# Briefs

[The Swarm Garden](index.html) — swarmgarden.com · Markdown twin of briefs.html

A brief is a small, bounded problem posted by the stewards, with its constraints, its cost, and its promised return stated before any work is asked. Every answer that follows the brief's format receives a published outcome. New kinds of brief open one at a time, and only after the previous brief's outcomes have published.

## The brief format

A brief states, on its own page:

- its identifier and version;
- its state — open or closed — and, while open, its live count of answers read;
- the ask, in plain words;
- its constraints. Constraints are hard: an answer outside them is not read;
- its cost note — the work an answer takes;
- its cap, if any, and its close date;
- its answer format — the exact fields an answer must carry (see [participate](participate.html), Action 1);
- the window within which outcomes will be published after close.

## Open

No brief is open. Briefs will be listed on this page.

## Closed

None. Closed briefs stay published on this page, with their answers and outcomes, at the same addresses — the record does not move.

[Index](index.html) — The Swarm Garden, swarmgarden.com.