How a brief gets matched to listings

You write a brief. Matching happens on its own.

When it runs

When something changes: a new or updated listing, a price change, or a new version of a brief. Not overnight, and not when somebody opens a screen.

The practical difference is that a price drop at eleven in the morning is reflected in the matches by the time you look, rather than tomorrow.

How it is bounded

Two stages, in this order.

A filter first. Hard requirements narrow the set before anything is scored: the ones where a listing either qualifies or does not. Suburb, type, the price ceiling.

Then scoring, on a capped set. What survives the filter is scored and the number scored is capped.

The cap exists because a very broad brief is not rare, it is normal early in an engagement, and without a cap the broadest brief in your book decides how long everybody else's matching takes.

What proves it worked

Save a new version of a brief and look at the matches without pressing anything. They are there. Change a listing's price and the matches for briefs that care about that price move.

Why a match is a starting point

A score is an ordering, not an opinion about what your client should buy. It reflects what the brief says, and a brief is a written record of a conversation that had more in it than the fields.

If your client portal shows scores or ordering to clients, that is disclosed on your automated tools page, generated from the features you have switched on.

Rewriting a brief

Briefs are versioned. A new version is a new set of matches, and the old version's matches stay attached to the old version. That matters when a client asks why you showed them something in March.