SKILL — doc.haus Atlas

dochaus/skill/drafting/SKILL.md

New-document drafting workflow: template-first via list-templates and a guided interview with a single draft-document call, from-scratch markdown only when no template fits, Word-spaced bodies, todowrite two-way completeness reconciliation (source-to-draft and draft-to- source), family-derived mechanics fill-out, completeness principles, and a structured change-memo (BLUF, issues table, four-type open-item taxonomy, redline appendix); template creation with PII scrubbing and a reviewer pass included. Read whenever creating a new matter document or template.

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. **Classify and gather first.** Identify the document family, intended use, controlling sources, and required inputs at runtime. Take the inputs from the conversation and the matter's existing documents (`search-document`); ask the lawyer only for what is genuinely missing. A working draft may retain an explicit placeholder while inputs are collected, but it is not final merely because it renders. Preserve a visible blank or clearly identified unresolved statement in a deliverable only where the runtime-classified document family and intended use conventionally permit it; otherwise stop and ask for the missing input or decision. Do not assume a form, relationship, or legal posture the inputs do not establish. 2. **Template first.** Call `list-templates`. If a template matches the request, run the guided interview (below) to collect every placeholder value and every optional-section decision, then call `draft-document` ONCE with `template` + `fills` + `omit`. 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`. Use the headings, sequence, and formatting conventional for the runtime-classified document family, with one blank line between blocks. Load the clause-library as a position baseline only for contracts or other negotiated instruments for which that skill is applicable; for other families, use the matching supplied authority, checklist, or playbook. Mark anything you cannot know with a unique bracketed instruction placeholder. For lawyer-facing unresolved drafting questions, use `[open item: ...]` so the rendered DOCX can highlight the item. Make every placeholder unique because identical placeholders can only ever be filled with the same value. A placeholder is a visible working-draft marker, never permission to replace an unknown fact, authority, or legal effect with plausible complete-looking text. 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 must be its own block. Give standalone structural elements and input fields the spacing their document family requires. Lay the body out the way the document type is conventionally formatted, with readable paragraph breaks and no walls of text. 5. **Completeness self-audit before finalizing.** A deliverable fails on a single missed operative fact, instruction, required component, or internal reference, so re-check the draft against an explicit checklist rather than trusting recall. Use the `todowrite` tool as that checklist, and run it as a **two-way reconciliation** between the controlling sources and the draft: - **Enumerate** one item per atomic source element or required family component the draft must carry, plus every internal reference the draft makes. Each item is specific and checkable, not a category. - **Source → draft (nothing operative dropped).** Every operative source fact, instruction, value, qualification, and relationship must appear in the draft or be explicitly routed as an open item. Re-check item-by-item by reading the draft back (`read-document`) and mark each item `completed` only once you confirm that element is present and correct. An item you cannot confirm stays `in_progress` and becomes an Open item; mark `cancelled` only for elements a keep-or-omit decision dropped. - **Draft → source (nothing concrete invented).** Every matter-specific fact, instruction, value, and legal consequence in the draft must trace to a source, an applicable approved position, or a clearly bracketed working-draft placeholder. Content that traces to none is fabricated: remove or bracket it and record it as an Open item. - **Second-pass absence sweep:** before drafting, write down the standard required components for the runtime-classified document type. Derive them from the applicable source, authority, checklist, or playbook rather than from a fixed cross-family list. Add one `todowrite` item per component and confirm each is present in the form its family requires. A required component entirely absent is a finding to report, never a silent pass. 6. **Fill out omitted mechanics by document family.** Before finalizing, derive the mechanics required to make each promised outcome or required component work from the runtime-classified family, controlling sources, and applicable authority. For contracts or other negotiated instruments, use the applicable contract checklist and clause library; for other families, use only their matching authority, checklist, or playbook. For each source silence, either draft a supported conventional mechanism flagged drafted-for-review or record the gap as an Open item. If authority or source support is missing, do not hide that gap with neutral-sounding language. Never import mechanics from one family into another or ship a promised outcome with no supported implementation behind it. 7. **Completeness principles for operative content.** Beyond the source reconciliation above, audit each operative part against the `` below when the runtime document family makes a principle relevant. Content can reproduce every source value correctly and still fail to achieve its intended legal or procedural function. 8. **Report a structured change-memo.** Name the document you created and emit the memo per the `` format below — BLUF, issues table, the dual-entry open-items taxonomy, and the redline appendix — so the lawyer can tell a deliberate decision from an unfilled gap at a glance.

Content can be textually complete yet functionally incomplete. After the self-audit and fill-out passes, apply each principle only when supported by the runtime-classified document family, controlling sources, or applicable authority. Do not presume that every document contains obligations, defined terms, elections, adverse sides, or a conflicts analysis.

Terminology and scope completeness. When the document's operation turns on a term that the applicable legal or procedural regime gives a specific meaning broader or narrower than its ordinary-language meaning, define that term to its governing-regime scope rather than leaving it to lay reading. Otherwise the document may silently fail to reach, or exceed, what the regime intends. Do not add a definition when the family convention or authority does not call for one.
Mechanism completeness. When a required outcome depends on a process, confirm that the draft includes the actors, sequence, conditions, and evidence the applicable family or authority requires. Include alternatives only when a controlling source, approved family position, or governing regime recognizes them; never invent optional paths from a cross-family checklist.
Role and interest completeness. When the classified document family requires analysis of roles, capacity, interests, or relationships, cover every person and entity within the scope set by the controlling sources or authority. Do not assume such an analysis is required, and do not stop at one organizational level when the governing scope reaches further.

When the requirements of a document type or applicable authority are uncertain, derive them at runtime from authoritative sources via the legal-research skill. Research must derive generally applicable requirements, not reverse-engineer a desired conclusion; a derived requirement must apply to every document of that classified type, not just the matter at hand.

Every draft built from a template or from source documents ships with a structured change-memo, not a prose summary. The memo makes the drafting reasoning auditable and separates a placeholder/gap from a decision. Use this exact structure:

BLUF (bottom line up front). Two or three sentences: what document was created, the controlling source(s) it was built from, and the single most important thing the lawyer must decide or supply before its intended use.
Issues table (two columns). One row per material change or judgment call, in document order. The Location / component column stores the affected location, section, or component using the document's own locator. The right column records the change made AND the rationale for it — what the draft does, how it deviates from the template or source, and why. Show every substantive change; a change with no recorded rationale is not done.

Location / component Change and rationale

Document locator What changed; why.
Open items (dual-entry taxonomy). List every unresolved item, each tagged with exactly one of these four types so its nature is unambiguous:
- Unfilled placeholder — a [insert ...] the lawyer or client must supply (a fact only they know).
- Unresolved source conflict — two source documents disagree and the draft could not pick a controlling term without instruction.
- Promised term, no mechanics — the source requires an outcome or component but omits the implementation needed to make it work; flag exactly what is missing.
- Escalation hold — an item that needs a person/role to decide before the draft is final (a position that breaches a firm floor, a jurisdiction question). Every unresolved item that remains visible in the document must appear here with the same location and status. The memo cannot describe an item as resolved when the body leaves it open, and memo disclosure cannot make invented body text acceptable.
Redline appendix. The list of every deviation from the template or source text in document order as the final section, so the body of the memo stays readable and the full change record is still available in one place.

Location / component	Change and rationale
Document locator	What changed; why.

Template drafting is a short interview, not a form. The template's variables ARE its placeholders — the wording of each tells you what kind of answer it wants. The template's `optionalClauses` are keep-or-omit decisions, regardless of whether the classified document family calls them clauses, sections, or components.

List the variables. From the list-templates entry: every placeholder plus every optional component.
Prefill before asking. Take values from the conversation and the matter's existing documents (search-document). Never ask for something already known.
Ask the rest in small logical batches organized by the document family's own dependencies. Ask each optional component as keep-or-omit with a one-line plain-English description of what it does. Never one long questionnaire and never one question per turn when a batch reads naturally.
Confirm a compact input schedule before drafting: every variable with its value, every optional component marked keep or omit. A variable the lawyer leaves open stays a placeholder in the working draft — say so and do not call the document final or ready for external use.
Draft ONCE. One draft-document call with template, all fills, and the declined components in omit. Never assemble the document piecemeal.

Creating a reusable template (`create-template`) adds a drafting base to the firm's global library, shared across every matter — distinct from drafting a document into one matter.

When to create one. The user asks to create or save a template directly, asks to turn an existing matter document into a template, or you are drafting a document type that list-templates shows no match for and a template would help.

Body conventions. Use the same family-specific markdown and structure as from-scratch drafting. The one difference is total: a template carries no real client or matter data. Replace every matter-specific value or identifier with a unique descriptive [insert ...] placeholder, never a bare placeholder and never the same placeholder twice (draft-document fills by exact text, so duplicates collapse to one value).

Optional components. A section or component the lawyer may keep or drop appends [optional: short-name] to the end of its heading. The short-name is unique per template, lowercase, and hyphenated. Its extent is the heading plus everything under it up to the next same-or-higher heading; on a non-heading paragraph the marker makes just that paragraph optional. At draft time the component is kept (marker stripped) unless its name is passed to draft-document's omit.

Turning an existing document into a template (PII scrub). Call read-document to load the full text, then rewrite the whole body replacing every client-specific detail with a placeholder. Before calling create-template, scrub all personal, organizational, matter-specific, and identifying data. None may survive into the template — only [insert ...] placeholders.

Review before creating. A template is drafted from many times, so it must be right before it enters the library. Spawn the document-reviewer subagent (task tool) over the proposed body once: structure must match the document type and title, the type's required components must be present, and authority-specific language must not be baked in unless the template is intentionally limited to that authority. Apply Must-fix findings to the body before calling create-template; one round, do not loop.

Report. After create-template, name the template and list the placeholders it exposes, so the user knows what every future draft will be asked to fill.

- Pick a descriptive file name derived from the document's subject and type. - Never overwrite: if the name is taken, pick another unique name. - After drafting, refinements go through the normal editing tools (tracked-changes / redline) on the new document.