--- title: "Questions before building | Briks" url: https://briks.dev/docs/questions-before-building description: "Before a first build is planned, Briks asks which pages to make and what your brief leaves open. How to answer, use Decide for me or turn extra questions off." last_updated: 2026-10-08 --- # Questions before building Before Briks plans a new website or app, it asks you a few quick questions in the studio: always which pages to build, and sometimes what your brief left open. Answering takes about a minute and costs nothing. This page shows what gets asked, how to answer and what happens after. 8 minute read Checked against the studio on 8 October 2026 ## 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. | Question | Can be asked when | Typical choices | | --- | --- | --- | | Pages | Always, on every website and app | Five to nine page names to tick, the home page fixed, plus pages of your own | | What a visitor does | Your kind of business usually takes bookings or enquiries and the brief doesn't say how | For example: book a time, send an enquiry, call or email | | Prices | Prices are usual for the business and the brief gives none | A pricing table, prices beside each service, or no prices | | Languages | The brief or the place suggests more than one language | Several can be ticked | | What leads the page | No site or screenshot was added and the brief doesn't say | A photograph, bold words on a colour with no picture, or for software, its own screens | | Facts not given | The site will need facts the brief doesn't give, such as hours, an address or names | Clearly marked samples to replace later, or leave them out | | Another service's key | The brief connects the site to another service that works with your own account there | Build it now and add the key in Secrets once the site is live, or leave that part out for now | 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 1. Read the card Where: Studio It opens with a line such as "Before I plan your site, a few quick choices. Tick the pages you want and answer what is unclear; Decide for me takes the recommended answers." 2. Tick your pages Where: Studio **Home** is always included and marked **Always**. Tick or untick the rest; the page count updates as you go. To add a page that isn't offered, type its name where it says "Add a page, for example Careers" and press **Add**. Names can be up to 40 characters. 3. Answer the rest Where: Studio On questions with one answer, the suggested choice is marked **Recommended**. If none fits, pick **Something else** and type your own words in **Your answer**. 4. Press Continue Where: Studio The card changes to a list of what was decided, and the build starts. Up to 10 pages to start A site can start with up to 10 pages, the home page included. The card says "Each page you tick is built in full. More can be added later." More pages take longer and cost more to build, so tick what you need now and add the rest with a message later. ## 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](https://briks.dev/docs/making-changes). Credits while the card waits Asking is never charged. The 50 credits held when you pressed **Build it** stay held while the card waits, and the build doesn't start until you answer, so answer before you step away. If you stop the build while the card waits, it is called off free and the card reads "Closed: this build was stopped." ## 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. Where 1. New project 2. How it is built 3. Ask about what is unclear before building 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. Where 1. Projects 2. Your project 3. Settings 4. Preferences ## 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](https://briks.dev/docs/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. Good to know While a change waits for its key, your live site stays as it is and you can keep sending messages: they join the change. A card closed because the change was stopped reads "Closed: this change was stopped or asked again." ## Examples of good answers Pages A family dental practice in Cardiff > Offered: Home, About, Treatments, Prices, Team, FAQ, Contact. The owner unticked FAQ and added **Emergency appointments** as a page of its own, because that is what patients look for at seven in the morning with toothache. Seven pages, each in the menu. FAQ can follow later with one message. Typed answer A barbershop in Glasgow > `Home, Prices and Find us. Walk-ins only, no booking, just show the phone number and opening hours. Prices beside each cut.` Pages: Home, Prices, Find us. Visitors call or walk in, and prices sit beside each service. Any question the words didn't touch takes its recommended answer. Facts not given A new bakery still settling its menu > Asked what to do about facts the brief didn't give, the owner chose clearly marked samples. The preview shows sample prices, marked as samples. **Publish to production** won't go ahead until they are replaced with real ones. ## Common questions ### Why wasn't I asked about prices? Your brief already settled it, or prices aren't usual for your kind of business. Questions beyond the pages are only asked when the answer would change what is built. ### Can I start with more than 10 pages? No. The card says "A site can start with up to 10 pages. Untick one to add another, or add more pages later." Start with the 10 that matter most. ### My dashboard didn't ask anything. That is expected. Dashboards build straight through, so put the records and numbers you need in the brief. ### The card offered selling online or signing in. That question lists the usual ways people act for your kind of business, and both work. Sign-in comes with email and password, and payments go through your own processor once its keys are saved under **Settings**, **Payments**. See [Sign-in and payments](https://briks.dev/docs/sign-in-and-payments). ## Read next - [Building **Start a new project** Every choice on the New project page, step by step: the kind of project, your brief, a site you like, brand, pictures, build switches and what starting costs.](https://briks.dev/docs/new-project) - [Building **Writing a good brief** What to put in a brief so the first build lands: the business, its audience, the pages, the main action, facts and tone, with six before and after examples.](https://briks.dev/docs/writing-a-brief) - [Building **Approve as it builds** Have a first build stop for you: approve the words, choose one of three looks, then pick a hero from four grey layouts. How to turn it on and what it costs.](https://briks.dev/docs/approval-steps) - [Building **Watching a build** Follow a build as it plans, writes and publishes, watch your pages fill in, stop a build safely, and learn what is checked and what a failed build costs.](https://briks.dev/docs/watching-a-build) - [Data and automation **Secrets** Keep API keys and passwords your site's code needs on the site's server, never in pages or downloads. Add, change and remove them, and the rules Briks enforces.](https://briks.dev/docs/secrets) Still stuck? Write to [hello@briks.dev](mailto:hello@briks.dev) with your project's name and what you expected to see. A screenshot helps.