What is the difference between an Update and a Report in Briefwell?

An Update is event-driven and delivered immediately when AI triage judges a change notable. A Report is a composed document delivered on a schedule, such as daily or weekly, that gathers changes from that period into one document with inline citations.

Can a source produce both Updates and Reports?

Yes. Cadence and urgency settings configured during setup determine which detected changes become immediate Updates and which are included in the next scheduled Report.

How are Updates and Reports delivered?

Full Reports are delivered by email, by signed webhook, or posted to Slack as a notification that links back to the full brief. High-priority Updates can additionally be routed into a connected tool such as Linear, Jira, HubSpot, or Salesforce to create or update an issue, task, or record.

What happens to changes that don't become an Update or Report?

They are kept in the searchable all-activity feed. Detection still happened and the record is retained; it simply did not clear the bar configured for delivery.

Who decides what becomes an Update versus a Report?

Cadence and review policy are configured by the team during setup, and AI triage judges notability within that policy — the decision is not left solely to AI's judgment.

Updates vs Reports

Briefwell delivers monitoring results two ways: Updates, which are event-driven and immediate, and Reports, which are cadence-driven, composed documents.

Briefwell delivers monitoring results two ways. An Update is event-driven and sent immediately when AI triage judges a change notable, so a time-sensitive change can reach a channel within the same run that detected it. A Report is a composed document assembled on a cadence — such as daily or weekly — that gathers the period's notable changes into one read, with inline citations, optional per-recipient personalization, and optional human approval before it goes out.

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At a glance

Update: Event-driven and immediate, raised as soon as a change clears the notability bar.
Report: A cadence-based composed document that groups the period's notable changes into one read.
Citations: Reports are AI-composed with inline citations and can require human approval before sending.
Personalization: Reports can be composed per recipient so each reader gets what is relevant to them.
Both at once: One source can feed immediate Updates and scheduled Reports; cadence and urgency settings decide.
Below the bar: Changes that clear neither are kept in a searchable activity feed, not discarded.

What an Update is

An Update is raised as soon as AI triage judges a detected change notable, based on the persistent goal set for that source and the review policy configured during setup. It is event-driven — there is no fixed schedule — so an Update for a genuinely time-sensitive change can reach a channel within the same run that detected it. Each Update keeps the source snapshot and the record of what changed, previous value to new value, so it can be traced back to the source it came from.

What a Report is

A Report is a composed document assembled on a cadence — daily, weekly, or another schedule set during configuration — that gathers the changes detected over that period into a single document rather than delivering each one separately. Briefwell's AI composes the Report with inline citations back to the source, it can be personalized per recipient so each reader gets what is relevant to them, and it can require human approval before it is sent. Where an Update surfaces one change as soon as it clears the notability bar, a Report groups everything relevant across the period into one read, which suits material that is better reviewed together than interrupted on.

When to use each

Updates fit changes where timing matters — a price drop, a status change, a competitor announcement that needs a same-day response. Reports fit material that is more useful reviewed as a set, such as a weekly summary of everything a team of sources produced, or lower-urgency changes that don't warrant an interruption on their own. The choice is set through cadence and urgency configuration during setup, not left solely to AI's judgment — a team decides the policy, and AI triage operates within it.

How each is delivered

Full Reports are delivered by email, by signed webhook, or posted to Slack as a notification that links back to the full brief — the full document itself lives in Briefwell, not inside the Slack message. High-priority Updates can additionally be routed into a connected tool, creating or updating an issue, task, record, or row in tools like Linear, Jira, Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Airtable, or Google Sheets, so a time-sensitive change becomes an item someone owns rather than just a message.

Where changes go if they clear neither bar

Not every detected change becomes an Update or enters a Report. Anything below the configured notability threshold is kept in the all-activity feed — a searchable record of everything detected, not just what was delivered — so the full history remains available even when nothing was sent out.

How it works

Point Briefwell at the web pages, feeds, APIs, or research topics you want to watch.
It checks them on a schedule, compares each result with the previous version, and keeps a record of what changed.
When a change matters, Briefwell creates an update — judged and explained, with the evidence attached — and delivers it to Slack, email, your CRM, or a signed webhook.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between an Update and a Report in Briefwell?: An Update is event-driven and delivered immediately when AI triage judges a change notable. A Report is a composed document delivered on a schedule, such as daily or weekly, that gathers changes from that period into one document with inline citations.
Can a source produce both Updates and Reports?: Yes. Cadence and urgency settings configured during setup determine which detected changes become immediate Updates and which are included in the next scheduled Report.
How are Updates and Reports delivered?: Full Reports are delivered by email, by signed webhook, or posted to Slack as a notification that links back to the full brief. High-priority Updates can additionally be routed into a connected tool such as Linear, Jira, HubSpot, or Salesforce to create or update an issue, task, or record.
What happens to changes that don't become an Update or Report?: They are kept in the searchable all-activity feed. Detection still happened and the record is retained; it simply did not clear the bar configured for delivery.
Who decides what becomes an Update versus a Report?: Cadence and review policy are configured by the team during setup, and AI triage judges notability within that policy — the decision is not left solely to AI's judgment.