What the daily brief is and how to read it

The daily brief is a short, plain-language summary of what changed in a matter in the last day and what is most urgent in the week ahead. Cedent writes a fresh one each morning so you can start the day knowing where things stand without digging through your inbox.

Where you see it

Across your whole practice. The Morning Brief at the top of your Today page gives a narrative summary spanning all your matters, with counters for the things you care about most. This is the view to start your day on.
On a single matter. Each matter’s Overview has its own “Daily brief · this matter” card covering just that case, for when you open it.

What a matter’s brief contains

A short narrative — two or three sentences on what changed since yesterday (new email, new activity, items awaiting you) and what is coming up in the next week. For example: “Opposing counsel responded on the custody schedule and proposed new dates. The FL-300 response is due in 4 days.”
Suggested actions — a few clickable chips such as “File response” or “Request extension.” Clicking one opens the matter’s chat with the request already written, so you can run it or edit it first. These are things you could act on today.
Attention flags — colored badges for things that need an eye on them: upcoming deadlines, unread email, discovery that has not moved, a matter that has gone quiet, or a court item. The color signals urgency — red for the most pressing, amber for soon, neutral otherwise.
A “based on” count — for example “Based on 5 items since yesterday.” This tells you how much the brief drew from, so you know how deep it is. You can open the matter to see those emails and events yourself.

Read the narrative first for the gist, then let the flags and suggested actions point you to what to do next.

When it refreshes

Cedent generates your brief each morning at the time you set, in your own timezone, so “today” means your calendar day.
If you open a matter before that morning run, Cedent builds the brief on the spot so it is never stale when you look.
You can refresh it anytime with the Regenerate button — useful if the situation changed since the morning, such as a new filing arriving midday.
On a quiet day, a matter with no new activity and nothing coming up will simply say there has been no recent activity, rather than padding the brief.

Getting it by email

Cedent can also send the brief to your inbox. There are a morning and an afternoon brief email, both covering your whole practice, so you get a start- of-day and a mid-day read. You control whether they are sent and at what time in Settings → Notifications.

Common questions

A matter’s brief says there is no recent activity — is it broken? No. That is the brief telling you the case was quiet: no new email, no new activity, nothing due soon. Cedent would rather say so than invent something to report.

Can I change when the brief arrives? Yes. The morning and afternoon times, your timezone, and whether briefs are sent at all are in Settings → Notifications.

I did not get a brief email. Check that briefs are enabled in Settings → Notifications. Note that Cedent can skip the email on a day when nothing happened across your matters, if you have that option turned on — the in-app brief is always there regardless.