How the brief decides what's important
The daily brief does not guess at what matters. It is built from what actually happened on a case: recent email, deadlines that are coming up, items waiting for your decision, and the latest case activity. It then leads with whatever is most urgent. Knowing how it ranks helps you trust what rises to the top.
What it looks at
Section titled “What it looks at”For each matter, the brief draws on:
- Recent email — what came in since yesterday, newest first.
- Upcoming deadlines — anything due in the week ahead, soonest first, with the number of days remaining.
- Items waiting for you — drafts and decisions sitting in your review queue.
- Recent activity — what was logged to the matter timeline in the last day.
- The basics of the case — client, opposing party, and practice area, so the summary reads in context rather than as a list of fragments.
It looks back about a day for what changed and about a week ahead for what is coming — enough to catch what is new and what is near without burying you in the distant future.
How it ranks
Section titled “How it ranks”- Deadlines drive urgency. The closer a deadline, the higher it surfaces, and the more pressing its flag color. A response due in two days outranks one due next week.
- Attention flags carry an urgency color — red for the most time-sensitive (within a few days), amber for the coming week, neutral beyond that — so you can triage by color at a glance.
- Suggested actions are things you could do today — they lead with deadline-driven work before routine follow-ups.
What it will not do
Section titled “What it will not do”- It will not invent items. The “based on” count reflects real emails and events Cedent actually read. It does not pad the brief with things that did not happen.
- It will not nag on a quiet day. If nothing changed and nothing is coming up, the matter’s brief simply says so rather than manufacturing urgency.
- It can flag a matter that has gone quiet. If a case has had no activity for a while but still has something pending — an unanswered email or an open deadline — Cedent can raise a “going quiet” flag so it does not fall off your radar. You control this and how many days count as quiet in Settings → Notifications.
Checking the brief
Section titled “Checking the brief”Every brief tells you how many items it drew from. To see them yourself, open the matter — the recent email, timeline, and review queue the brief summarized are all there. This is part of Cedent being source-grounded: the summary is a shortcut, not a substitute for the record.
Common questions
Section titled “Common questions”Something important is not in my brief — why? The brief covers what changed in roughly the last day and what is due in about a week. An item that is older than that, or further out, may not appear even though it matters — the matter’s own timeline and deadlines show the full picture.
Can I change what counts as urgent? Urgency follows how close a deadline is, which is not a setting. What you can adjust in Settings → Notifications is the “going quiet” behavior and how many days of silence trigger it.
A quiet matter got flagged — why? The “going quiet” flag fires when a case has had no activity for a while and still has something open, like an unanswered email or a pending deadline. It is a nudge that something is waiting, not a sign of a problem.