> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.soundchecklive.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Plan a gig from a brief

> Paste a client brief or upload a file, choose one of your templates, answer a few questions, and review a complete plan before Soundcheck creates a draft gig.

A brief tells you what the client wants. A template holds how your organization runs that kind of show. **Plan from a brief** puts the two together: Soundcheck reads the brief, lays it over the template you choose, shows you where each detail came from, and asks only about what it cannot work out. Nothing becomes a gig until you create the draft.

<Info>
  Planning from a brief is gated by the **brief to plan** feature. If **Create from a brief** is missing from the **Create Gig** menu, [contact support](mailto:support@soundcheck.live).
</Info>

## How it works

<Steps>
  <Step title="Add the brief">
    From **Create Gig**, choose **Create from a brief**. Paste the brief, or upload a document (Word, PDF with text, RTF, OpenDocument, or PowerPoint). You can also start from the **Templates** tab with **Plan from a brief with this template**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose a template">
    Soundcheck ranks your organization's gig templates and explains each match, such as a matching event type or the roles the brief asks for. Pick any template, or continue without one.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Answer the questions that matter">
    You see a short list. Questions under **Needed to create the draft** must be answered; everything under **Can wait** may be left for later and travels with the gig.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review the plan">
    Check the details, schedule, roles, and tasks. Edit any section. Resolve conflicts and confirm the venue and client.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create the draft gig">
    **Create draft gig** makes one ordinary [draft](/features/gigs/draft-publish). Staff it, price it, and publish it the way you would any other gig.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Where each detail came from

Every value in the plan carries a label. Hover or focus a label to see the source.

| Label          | Meaning                                                                     |
| -------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **From brief** | Stated in the brief. The source shows the words it was read from.           |
| **Template**   | A default from the template you chose, with the template version.           |
| **Suggested**  | Soundcheck's suggestion, such as your organization's timezone. Check it.    |
| **You edited** | You set or confirmed this. Later changes never overwrite it without asking. |

When sources disagree, your decisions win, then the brief, then the template, then suggestions. The value that lost stays visible next to the one in use, so a template default never quietly hides what the client wrote. If two uploaded files disagree, Soundcheck shows both and asks you to choose.

## What Soundcheck will not guess

Soundcheck does not invent a year, a date, a timezone, a budget, or a commitment on your behalf. A brief that says "October 20" produces a question about the year, with the next occurrences offered as choices. A budget mentioned in the brief is kept with the plan's notes and is never turned into a fee.

Venues and clients are matched against your existing records. One confident match is suggested for you to confirm. When more than one record could fit, nothing is selected until you choose. Soundcheck never creates a venue or client on its own; choose **Decide later** and add the record from the gig.

## Schedules that move together

Template schedules are relative: "technical check starts 60 minutes before doors." When you change an anchor time, Soundcheck previews what moves before anything changes.

* Entries you **pin**, and entries you have edited, stay where they are unless you choose to move them.
* Entries that run past midnight are marked **+1 day**.
* A time that does not exist on the gig's date because of a daylight-saving change is flagged for you to fix.

Templates can also carry rules, such as "technical check must finish before doors." A plan that breaks a rule shows a conflict you need to resolve or acknowledge before creating the draft.

## Nothing is sent

Planning, reviewing, and creating the draft do not send invitations, shift offers, messages, or calendar notices, and do not start any payment. Roles from the template become unsent draft shifts with nobody named on them. A role in a plan does not mean a person is assigned, available, or booked. Sending anything is a separate step with its own confirmation, after you [publish](/features/gigs/draft-publish).

## Come back later, or continue with CheckAI

Plans save as you go. **Gigs → Plans** lists the ones in progress and opens each at the step you left.

The same plan is available to [CheckAI](/features/ai/overview) and to the [Soundcheck MCP server](/integrations/mcp-server). Start a plan in the app and finish it in a chat, or the other way round. CheckAI asks the plan's own questions, shows every venue or client candidate instead of choosing for you, and asks for your approval before it creates the draft.

If a teammate or CheckAI changes the plan while you have it open, Soundcheck loads the latest version and tells you what happened. A plan that changed after you reviewed it must be reviewed again before the draft can be created. Creating the same plan twice, for instance after a dropped connection, returns the same gig.

## After the draft exists

* **Open decisions** you left for later appear on the gig's **Overview** until you resolve or dismiss them.
* **The template is untouched.** Editing the gig never changes the template it came from.
* **Template updates don't reach back.** Changing a template creates a new version. Plans and gigs already made keep what they had; an open plan offers the newer version and shows you the difference first.
* **Revised brief?** Add it to the plan. Your edits are kept, new details are applied, and anything that contradicts a decision you made is raised as a conflict.

## Save improvements back to a template

When a gig ends up better than the template it started from, choose **Save as template** from the gig's **⋯** menu. You review what will be kept before anything is saved. People, clients, fees, internal notes, venue show notes, and travel are left out by default; files and inventory are kept unless you remove them. Save a new template, or update an existing one as its next version. See [Templates and duplication](/features/gigs/templates-and-duplication#save-a-gig-as-a-template).

## Privacy

The brief text is sent to Soundcheck's AI provider to be read, with zero data retention: the provider does not store it or train on it. The brief is stored with your plan so you can revise it later, and is visible only to people who can manage gigs in your organization.

## Limits in this release

* One gig and one template per plan. Multi-day gigs, equipment reservations, availability-based crew assignment, and costing are not planned from a brief yet.
* Scanned documents and images without selectable text cannot be read. Paste the text instead.
* Setlists, files, inventory, and travel on a template are not carried into a plan. Add them on the draft gig.