Watching a build: progress, stopping and checks

#Where to watch

A project opens in its Studio tab: the conversation on the left and the preview on the right. On a narrow screen the preview sits below the conversation. Drag the bar between them to give either side more room.

The pill above the conversation says where the project stands: Building, Live, Draft or Needs attention, or Preparing questions, Waiting for your answers and Waiting for your approval while a first build waits for you. Waiting for credits means a planned build is paused until you choose Resume building. A change that connects another service shows Checking which keys this needs, then Waiting for a key if it asks for one. Beside it, Total shows the credits the project has used so far.

The build runs on Briks, not in your browser. You can close the tab and come back; the studio shows where the build has got to. The Notifications bell at the top of the page follows each build too: one notice per build, saying it has started, then that it is done, failed, stopped, is waiting for you or is waiting for credits. If you connected Telegram, its Builds finished or failed alert sends those there as well. No email is sent when a build finishes.

#The build card

While a build runs, a card sits at the foot of the conversation. It holds:

• Waiting to start and a clock while it is queued, with “Waiting for a free builder. Your build starts automatically.”
• Building and a running clock once it has started, with Stop beside it.
• On a first build, when building usually takes more than you have, a line saying so, explained under Credit estimates and pauses.
• The steps, each ticked when done, with a spinner on the current one.
• One live line at the bottom saying what is happening right now. It is replaced as the work moves on, so the card never grows into a log.

A change shows fewer steps: Applying your changes, Verifying build and Publishing, plus Checking the published site when you asked for the check.

Cards appear above as the build learns things: What your references decided when you gave references, and Plan for this site, which lists every section in order with what it is for. Reading the plan is the quickest way to spot a section you did not want. Note it, and ask for the change once the site is published.

#The preview fills in as it is built

Until the first publish, the preview pane shows the site taking shape instead of a spinner.

• Across the top, the stages: Reading the reference (only with a reference site), Planning, Pictures with a count such as 4 of 9, Writing the sections with the sections and pages written so far, and Publishing.
• While a reference site is read, its screens appear one by one under “Reading your reference, top to bottom.”, with the kinds of section found beside them.
• Once the plan is ready, every part of the home page appears as an outline. As each section is written, its outline fills with its own colours and its title in the site's own type, and its pictures drop in as they are made.
• Beside the page, Pictures, Home sections and Other pages are counted as they are done, and the Page system shows your headings and text in the site's chosen typefaces, with the palette as swatches.
• Above the page, a tab for Home and one for each inner page. Click a tab to look at that page. The preview stops following the build until you click Follow the build.

Once published, the pane shows the live site with a Live preview tag and the time it was published. Use Desktop, Tablet and Phone to see it at other widths, Reload preview to fetch it again, Full screen to give it the whole window (Esc closes it) and Open in new tab.

#How long it takes

The first version takes a few minutes. The clock on the card shows how long the build has run, and when it finishes the conversation says how long it took, as in “Published to bakehouse.briks.live in 7 min 12 s”. Questions before building and approval stops add whatever time you take to answer them. The optional check of the published site adds a few minutes more.

#Credit estimates and pauses

A new project holds 50 credits and is charged for the work it takes, which can be more or less than that. Briks knows what builds like yours usually cost, worked out from the builds before it, and tells you when that is more than you have. Before you start, the New project review, the box on Home and the build card show a line such as: "Building it usually takes about 85 credits after planning, and you have 30. If it needs more than you have once planned, it waits there for credits with the plan kept." When your balance covers it, no line is shown.

The real check comes once the site is planned, before any picture is made or any page is built. If the rest of the build usually takes more than the build still holds plus your balance, it pauses. You have paid only for the reading and planning so far, and everything planned is kept. The pill reads Waiting for credits, a bar above the message box reads "Planned and waiting for credits: about 85 to build.", and the conversation says: "Your site is planned. Building it needs more credits. Building, the pictures and publishing usually take about 85 credits, and you have 30. The plan is kept: once you have the credits, choose Resume building and it carries on from here."

• Your first site on the Free plan never pauses. It is built in full and the conversation says so: "Building it usually takes about 85 credits, and you have 30. As your first site, it is built in full all the same; later builds wait for credits when they need more than you have."
• While a build is paused, questions in the box are answered as usual, but a change is refused because there is no site to change yet: "Your site waits for credits before it is built, so there is nothing to change yet. Building it usually takes about 85 credits, and you have 30."
• A change that adds pages is checked the same way before it is queued. If it usually takes more than your balance, it doesn't start: "Adding pages usually takes about 85 credits, and you have 30, so it was not started." Nothing is held or charged. Other changes hold 5 credits as usual.

#What Briks checks on a first build

Every first build gets these checks without you asking:

• The contrast of words on their backgrounds, read in the code before the site is published.
• After the first publish, one contrast pass on the live page at desktop and phone widths, with at most one repair. The live line reads “Checking the published site's contrast on desktop and phone.”
• Every page you chose must be in the site's menu.
• For a site that stores data, a read of its code for security slips: keys written into files, saving with no limit, members' records read without anyone signed in, and database queries pieced together from text.
• If you approved the words, every approved heading must be on the page as you approved it.

A fuller check is opt-in. It looks at the published site at four screen sizes and repairs what renders broken, such as parts that overlap or links that do not work. It adds a few minutes and some credits.

When the fuller check runs, a Visual check card shows a score out of 100 and what it found, such as “Nothing renders broken, so the design is left exactly as built.” Small labels over the preview show each width as it is checked: Phone, Tablet, Laptop and Desktop.

#Stopping a build

#Sending more while it builds

The message box stays open while a build runs. Its button reads Queue, and the note under it says “Runs when the current build finishes. Queued messages go together as one change.” Queued requests wait at the foot of the conversation with a dashed outline and a Queued label, and Remove takes one back before it starts. Up to 10 can wait at once.

Two cases refuse the queue: a first build that stops for your approval (send changes once it has published) and a site with an A/B test running.

#When it finishes or fails

A green line says where the site was published and how long it took. Briks then replies with what it built, ending with the address. Under the reply, in small print, are the credits it was charged and the minutes it ran. If you chose Decide for me at the questions, the reply also lists what was decided for you, so you can change any of it in a message.

The first publish is a preview at your .briks.live address, kept out of search engines. Going live for customers is a separate step: Publish to production.

If a build fails, a red notice gives the reason in a line and the project shows Needs attention. A failed build is not charged: everything it held comes back. Your site stays as it was last published, and the next build starts from that version, not from the half finished one. If the same request fails twice, write to hello@briks.dev with the project's name.