How do I close, hide, or deactivate a brief?

To take a brief down so creators can no longer see or apply to it — sometimes called deactivating, hiding, unpublishing, pausing, or closing a brief — set its application deadline to a date in the past. This immediately stops new applications and removes the brief from the new-briefs page. It's fully reversible, and it doesn't affect anyone already in your applicant pool or any creators you've already accepted.

This is the right move when you launched with the wrong audience, an error in the brief (like the wrong payment amount), or your applicant pool is already full.

How to do it

1. Open the brief and click Edit Brief in the top right
2. Go to Payment and Deadlines in the left nav
3. Under the Deadlines card, find Deadline for applications
4. Change it to any date in the past
5. Click Save brief in the top right

New applications stop immediately.

The brief editor has four pages in the left nav — Products for Brief, Deliverables, Payment and Deadlines, and Creator Targeting. For which fields live on each page, and which stay editable once your brief is live, see Can I edit a live brief?

What creators see

A creator who hits the brief URL sees a red “can no longer apply” message confirming the application window has closed. A creator who isn't yet on Cohley won't find the brief on the new-briefs page at all.

Need to fix an error first (like the wrong payment)?

If you launched with incorrect details — for example the wrong payment amount — and no one has been accepted yet, you have two options: edit the brief to correct it and leave it open, or close it to new applicants using the steps above and launch a corrected brief in its place. Because closing is reversible, nothing is lost either way.

You can always change dates

If you want to start accepting applications again, change the Deadline for applications back to a future date and save. The brief immediately re-opens to new applicants.

Your existing applicants and accepted creators are unaffected

Closing to new applicants only stops new applications. Everyone in your applicant pool stays there. Anyone you've already accepted continues working on the brief as normal — content uploads, chat, change requests, and payment all proceed. (Deactivating in this way does not delete the brief or remove accepted creators.)

Do I keep access to my chats and content after a brief closes or completes?

Yes. Closing a brief to new applicants — or a brief moving to Completed or Past — does not remove your access to the work you’ve done in it.

• Creator chats: Your message history with each creator stays accessible after the brief closes, completes, or moves to Past. You can view the brief and continue sending messages.
• Submitted content: Everything creators submitted and was accepted is in the Content Library. It is not best practice to accept more content after paying a Creator. However, pending or rejected assets are still visible in a Completed brief. 
• Applicants and accepted creators: Closing to new applicants doesn’t remove anyone already accepted.

The one time content access ends is when your Cohley subscription / platform access ends. Before that happens, download all content from the Content Library for which you want to retain usage rights in perpetuity. As a best practice, back up any content and conversation details you want to keep for your records.

Can I delete a brief instead?

Only before creators are accepted. A live brief with an empty Accepted tab, can be deleted outright, and a deleted brief doesn’t count toward the number of briefs in your plan. This is the right move when a brief was created by mistake, or is no longer a priority and nobody is working on it. To request this, please email support@cohley.com.