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How to get a client brief before you talk to someone

One press on a customer's card and Otto sums up who they are, where things stand, what is open and a next step.

Updated 2026-10-25

Before a call or a meeting, Otto can read what it already holds about one customer and write a short brief: who they are, where things stand, what is open, and a next step.

Where

Contacts (or Customers, Clients). Open a customer; the Client brief box is under the fields, above their matters, contracts and files.

Steps

  1. Open a customer.
  2. Press Write a brief. It takes a few seconds.
  3. Read the brief in the box. Under it Otto says what it read, e.g. "Read 6 notes, 2 jobs, 1 email reply".
  4. Press Write again after you add a note or the work moves on.

What Otto reads

  • The customer's own details: company, stage, source, who looks after them, tags and your custom fields.
  • Their notes, newest first (up to 30).
  • Their matters, for a professional firm (up to 15).
  • Their jobs, when Jobs is switched on (up to 15).
  • Their quotes and invoices with amounts, when those are switched on and your position sees money figures (up to 15 of each).
  • The email replies they sent back to mail Otto sent (up to 8). Out-of-office replies are left out.

Good to know

  • The brief is not saved and not sent to anyone. Close the card and it is gone.
  • If your position does not see money figures, quotes, invoices and amounts are left out of what Otto reads, so the brief cannot mention them. The box says so under the brief.
  • What a customer wrote (a form, an email reply) is given to the model as data to read, never as instructions to follow.
  • Each brief is one AI request and counts towards your plan's usage.
  • Otto writes only from what the record says. Where the record is silent, the brief says "Nothing on record."

If it doesn't work

  • "Today's run limit was reached." Your plan's daily AI requests are used up; it works again tomorrow.
  • A message saying a key is missing from the .env. No AI model is configured on this server yet; the message names the setting to add.
  • "Otto came back without a brief. Try again." The model replied with nothing. Press Write a brief again.