Creating Briefs

Start a new brief whenever you have a project, feature, or initiative you want to define and execute.

Overview

Creating a brief takes seconds. You give it a title, optionally add a short description, and Hamster opens the editor so you can start writing. The brief is immediately saved to your workspace and accessible to any team members you choose to invite. You can also create briefs directly from a conversation with the AI assistant, which will pre-populate the content based on your discussion.

How It Works

1. Open the Briefs section — Navigate to Briefs in the sidebar. If this is your first brief, you'll see a prompt to create one. Otherwise, click "New brief" in the top-right corner.

2. Name your brief — A dialog opens asking for a title (required, up to 255 characters) and an optional description. The title appears on the brief card in the list and in the document header. The description shows beneath the title in the card view as a quick summary.

3. Start writing — After you confirm, Hamster opens the brief editor directly. The editor is ready for you to type. The AI chat panel opens alongside it so you can ask questions or get suggestions as you write.

4. Save automatically — Everything you type is saved in real time. You do not need to press a save button. Collaborators see your changes as you make them.

Key Capabilities

• Title and description: Set when creating the brief; both can be edited later directly in the editor header.
• Immediate navigation: After creation, you land on the brief editor with the ?new=true parameter, which opens the AI chat in a focused state ready for your first prompt.
• CLI creation: You can also create briefs from the command line using the Hamster CLI. See CLI Brief Creation for details.
• AI-assisted creation: Ask the AI assistant in any conversation to create a brief from your discussion, and it will generate one with content already filled in.

Viewing Your Briefs

The Briefs section supports two view modes:

• Cards: A visual grid showing each brief as a card with its title and description. Cards display in a 4:5 aspect ratio.
• Table: A list view showing title, status, creator, and last updated time side by side.

You can switch between views using the display settings control in the toolbar. Briefs can also be grouped by status or creator, and sorted manually, by newest, oldest, alphabetical order, or last updated.

Tips

• Use the description field for a one-sentence summary of the goal. This text appears on the card in grid view without opening the brief.
• If you create many briefs, use the status filter in the toolbar to focus on active work. Filter by one or more stages at a time.
• The search bar in the briefs toolbar filters by title in real time. You do not need to press Enter.

Related

• Editing Briefs
• Brief Status
• Generating Plans
• CLI Brief Creation