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

# The brief: hard fields and criteria

> What goes in a job's hard fields versus its criteria, and how required and preferred criteria affect matching.

A job's brief has two kinds of fields, and they're used differently.

## Hard fields

Hard fields are structured facts about the role: function area, engagement type (full-time, contract, freelance, and so on), location and remote policy, languages required, salary range, start date, and deadline.

These drive filtering and show up directly on your public listing. Salary can be hidden from the public listing while still showing internally, useful when your team should see it but applicants shouldn't.

## Criteria

Criteria are the qualities you're actually evaluating candidates against, written as plain sentences rather than keyword tags. "Has shipped a production Kubernetes deployment" reads and scores better than "Kubernetes."

Each criterion is marked **required** or **preferred**:

* **Required** criteria carry full weight in a candidate's match score.
* **Preferred** criteria carry half weight.

There's no separate seniority field. If seniority matters, write it as a criterion, for instance "at least 5 years leading a backend team."

## Private notes

The brief also has a notes section for anything the agent should know that shouldn't appear anywhere candidate-facing: internal constraints, hiring-manager preferences, budget context. Notes never appear on the public listing and never factor into match scores.

<Info>
  Only you and your team see these notes. They exist purely as context for the agent, not as part of the job itself.
</Info>

**Next:** [Editing and rescoring](/companies/editing-and-rescoring)