Document Templates

Document Templates is one library for the documents you start from again and again (an engagement letter, a standard NDA, a memo) and for the playbooks Playbook Check uses. It lives in Settings → Document Templates. Each template is a plain Markdown file in Return’s data folder, so you can also open it in any editor or copy it to a colleague.

Templates never go to an AI model by themselves. A document you make from one is an ordinary document.

The library

Settings → Document Templates lists your templates in two groups, Documents and Playbooks, your own first.

To turn a document you already have into a template, open it and choose Save as Document Template: in the menu of the arrow next to Save in the top bar, in the File menu, or type /savetemplate in the command bar. A playbook stays a playbook. For a Word document, import it first, then save it as a template.

Built-in templates

Return comes with four starter playbooks: a services agreement and a mutual NDA, each in English and in Polish. They are marked Built-in and can’t be changed; Duplicate gives you your own copy to adapt. A starter is a starting point, not legal advice.

Starting a document from a template

What happens next depends on the template:

A new document never takes over the template’s own settings or identity: no template name, no id, no rules or decisions saved with the template.

PDF and HTML

A document template can produce a PDF or an HTML file instead of Markdown. Set it under New documents as in the template, or choose Save as in the Fill dialog each time. Return fills the placeholders, renders the result with the same renderer as File → Export, and saves the file. Tick Also keep the Markdown file if you want the editable version as well.

A series from a table

To make many documents at once, fill the placeholders from a CSV table, one new file per row.

  1. In the Fill dialog choose From a CSV file, then Choose a CSV file…. You can also right-click a .csv file in the file tree and choose Generate Documents from This Table….
  2. The first row of the table names the columns. A column named like a placeholder fills it: Client name or CLIENT_NAME fills {{CLIENT_NAME}}. For the others, pick a column, or leave the placeholder as it is.
  3. Each file needs its own name, so the file name contains a placeholder, for example Letter - {{CLIENT_NAME}}.md. Below it Return lists the first file names. A name that is already taken gets -2, -3; a row whose name can’t be a file name is skipped.
  4. Click Generate N files. Existing files are never overwritten. For PDF and HTML you can stop the series part-way; the files already made stay.

The table must be UTF-8. In Excel, save it as CSV UTF-8: an older CSV export garbles letters such as ą or ł, and Return asks you to save it again. Semicolons, commas and tabs between columns all work. A series can make at most 500 files; split a longer table.

An empty cell leaves its placeholder in the new file, the same as an empty field in the Fill dialog.

Playbooks in the library

The Playbook Check window lists the playbooks in your workspace folders first, then the ones in Document Templates, the starters among them. You approve a library playbook before its first use, like any other. Customize next to a starter makes your own copy and opens it in Settings. See Playbook Check.

Limits