How it works

The details, for the person who wants them.

The front page makes the argument. This page carries the rest: what the email chain costs, how the clock runs itself, where your files live, who Oriel is built for, and what gets built next.

How an RFI dies today

You already know how this goes.

A foreman hits a conflict and texts a photo to the super. The super calls the PM. The PM retypes it into an email, attaches a marked-up PDF, and sends it to the architect. The architect replies to an older thread, and the answer lands buried under a signature block. Nobody forwards it to the sub. The wall gets built to the old detail. Eight months later, someone asks who approved this, and nobody has the record. Now it's a change order fight, and the side with the worst paperwork loses.

The question was never the problem. The paper trail was.

The clock runs itself

Stop being the person who chases.

Every RFI carries a due date. Whoever holds it gets reminded before it's late, not after. The log shows whose court every open item sits in and how long it's been sitting there, so the Monday call changes from “where are we on these” to “here's what's overdue and who owes it.”

Security and control

Private, attributable, and portable.

Files

Private file storage

Nothing lives on a public URL. Every file is served through a signed, expiring link, issued only after authorization.

Tenancy

Organization isolation

Every organization's data is isolated at the database and storage layer, deny-by-default, with strict access boundaries.

Review links

Scoped, expiring, revocable

External links are scoped to one record, expire on their own, and can be revoked instantly, at any time.

History

Immutable by design

All material actions are timestamped and preserved. Edit nothing. Hide nothing. Export everything.

Who it's for

Built for the GC doing $10M to $150M.

The big platforms price by your annual volume, take a quarter to implement, and still can't get your architect to log in. Oriel does one thing: it gets your job questions asked, answered, and on the record, on your drawings, without asking a single outsider to make an account. If you're running a full enterprise platform and it's working, keep it. If your RFIs live in Outlook, this is for you.

Straight answers

The questions a skeptic asks first.

Will my architect actually use it?

They click a link and type an answer. If they can reply to an email, they can answer an Oriel RFI. The difference is the answer lands in your record instead of a thread.

Do subs, architects, or consultants need accounts or licenses?

No. Nobody outside your team ever creates an account.

Where do our files live?

In private storage. Nothing is ever on a public URL. Every file is served through a signed, expiring, server-authorized link.

What happens to our data if we leave?

Export everything, any time: the log, every response, every attachment, every timestamp. The record is yours, full stop.

How long does setup take?

Upload a drawing set and send your first RFI the same afternoon. There is no implementation project.

What happens when drawings get revised?

Pins carry their revision. Upload the new set and old pins stay tied to the sheets they were asked against, while the current set shows what's still open.

Is this a Procore replacement?

It replaces the email chain where your RFIs currently go to die. It doesn't try to be your accounting, bidding, and scheduling platform.

Is there AI writing on my record?

No. Nothing writes on your record except the people on your project. Where Oriel assists, you review and sign; the record only ever carries what people wrote.

Roadmap

Things you stopped expecting software to do.

Pinned RFIs and the record are the spine. This is what gets built on it.

Field

Text it in

Your super's camera roll is full of questions that never became RFIs. A text and a photo to the project number will be enough to start one: the office drops the pin, and the field never opens an app.

Cost

The money flag

Some answers add work, and today you find out at the pay app. An answer marked as changing scope will be held at the gate until a change order is started or someone signs off on why not.

Claims

The notice clock

Your contract gives you 21 days to put a claim in writing, and most GCs start counting after the window shut. Oriel will run the clocks from the dates in your contract and warn you while there's still time.

Answers

Ask the drawings first

Roughly one in eight RFIs is already answered in the documents, and the standard AIA contract now lets the owner charge you for asking. Before a question goes out, search your specs, your sheets, and every question your company has answered before. Some questions never leave the trailer.

Pilot partners get each of these first, and shape what ships. Request a pilot →