---
title: "Watching a build: progress, stopping and checks | Briks"
url: https://briks.dev/docs/watching-a-build
description: "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."
last_updated: 2026-10-08
---

# Watching a build: progress, stopping and checks

Every build and change shows its progress in the studio as it happens. For a first build, the preview lays your page out part by part until the real site takes its place. This page explains what you are looking at, how to stop a build, and what happens when one finishes or fails.

11 minute read Checked against the studio on 8 October 2026

## 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.

Where

1. Projects
2. Your project
3. Studio

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](https://briks.dev/docs/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](https://briks.dev/docs/watching-a-build#credits-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.

| Step | What is happening |
| --- | --- |
| Workspace | Your project's files are set up. |
| Studying references | The sites and screenshots you gave are read. With none, your brand settings are applied. |
| Planning the site and its pictures | The sections of each page, what each one is for and which pictures it needs. |
| Designing and building | Each section and page is written. |
| Verifying build | The site is put together and checked before it can go out. |
| Publishing | The site goes live at its address. |
| Checking the published site | The live page is looked at after it is published. |

The steps of a first build. Some pass in moments.

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**.

Tip

The outlines are drawn from the build's progress, not from the finished design. Judge colours, spacing and pictures on the real site, which replaces them the moment it is published.

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."

Carry on a paused build

1. Get the credits

   Where: Studio

   Press **Get credits**. It opens the upgrade box with the smallest plan that gives you more credits a month; on a paid plan it also says when your next credits arrive. You can also move plans in **Billing**.

2. Press Resume building

   Where: Studio

   It sits on the card and on the bar above the message box. It holds the number the card showed. If your balance still falls short, the studio says so, for example "Resuming usually takes about 85 credits, and you have 30.", and the build keeps waiting.

3. Let it finish

   Where: Studio

   "Resume building." appears as your message, the card is marked **Resumed**, and the build carries on from its plan, so nothing planned is paid for twice.

A paused build never resumes by itself

Credits arriving later, from a new month or a new plan, don't start it. Only **Resume building** does, so a site you set aside never spends credits you meant for something else. The bell shows the pause, and if it is still waiting after 3 days and 14 days, the people who manage billing are reminded, by email and in the bell. Each reminder is sent once.

- **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.

| Fuller check | Where to switch it on |
| --- | --- |
| On a first build | **Check the published site** on **How it is built** when you create the project, or **Check the published site after the first build** in **Settings**, **Preferences** |
| On one change | **Check the site after this change**, under the message box. The studio remembers your choice for this site in this browser. |
| On every change | **Check the published site after every change** in **Settings**, **Preferences** |

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**.

Good to know

Links that lead nowhere are caught by the launch check when you [publish to production](https://briks.dev/docs/publish-to-production), not on every build.

## Stopping a build

1. Click Stop

   Where: Build card

   **Stop** sits next to the clock while a build or a change is queued or running.

2. Read what stopping will do

   Where: Stop this build?

   A box titled **Stop this build?** says what happens at this point. The table below sets out the three cases.

3. Confirm

   Where: Stop this build?

   Click **Stop**. The button reads **Stopping…** for a moment; Briks looks for your stop every couple of seconds.

4. Carry on when you are ready

   Where: Conversation

   The conversation says “Stopped, as you asked. Send a message when you want to carry on.”

| When you stop | What happens | What you pay |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Before it starts | It never starts. Anything queued after it still goes ahead. | Nothing |
| While it runs, before publishing | It stops before anything is published, so your site stays exactly as it was. | Only the work done until the stop |
| After it has published | The new version stays live. Only the rest of the check of the published site is skipped. | The work done |

Good to know

Only builds and changes can be stopped. Undo, restores, A/B tests and publishing to production cannot. Stopping takes edit rights, so Viewers do not see the button.

## 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](https://briks.dev/docs/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.

| What failed | What the notice offers |
| --- | --- |
| A first build | "Nothing was charged. Try again, or describe the site differently below." **Try again** starts it again with your words and answers as they were, holding a new project's credits. Typing in the box starts it again with your new words added. |
| A first build whose site you like couldn't be opened | **Build without it** builds the same request without that address, and **Remove it** takes you to the address in **Preferences**. See [Build from a site you like](https://briks.dev/docs/build-from-sites-you-like). |
| A change | "A request that fails is not charged; send the change again to retry." |

### Can I leave the page while it builds?

Yes. The build carries on without the tab, and the studio shows where it got to when you come back.

### Will I get an email when it is done?

No. The **Notifications** bell tells you when a build finishes or fails, and so does Telegram if you connected it. Email is only used to remind you of a build left waiting for credits.

### Can I see the price before it starts?

You see what it holds (50 credits for a new project, 5 for a change) and, afterwards, what it was charged. For a new project, or a change that adds pages, you are also told when it usually costs more than you have. The charge can be more than the hold; anything beyond it comes from your balance.

## Read next

- [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)
- [Working on a project **Making changes** How to change your site by writing to Briks: what to say, adding pictures, what a change holds and costs, inner pages, queued requests and fixing a miss.](https://briks.dev/docs/making-changes)
- [Working on a project **Versions, undo and redo** Every build and change is saved as a version of your site. Undo a change, redo it, or put any earlier version back live exactly as it was, with no credits held.](https://briks.dev/docs/versions)
- [Publishing and domains **Publish to production** Take a Briks site from preview to production: what the launch check reads, what blocks a launch, how to fix each finding and how to go back to preview.](https://briks.dev/docs/publish-to-production)

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.