Why am I asked to request access?
When the automation hub is running in matched mode, new accounts submit a brief first. Members who have done something real on REWORK browse straight through.
The automation hub at /automation has two sides: Experts, a roster of vetted specialists, and Services, the listings they publish. Either side can run in matched mode, where instead of browsing you tell us what you are automating and an operator brings the shortlist to you.
Matched mode is not a paywall and it is not an outage. It exists because a brief gets you a better answer than a search box does — we can read what you actually need and hand-pick against it, rather than leaving you to guess which of many profiles has built your thing before. Requesting costs nothing, and most briefs are reviewed within one business day.
If you are already established on REWORK, none of this applies to you — you keep browsing exactly as before, and you are never shown the request form.
Who still browses freely
Matched mode is aimed at accounts we know nothing about yet. Any one of the following is enough to be treated as an established member — it is not a score, and one is genuinely enough:
If you sell on REWORK
verified proof of work
Submits a proof on /proofs and it passes review
published a service listing
Publishes a service listing from their workspace
applied to a project
Applies to an open brief on /projects
verified identityEither side
Passes identity review - government ID (expert) or company registration (business); both land in the same queue
active Hub subscriptionEither side
Holds an active Expert Hub, Expert Hub Lite or Business Hub subscription
If you hire on REWORK
placed an order
Buys a service - past the pending-payment stage
posted a project
Posts a project brief
ran a Rework Pool engagement
Runs a Rework Pool sample as the business
verified identityEither side
Passes identity review - government ID (expert) or company registration (business); both land in the same queue
active Hub subscriptionEither side
Holds an active Expert Hub, Expert Hub Lite or Business Hub subscription
Standing does not expire. If you listed a service once and went quiet for a year, you are still established when you come back.
Who is asked for a brief
Everyone else — which in practice means an account that has signed up and not yet done anything. Registering on its own does not count, deliberately: if it did, anyone could skip the brief by making a second account, and the brief is the part that makes the match good.
What happens after you submit
- 1Your brief lands with a REWORK operator, along with your budget and timeline if you gave them.
- 2An operator reads it and puts together a shortlist of experts who have built something close to it.
- 3You get an email and an in-app notification when it is reviewed — usually inside one business day.
- 4You approve the shortlist before anything moves. Nothing is assigned to you.
If a brief is not a fit, you get the operator's note explaining why rather than a silent rejection, and you can sharpen the scope and resubmit.
If you think you should already have access
Two things are worth checking before contacting support:
- Are you signed in? Standing is attached to your account, so a signed-out visit always sees the brief form.
- Did you already submit a brief that was approved? An approved request lets you through on its own, separately from standing.
If both are true and you are still being asked, that is a bug rather than a policy — send us your account email through the help widget and we will look at it directly.