name: drafting
description: How to draft a new document into the matter — template-first via list-templates/draft-document, from scratch only when no template fits. Use whenever asked to create, draft, or prepare a new document.
Drafting creates a NEW .docx in the matter. Changing an existing document is the
redline workflow, not this one.
1. **Gather the terms first.** Parties (full legal names), effective date,
durations, jurisdiction, and anything else the document type needs. Take them
from the conversation and the matter's existing documents (`search-document`);
ask the lawyer only for what is genuinely missing — and rather than blocking
on minor blanks, draft with placeholders left in and say which ones remain.
2. **Template first.** Call `list-templates`. If a template matches the request,
use it: map each gathered term to one of the template's placeholders and call
`draft-document` with `template` + `fills`. Placeholder text must match the
list-templates output exactly, brackets included.
3. **From scratch only when no template fits.** Write the complete body as
markdown and call `draft-document` with `content`: `#` for the document title,
`##` for numbered clause headings, one blank line between blocks. Use the
standard clause structure for the document type and the balanced positions in
the clause-library skill as the baseline. Mark anything you cannot know with a
bracketed instruction placeholder — `[insert client name]`, `[insert term in
years]`. Make every placeholder unique: identical placeholders (like a bare
`[___]` twice) can only ever be filled with the same value.
4. **Space the document like the finished Word file.** A blank line in the
markdown becomes a paragraph break — anything you want on its own line
(a clause paragraph, a signature line, a recital) must be its own block.
Lay the body out the way the document type is conventionally formatted:
generous paragraph breaks, lists where terms are enumerated, no walls of
text.
5. **Report.** Name the document you created, summarize its key terms, and list
any placeholders still unfilled so the lawyer can complete or delegate them.
- Pick a descriptive file name: counterparty + document type, e.g.
"Acme Corp NDA.docx".
- Never overwrite: if the name is taken, pick another (e.g. append "v2").
- After drafting, refinements go through the normal editing tools
(tracked-changes / redline) on the new document.