Briefings

Workflow

Transform multiple decisions into polished, audience-appropriate documents.

What are Briefings?

Briefings are AI-generated documents that summarize multiple decisions for specific audiences. Instead of sending stakeholders to read 15 different decisions, you send them one polished briefing.

Each briefing type is optimized for a different reader:

Briefing Types

Executive Summary

For board members and executives

High-level strategic view. Focuses on business impact, ROI, and risk posture. No technical jargon.

Includes: Executive summary, strategic themes, risk changes, looking ahead

Technical Digest

For engineering teams

What changed and why. Migration paths, deprecated technologies, new standards. Assumes technical literacy.

Includes: TL;DR, high-impact decisions, deprecated items, new standards

Onboarding Guide

For new team members

"How we do things here." Current standards, historical context, what to use vs. what to avoid, common pitfalls.

Includes: Welcome message, how we do things, quick reference table

Policy Document

For compliance and governance

Formal policy format. Requirements, enforcement, exceptions, audit trail.

Includes: Policy statement, scope, requirements, enforcement, changelog

Architecture Decision Record

Standard ADR format

Classic ADR structure. Context, decision, consequences, options considered. Export-ready for your docs repo.

Includes: ADR number, context, decision, consequences, options

Custom Briefings

Don't see a briefing type that fits your needs? Create a custom briefing with your own prompt.

Custom Prompt

Define your own format

Select "Custom" from the briefing type dropdown and write your own prompt. The AI will use your instructions to generate the briefing.

Example custom prompts:

• "Summarize these decisions as a changelog for our public status page"
• "Create a risk assessment focusing on security implications"
• "Write a vendor comparison summary for procurement"
• "Generate a quarterly report for the CTO"

Creating a Briefing

Select decisions
From your dashboard, check the decisions you want to include. 5-15 decisions works best.
Click "Create Briefing"
Opens the briefing creation dialog.
Choose the briefing type
Executive Summary, Technical Digest, Onboarding Guide, Policy, or ADR.
Generate
AI creates the briefing based on the selected decisions.
Review and edit
The generated content is editable. Refine as needed.
Save or publish
Save as draft or publish immediately. Published briefings have shareable URLs.

Briefing Features

Source Tracking

Briefings track which decisions they were generated from. If source decisions change, you'll see a staleness warning.

Editing

Edit the generated content without losing the original. Both versions are preserved.

Shareable URLs

Published briefings get unique URLs. Share with stakeholders who don't need full Arbtr access.

Export

Export briefings as Markdown for inclusion in docs repos or external systems.

Best Practices

tip

Group related decisions

Briefings work best when decisions are thematically related. "Q4 Infrastructure Decisions" is better than "Random Decisions from 2024."

tip

5-15 decisions is the sweet spot

Too few decisions and the briefing is thin. Too many and it becomes overwhelming. Aim for 5-15 per briefing.

Always review before publishing

AI-generated content may need refinement. Read through and adjust tone, accuracy, and emphasis before sharing.

Use the right type for the audience

Don't send a Technical Digest to the board. Don't send an Executive Summary to engineers. Match the format to the reader.

Governance

Tech Migration Pattern

Command Palette