in the box below.", and the message box reads "Type your answers, or choose above". Write your answers in a sentence or two and send them. While Briks matches your words to the questions, the card shows "Reading your answers onto the questions."

Anything your words don't answer takes the recommended answer, as Decide for me would. A page you name that wasn't on the list is added under your name for it. Pictures can't be attached at this point; the studio replies "Pictures and videos can be added once the site is built. Answer the questions for now."

#What happens next

Your answers become fixed decisions for the build. The plan holds exactly the pages you chose, each one its own page in the menu, and the other answers shape what goes on them. The status changes to Building.

Answers are final for this build. Once the site is built, change anything in a message, such as Add a Careers page or Take the prices off the Treatments page. See Making changes.

#Turning the extra questions off

The pages question is always asked. The rest can be switched off: on the How it is built step of New project, turn off Ask about what is unclear before building. The card then asks only "Before I plan your site: which pages should it have? Tick the ones you want, or add your own." The one exception is a brief that says nothing about the business, which is still asked what the business does.

The same switch sits in the project's Preferences, under Building and publishing. The questions arrive within moments of starting, though, so for a new project the New project page is where the switch counts.

#Keys for other services

Some sites work with another service through your own account there: a mailing list, a CRM, a spreadsheet, an AI model or a messaging service. Those need your key, and a key is never pasted into the conversation.

• Pasted keys are cut out. A key typed into the brief, an answer or a message is removed before anything keeps it or reads it, and the conversation says "A key was removed from your message so it isn't stored. Add it in Project Settings → Secrets." with an Open Secrets button.
• On a first build, the site has nowhere to keep a key yet, since keys are saved on the published site. If your brief connects a service, the card asks whether to build it now and add the key in Secrets once the site is live, or to leave that part out for now.
• On a change to a published site, Briks checks which keys the change needs before building it. The status reads Checking which keys this needs, then Waiting for a key when a card asks for up to 3 keys, each with its own field. Paste a key and press Save and build: it goes straight to the site's Secrets, "Saved on your published site only, encrypted. Never shown again." Or press Add it later and the change is built without it.
• After a build, if the site's code reads a key with no value yet, the reply names it with a button for each, such as Add NEWSLETTER_KEY, and Secrets lists it as Needed by the site with Add value. That part of the site doesn't work until the key has a value.

#Examples of good answers

#Common questions