# Context Brief

A working document, not a form. Fill it in before you brief a person, a team,
or an AI tool to produce something on your behalf. If you can't fill in a
section, that's the gap that was about to become someone else's guess.

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## 1. The situation

What's the task, and who or what is actually producing the output?

- Task:
- Who/what is producing it (a person, a team, an AI tool, some mix):
- Deadline or cadence (one-off, recurring, ongoing):

## 2. What's already known

The scattered knowledge that usually only lives in someone's head. Fill in
whatever applies; leave the rest blank rather than padding it.

- **Fact / spec** (the concrete, checkable details):
- **Tone / voice** (how this should sound, and how it shouldn't):
- **Precedent** (a real past example that got this right):
- **Real feedback** (an actual customer/user reaction, not an assumption
  about one):

## 3. What's missing

If you removed this brief right now, what would the next person, or the
next AI prompt, have to guess at?

-

Answer this honestly. A blank here is more useful than a vague one.

## 4. The rules that must hold

Non-negotiables, written as rules, not vibes. ("Brand colour accuracy takes
priority over aesthetic preference" is a rule. "Make it feel premium" is not.)

1.
2.
3.

## 5. How you'll know it worked

One line. If you can't check it, it's not a rule yet; it's a hope.

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*This is the kind of document that sat behind the [Image Management System](/work/image-management-system)
and [AI Content Transformation](/work/ai-content-transformation) work.
The gap between generic AI output and useful AI output is almost always a
document like this one, or the absence of it.*