Research Note
AI Build Brief Record
An AI build brief is a compact agreement about the change to attempt, the evidence that will count as success, and the boundaries the agent must respect. It is not a wish
In this article
AI Build Brief Record
Purpose
An AI build brief is a compact agreement about the change to attempt, the evidence that will count as success, and the boundaries the agent must respect. It is not a wish, a marketing description, or permission to make unrestricted changes.
Replit's current Agent guidance recommends being specific, planning the work, adding context, reviewing and testing, and using checkpoints. These are vendor workflow recommendations, not a complete secure-development standard.
https://docs.replit.com/learn/build-with-agent
Required fields
| Field | Minimum answer |
|---|---|
| User and job | Who needs to do what, in what situation, and why |
| Observable success | What a person can see or measure when the job works |
| Starting state | Repository, branch, environment, current behavior, and known failures |
| In scope | The smallest behavior this build may add or change |
| Out of scope | Features, files, systems, and decisions intentionally excluded |
| Interface states | Empty, loading, success, validation error, system error, unauthorized, and recovery |
| Data | Source, schema, sensitivity, retention, deletion, test data, and prohibited data |
| Rules | Validation, calculations, permissions, ordering, limits, and conflict handling |
| Acceptance evidence | Tests with inputs, actions, expected results, and failure conditions |
| Quality | Accessibility target, device or browser support, performance, and language |
| Security | Trust boundaries, authentication, authorization, input handling, secrets, abuse, and logging |
| Delivery boundary | Local demo, private preview, controlled pilot, or approved release |
| Change boundary | Files, dependencies, infrastructure, data, and interfaces the agent may not alter |
| Handoff | Change summary, test results, unresolved issues, rollback point, and accountable reviewer |
Acceptance language
An acceptance statement must be observable. "Make the form intuitive" is not testable by itself. "When a user submits a blank email field, keep the entered name, place an error message beside the email field, move focus to the error summary, and make no network request" defines behavior that can be exercised.
Happy-path acceptance is insufficient. The brief should include invalid input, duplicate action, refresh, timeout, denied access, missing dependency, external-service failure, and recovery when those states are relevant.
Authority boundary
The brief must state whether the agent can install dependencies, execute commands, access a network, read or write local files, change infrastructure, alter a database, use secrets, contact external services, or deploy.
Silence is not authorization. If a required action falls outside the named boundary, the agent should stop, explain the need, and request a decision.
Security and accessibility
NIST's SSDF supports tracking security requirements, risks, design decisions, provenance, and secure-development evidence throughout the lifecycle.
https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/ssdf
W3C's WCAG 2.2 materials provide the current accessibility-standard route for web interfaces.
https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/quickref/
A short brief can reference a fuller threat model, privacy assessment, accessibility plan, or domain requirement. It cannot erase those needs by omitting them.
Stop condition
The first useful output may be a plan, a question, or a risk record rather than code. The brief is ready for implementation only when the builder can explain what correct means and what must remain unchanged.
Sources
Follow the evidence.
- owasp.org: www project top 10 for large language model applicationsowasp.org
- daltonanderson.ghost.io: grok 3 the future of ai building apps in minutesdaltonanderson.ghost.io
- docs.replit.com: build with agentdocs.replit.com
- owasp.org: www project application security verification standardowasp.org
- docs.replit.com: checkpoints and rollbacksdocs.replit.com
- docs.github.com: dependency reviewdocs.github.com
- daltonanderson.net: grok 3 the future of ai building apps in minutesdaltonanderson.net
- w3.org: quickrefw3.org
- docs.x.ai: modelsdocs.x.ai
- x.ai: grok 3x.ai
- open.spotify.com: 53JmUX69G4M4FPAzU84vf5open.spotify.com
- docs.x.aidocs.x.ai
- docs.replit.com: overviewdocs.replit.com
- docs.replit.com: checkpoints and rollbacksdocs.replit.com
- docs.replit.com: security checklistdocs.replit.com
- youtu.be: dbmX o3Ax gyoutu.be
- docs.replit.com: secretsdocs.replit.com
- csrc.nist.gov: ssdfcsrc.nist.gov
- x.ai: colossusx.ai
- pages.nist.gov: introductionpages.nist.gov