An RFI log can tell you the number, the status, and whose court the ball is in. It does not write the answer the design team has to stand behind.
That is the split. Tracking keeps the question from disappearing. Answering still means reading the conformed specifications, the current sheets, and the answers already on the project, then proposing a response someone can issue. Specset drafts that proposed response from the project record. The design team reviews the wording and the citations, and decides what is issued.
The workflow lives on the RFIs and revisions page. The product steps below follow the RFI docs.
The record comes before the sentence
A proposed response is only as useful as the record it reads. On the RFIs and revisions page, a Specset RFI is checked against the conformed contract record: governing specification sections with addenda and special provisions applied, current drawings, and prior RFI answers already on the project.
Start there, not in a blank reply. If the governing section on the record is still the base spec, and an addendum changed it, the draft cites the wrong text. If the sheets on the record are a revision behind the set in the field, the draft answers a drawing the project is no longer building. If an earlier RFI already settled the question, the new response should say so instead of opening the decision again.
Specset does not invent that record. The design team, or whoever administers the project, puts the conformed specifications, the current sheets, and the prior answers where the draft can read them.
How to draft an RFI response with AI
Gather the governing record
Put the conformed specifications on the project, with addenda and special provisions applied, along with the current sheets and the prior RFI answers. That is the set a Specset RFI is checked against.
The question, the citations, and the later answer all sit on that same record. A draft written from a side folder of PDFs is not the same check.
Research and cite the controlling paragraphs
Find the paragraphs and sheets that govern the question, and keep those citations with the draft. When you ask Specset to help answer an incoming RFI, it uses the project's drawings, specifications, and related records, and the draft comes back with cited sources.
The design team still checks the citations. A paragraph that is related is not the same as the paragraph that controls. If the controlling text is an addendum, the citation should be the conformed section, not the base paragraph the addendum replaced.
Draft the proposed response for the design team
Ask Specset to draft a response to the incoming RFI. Name the RFI number and the decision you need. The docs give the shape: "Draft a response to RFI 12 using the current roof details and waterproofing requirements."
What comes back is proposed wording for the design team. It is not an answer that has been sent, and it is not the official response on the RFI. The working draft stays separate from the official answer until the design team adopts it.
Human review and issue
The design team reviews the proposed wording and the cited sources before anyone sends the response. Specset prepares the draft. The design team decides what is issued, what is edited, and what is dropped.
That review is the point of keeping the draft separate. A sentence can be well cited and still be the wrong call for the project. The person who issues the response owns that call.
File the answer back to the record
When the design team accepts a response, record it on the RFI with its attachments. Open the response menu and choose Mark as Official so a later reader can tell the accepted answer from the working draft. The response gets an Official Response badge.
Marking a response as official and closing the RFI are separate actions. Update the status when the team considers the question resolved. If an answer stops being the one to follow, unmark it and identify the replacement. A recorded response does not redraw an original PDF. When the answer changes a sheet or a section, publish and prioritize those revised documents through Plan Sets or Spec Sets.
What Specset drafts, and what it does not
The RFI docs describe the agent's job as helping answer an incoming RFI from the project's drawings, specifications, and related records. You include the RFI number and the decision you need. You review the proposed wording and the cited sources before sending. You keep the working draft separate from the official answer, then record the accepted response on the RFI.
Specset does not issue the response for the design team. It does not mark a draft official on its own. The design team makes those decisions, then files the accepted answer where the rest of the project can read it.
When the integration is on for the project, RFIs can sync to Procore or Autodesk Forma Build (formerly Autodesk Build), and responses travel with the RFI. That sync is described on the RFIs and revisions page. It does not replace the design team's review.
Start from one open question
Bring a recent RFI and the set it was written against. Specset drafts a proposed response from the governing record. The design team reviews the wording and the citations, and decides what is issued.
The workflow is on the RFIs and revisions page.
Book a demo to walk one live question on your own record.
RFIs & revisions
Track each RFI against the conformed specs and current drawings, check the answer before it reaches the field, and hand sheet-to-sheet deltas to plan comparison.
Co-founder and COO of Specset. Former Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Transportation.