Dashboard Quickstart — collect client materials without code

This guide is for agencies and freelancers who want to run BriefGate entirely from the browser — no MCP, no API key, nothing to install. In about ten minutes you'll create an account, send a real intake to a client, and see how review, reminders, and delivery work from the dashboard.

1. Create your account

Go to https://app.briefgate.dev/app and switch to the Sign up tab. You need an email, a password, and your name — clients see it as the sender of their intake ("{name} via BriefGate"), so use the name or business name you want them to recognize. Account / agency name is optional and only used internally. You can also Continue with Google instead of setting a password.

New accounts confirm their email with a six-digit code before the dashboard opens. If you signed up with a password, set up two-factor authentication under Settings > Security while you're there — it's optional but free on every plan.

The first time you land on the Intakes page, a banner offers "Send your first intake in 3 minutes". It walks you through picking a sample project (website, branding, or a marketing campaign), sends a real intake to your own inbox, and lets you fill it in yourself so you see exactly what a client sees. It's a fast way to get oriented, but it's optional — the steps below work the same whether you start from that guide or go straight to a real client.

2. Set up your branding (optional)

Under Settings > Branding you can upload a logo, pick an accent color, set a sender name, and add an e-mail signature image (a business card works well) that appears at the bottom of every e-mail a client gets from you. Custom branding is a Solo plan and up feature — on the Free plan, the portal and e-mails carry BriefGate's own look and a "Powered by BriefGate" notice at the bottom of the portal.

This step is optional and can wait — an intake sent before you set any of this up still works, it just looks like a generic BriefGate request instead of one from you.

3. Create the request

Click New intake on the Intakes page. There are three ways to fill it in:

From scratch. Fill in Project (project name, an optional due date, and a folder if you're organizing several intakes), then Client (their email, name, language, and how often they get reminded — see Reminders below), then add items under What you need. Each item gets a Label the client reads, a Type (Short text, Long text, File, Several files, Image, URL, Yes/No, Colours, Credentials (encrypted), Choice, Structured…), whether it's Required, and Who answers it — most items go to the Client, but you can mark one for Me if it's a note to yourself that should never be shown to the client or chased (it shows up later under "My tasks" on the intake page).

From a sample. The onboarding guide from step 1 is available any time — the same three sample projects (website, branding, campaign) are meant for trying the product on yourself, not for a real client.

From a template. Click Start from a template to pre-fill the items from a saved list instead of typing them one by one. Three public templates — a restaurant website, an advisor's site, and a club site, all Czech-language — ship on every plan including Free. Once you've built an intake you like, Save as template (next to Send) turns it into a reusable one for next time; creating your own templates needs the Solo plan and up. See Templates for the full list of built-in items.

Before sending, What your client will see previews the exact subject line and sender name the invitation e-mail will carry.

4. Send it and let reminders do the work

Toggle Email the client now to send immediately, or leave it off to Save as draft and send later from the intake page — useful while you're still adding items. Sending fires the invitation e-mail with the client's portal link.

Under Reminders, pick a cadence: Default (2, 5, 9 days after the invite, then weekly), Gentle (3 and 8 days, then every 2 weeks, never on weekends), Aggressive (1, 3, 5 days, then every 2 days), Custom (your own interval), or None. The chase engine sends these automatically and stops the moment the client submits everything — you never write a follow-up e-mail yourself. On the Free plan, only Default and None are available; the other cadences need Solo and up. See Chase engine for the full schedule reference, quiet hours, and how to change the cadence after sending.

5. Review what comes back

Open the intake's detail page to see every item's status as it arrives. There's no manual "Approve" button — a submitted item auto-approves automatically after a set number of hours (72 by default; change it under Settings > Defaults or per intake under Advanced) if you never act on it. Instead, your options while reviewing are:

• Request revision — send the client back to a specific field with a note explaining what's wrong ("This logo is too small…"). Requires the Solo plan and up; on Free this button shows "Revisions require the Solo plan" instead.
• Waive — mark an item as not needed, with an optional reason, when the client genuinely won't be providing it.
• Received outside BriefGate — mark an item as delivered when the client sent it another way (e-mail, a call), so the intake can still complete.

6. Download everything as a ZIP

Once you have what you need, Download everything (ZIP) on the intake page bundles every file plus a PDF and Markdown summary into one download — no opening items one by one. Files still going through the antivirus scan are left out until they clear. Secrets (passwords, credentials) are excluded by default and stay available for a one-time reveal in the dashboard; including them in the PDF spends that one-time reveal. See ZIP download for the full details.

What the client sees

The client never sees a dashboard, MCP, or an API — just an e-mail with a magic link. One click opens their personal portal: no account, no password, no registration. They see your branding (on paid plans), a progress bar, and the items still outstanding. The portal is available in six languages — English, Czech, Slovak, Polish, German, and Spanish — set per intake or defaulted for your account.

Limits on the Free plan

• 1 active intake at a time, 10 items per intake.
• Reminder cadence: Default or None only — Gentle, Aggressive, and Custom are Solo and up.
• No revision requests — you can still waive an item or mark it received outside BriefGate.
• No custom branding — logo, accent color, and sender name stay BriefGate's own, and the portal shows a "Powered by BriefGate" notice.
• No custom templates — the three public templates are available, but you can't save your own.
• 1 seat — team invites need the Agency plan (3 seats included).

Next steps