Templates
Every time someone drafts a contract from scratch, they risk using outdated language, missing a required clause, or formatting it inconsistently. When you produce hundreds of agreements, you need a standard starting point that still bends to each deal.
A template is your own approved Word document (.docx) with markup tags inside it, plus the configuration that tells Pactly what each tag means. From that one maintained document, Pactly generates a fresh contract that always reflects your current language, with party names, dates, amounts, and conditional clauses already filled in.
This agreement is made between
{{party1.entityName}}, for a value of
{{contractValue}}, as a {{vm agreementType}}.
This agreement is made between
Acme Corp., for a value of
US$120,000, as a mutual NDA.
At generation, Pactly Replace variables Apply value maps Evaluate rules
What a template produces
Section titled “What a template produces”A template generates a Template Contract: a new contract that enters the repository in Draft, ready for review and negotiation. When the document is generated, Pactly works through the markup in your .docx and:
- Replaces variables with deal values such as party names, dates, and amounts.
- Evaluates rules to decide which clauses appear. A liability cap clause might be included only when the deal value crosses a threshold.
- Applies value maps to turn a selection into the right wording. A choice of “USD” can render as
US$wherever the currency symbol appears.
The result is a consistently worded, correctly formatted draft. A template is one of the three ways a contract enters the repository (your paper); see Create a Contract for the other two.
How people generate a contract
Section titled “How people generate a contract”End users do not pick a raw template. They generate a contract by submitting a generation form: an intake form whose fields feed the template’s variables. The person requesting the contract fills out the form, and a finished Draft appears in the repository. They never see the template internals.
From the Create menu, choosing Draft a contract from my Template opens this flow. You select the relevant intake form, confirm the details, and Pactly builds the document. A template needs at least one generation form before anyone can generate from it.
For the full end-to-end flow, see Generate a Contract from a Template.
Where templates are authored
Section titled “Where templates are authored”Templates are authored in the Pactly Word add-in, not the web app. Inside Word, an author writes the .docx, embeds the markup tags, then uploads it and maps each tag to a contract property, defines the value-map choices, and writes the rule logic. The web app is where end users generate from a template, and where an admin can review, version, and organize the template library.
Key concepts
Section titled “Key concepts”The markup uses double-brace tags with camelCase names. Each tag is written exactly as shown inside the document, and the full set is covered in the Variables & Tokens Reference.
A variable is a placeholder that gets replaced with a deal value. You write it as {{contractValue}} or {{effectiveDate}}, and at generation time Pactly substitutes the value supplied through the form. Variables can hold text, numbers, dates, and selections.
A rule controls whether a block of text appears. You wrap a clause in {{rule liabilityCap}} ... {{/rule}}, and it is included only when that rule is true. Simpler conditions use {{if isEntity}} ... {{/if}}. This is how one template covers several variants without cloning.
Learn more →A value map is a lookup table that turns a selection into wording. You write {{vm services}}, define the choices, and the choice the user selects renders its mapped text. Value maps bridge what someone picks in the form and what lands in the contract.
A party field pulls an attribute from a party on the contract. You write {{party1.entityName}} to drop in a counterparty’s legal name, or reference any other party attribute the same way.
Why you might see a black dot
Section titled “Why you might see a black dot”If a tag in the document has no value at generation time, because it was never mapped, the form did not supply it, or the tag name is misspelled, Pactly renders a [●] placeholder in its place rather than failing the whole document. A draft full of [●] markers usually means an unmapped or mistyped tag, not a broken template.
How templates fit the lifecycle
Section titled “How templates fit the lifecycle”Templates handle the creation stage. Forms collect the data, the template generates the document, and the Draft enters the repository where it is reviewed, negotiated, and executed. For your own paper, review is usually an internal approval rather than a playbook review (playbooks guide the review of a counterparty’s document).
Editing a template affects new contracts only. Contracts already generated keep the wording they were built with and must be regenerated to pick up a change.
What’s in this section
Section titled “What’s in this section”Related
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