Briefs

A brief is a document on one tracked bill that you ask for when you need it: a Bill brief to decide a position or update a client, or a Hearing packet when the bill is on an upcoming agenda. It's written from the public record and, if you choose, your organization's own work on the item, and every fact in it is checked against the records it cites before you see it.

Briefs are listed in the Briefs section of the tracked item panel. Select a brief's name to open it.

Who sees a brief#

A brief belongs to its tracked item: whoever can see the item can read its briefs. Each reader sees the brief as they can see the records now, not as its author could when it was written. A passage that rests on something you can't see, such as another client's position, a note you can't read, or an item that isn't shared with you, isn't shown to you at all. If a record a passage drew on is deleted or erased, the passage is taken out and its words are gone for everyone.

A client copy is checked again against the client's view each time it's opened. A note that's no longer marked for the client, or a field no longer shown to clients, drops out of the copy. If the client is archived, clients are turned off, or the item stops being shared with the client's group, the copy shows only the public record.

Reading a brief#

The brief opens over the tracked item panel, with the document beside a rail.

• At a glance is a row of figures built from the records, marked Record.
• Each paragraph carries its mark: Written (checked against the sources it cites), Context (general knowledge, not from the records), Analysis (judgment resting on the records it cites), or Edited by a member. Its citations are small numbers matching the Sources in the rail.
• Context passages are highlighted until someone chooses Verify, which records who and when.
• Each source opens its record: the public record opens the bill's panel over the brief; a note, task or our position takes you to that card in the item's panel. Each source says where it's used.
• Show sources, on by default, can be turned off for a clean reading view without marks, numbers or chips.
• This version in the rail says who it was written for and when, its settings, and its earlier versions.

Editing a brief#

With a Full license you can change a brief's current version. Every change is kept with who made it and when.

• Edit a paragraph to rewrite it in plain text. It's marked Edited by you and its citations are dropped.
• Remove a paragraph; Undo brings it back.
• In a hearing packet, each talking point is a card with its type and the sources it rests on. Editing a point keeps its sources, as Sources from the draft, and warns you, without stopping you, if your text names a date, number, bill or person they don't hold. Link a source… adds one of the brief's sources, and × removes one.
• + Add a talking point adds your own, marked Yours. Points the check couldn't support are listed under Left out with the reason; Add as your own adds one back as Yours. A passage or point left out for what it said about a person is listed with its reason only: its text isn't kept, so it can't be added back. Your own points aren't checked.

Basic licenses read briefs but don't change them. See Roles, licenses and permissions.

Out of date and refreshing#

A brief is Out of date when a record it used has changed since it was written: a new version of the bill, a stage change, a vote, a hearing set or moved, a change to the item's position or a field the brief uses, a note or task it cites edited, or a passage you could see taken out because a record it drew on was deleted. A change to something it didn't use, like a note written later, doesn't count. The Briefs section marks it Out of date, and the brief opens with a banner saying what changed.

Refresh offers two choices, each using one brief from this month's pool:

• Update what changed rewrites the brief from today's records and keeps every section whose sources didn't change exactly as it was, edits and verifications included. Each changed section is shown Before and After: choose Use the update or Keep mine for each, then Finish update. Until you do, the earlier version stays the brief's current one; Discard the update drops it.
• Start over writes a new version from today's records with the same settings.

The new version is written as whoever refreshed it, with what they can see. The earlier version keeps its edits and stays listed under This version. If the new version can't be written, nothing is charged, the earlier version stays current, and the brief says why. A brief that isn't out of date says so rather than spending a brief.

If part of an update rests on records you can't see, the update says only that part of it is hidden from you. Someone who can see all of it finishes it.

Downloading a brief#

Download in the brief's header makes a file of its current version:

• Word · review copy, for editing: each passage carries a Word comment naming its mark (and who edited or verified it), and its citations are footnotes.
• Word · clean copy, ready to send: no comments, marks or footnotes.
• PDF, clean, and tagged so screen readers can follow its headings, table and lists.
• Copy text puts the brief on your clipboard as plain text, to paste into an email.

In a clean copy, the PDF and Copy text, talking points keep small numbers with a Sources list at the end, so you can say where each one comes from. Choose Leave out sources to take both out. Your own talking points carry no mark.

Every file is made when you ask for it, from the brief as you can see it then: anything hidden from you, removed by a member or taken out because a record was deleted isn't in it, and Left out never is. A client copy is checked against the client's view first; if the client can no longer see the item, the copy can't be downloaded. Files aren't kept by CapitolMath, and a file you've downloaded can't be recalled, so if a record it quotes is later deleted, download the brief again.

Before a clean copy, PDF or text of a client copy with Context passages nobody has verified, you're asked: Review it takes you to them, Download anyway goes ahead. Internal copies and review copies don't ask.

Each file ends with "Based on records as of" the records' date and your organization's name, your logo, and "Prepared with CapitolMath" unless your plan removes it. When your organization's AI note is on, client copies and clean downloads also say "Drafted with AI from public records and our notes." Internal review copies never do. The file is named for the bill, the kind of brief, the client and the records' date, such as SB 412 hearing packet – Northbay – 2026-03-01.docx.

Downloading needs Export on Briefs, which Full licenses have; an Owner or Admin can grant it to a Basic license. Downloads are recorded in the organization's audit log (who, which brief, which format), never with the brief's words. Only a brief's current version can be downloaded.

Deleting a brief#

Whoever asked for a brief, the tracked item's owner, or someone with Manage All on Tracked items can delete it, with every version of it.

Sharing a client copy with the client#

When your organization turns on Client members under Organization › Workflow › Briefs, a client copy can be shared with that client's members. It's off until an Owner or Admin turns it on, and it's available where clients are, on the Pro and Scale plans.

• Open the client copy and choose Share with the client in the rail. You need a Full license (Update on Briefs), and you share the brief's current version.
• If a Context passage hasn't been verified, you're asked first: review it, or share anyway.
• You can share a copy only when you can see everything in it, and only while the client can see the bill (the item is shared with the client's group).
• The client reads the copy as it was when you shared it. Edits, removals, restored paragraphs and talking points added afterwards don't reach them: the rail says Changed since you shared it, and Share again shares it as it is now, after the same checks.
• Only one version of a brief is shared at a time. A refreshed version, or a new version for someone else (Internal, say), isn't shared until someone shares it; until then the client keeps reading the earlier one, and every version's rail says which one is shared, with Stop sharing.
• Stop sharing withdraws it at once. The Briefs section marks a shared copy Shared.

Nothing is shared automatically, and nothing internal is ever shared.

What client members see#

Client members find shared copies in the Briefs section of their tracked item. They read the clean version: no marks, sources, edits or review notes, with the date of the records, your organization's name and, when your organization's AI note is on, "Drafted with AI from public records and our notes." A paragraph you removed isn't shown. They can't edit a brief or ask for one.

What they see is decided each time they open it. A note no longer marked for the client, or a field no longer shown to clients, drops out. If the item stops being shared with the client's group, the client is archived, or the client member leaves the client or the organization, they can no longer open it. If your organization turns Client members off, shared copies are hidden (they stay shared, ready if it's turned back on).

The client digest#

With Client members on, each client member of a client with an open tracked bill gets a Weekly digest of that client's bills, at the top of Tracked items and by email Monday morning in their time zone, in your organization's name. It's on by default for them; they can turn it off in My profile › Notifications.

It holds only what the client can already see: changes to the public record and hearings on the client's tracked bills, position changes (while positions are on), fields marked Show to clients, and how many notes marked for the client were added (never their text). Never priority, owner, tasks, internal notes, other clients or the Inbox. Like every digest, it's checked again when it's sent and when it's read: a field no longer shown to clients, or a member who has left the client, gets nothing. Turning Client members off stops client digests at once. Where CapitolMath records a legislature's amendments, it also holds the amendments on the client's tracked bills: those adopted or decided against last week, and those still offered or recommended on a bill on this week's agenda, with any limits of the legislature's listing beside them. They're checked as in every digest.