Playbooks

Playbooks Overview

Playbooks homepage

Playbooks convert firm standards and precedent into operational review rules. Define your preferred positions, fallback language, and red flags once, then apply them to every agreement you review. This standardizes how your team triages and discusses contract risk without losing deal-specific judgment.

This video shows how to create and configure Playbooks for your firm.

Core Components

Each playbook rule is built around three elements:

  • Starting position: Your firm's preferred language or risk posture for a given clause.

  • Fallbacks: Acceptable alternatives when the starting position is rejected, in order of preference.

  • Not acceptable: Language or omissions that require legal attention or escalation.

Together, these elements structure consistent first-pass review. Escalate flagged items for attorney judgment where needed.

Creating Effective Rules

  1. Start with representative precedent: Pull from prior deals, templates, and exemplar agreements.

  2. Define what's acceptable: Identify what is acceptable, what is fallback, and what should be escalated.

  3. Make rules testable: Keep rule language specific enough to be evaluated in review.

  4. Review before sharing: Validate generated rules before rolling out to broader teams.

  5. Update as positions evolve: Keep rules current as firm positions change.

Creating a Playbook

There are two ways to create a Playbook. Use AI generation for speed; use manual creation for precise control.

Method A: Generate via AI

Assistant can create a Playbook for you from your precedent documents, or from a description of your positions alone.

  1. Start a new conversation in Assistant.

  2. Optionally, attach precedent agreements, templates, or prior negotiated deals that reflect your firm's standards.

  3. Describe the goal, for example "Extract our standard NDA positions into a playbook."

  4. Review the rules August creates and refine them in the Playbook editor.

Method B: Build Manually

Build rules yourself when you need precise control over each position.

  1. Click Playbooks in the left sidebar, then click Create New.

  2. Click Add rule, give the rule a name, and fill in its Starting position. Click Add example language if you want to show sample wording.

  3. Click Add fallback for each acceptable alternative (Fallback 1, Fallback 2, and so on), then fill in Not acceptable and optional Guidance.

  4. Repeat for each clause type. To draft a single rule with AI, click the wand icon (Generate rule with AI) on the rule.

  5. Review the rules with your team before rolling the Playbook out.

To change an existing Playbook by describing what you want, click Edit in chat in the Playbook editor. August proposes the changes for you to review before they're saved.

Playbooks can be used in three places: attached to a chat in Assistant, run from the Playbooks tab of the Word Add-In, or added as context to an Agent.

Manage Your Playbooks

Open the menu on a Playbook card on the Playbooks page to manage it:

  • Edit opens the Playbook editor, and Duplicate makes a copy you can change.

  • Share gives colleagues access to the Playbook.

  • Move to Project or Copy to Project puts it in another project.

  • Download as DOCX or Download as PDF exports the rules as a document.

  • Delete removes your access to the Playbook. If no one else has access, the Playbook is permanently deleted.

When you ask August in Assistant to delete a Playbook, it asks for your approval first.

Applying Playbooks in Assistant

Attach a Playbook and the agreements you want to check to an Assistant chat, then ask August to review them against it:

  1. Attach the playbook and the documents to review.

  2. Ask August to evaluate the documents against your positions.

  3. Review where terms match the starting position, where a fallback applies, and what needs escalation.

  4. Focus legal judgment on flagged items rather than re-reading every clause.

Final decisions remain with legal reviewers.

Using Playbooks with the Word Add-In

Run a Playbook against the document open in Word, rule by rule:

  1. Open your document in Word and open the August sidebar.

  2. In the Playbooks tab, click the playbook to run.

  3. Enter the Representing party, add optional notes, and click Run.

  4. Review each rule's verdict, then click Suggest edits for rules that fall short and apply or dismiss each proposed edit.

Redline or Direct: Each suggested edit card lets you choose Redline to apply it as a tracked change or Direct to apply it without tracking. See Playbooks Evaluation in the Word Add-In for the full workflow.

Best Practices

  • Start with your strongest precedents: Use well-negotiated agreements as the foundation.

  • Keep rules specific: Vague rules produce vague results. "Liability cap should not exceed 12 months of fees" is better than "limit liability."

  • Separate concerns: Create separate playbooks for NDAs, MSAs, settlement agreements, and other document types.

  • Iterate based on use: Refine rules as you discover edge cases in live reviews.

  • Record changes: Note significant rule changes so your team knows which positions were in force for a given matter.

When to Use Playbooks

Use playbooks when:

  • You review recurring document types against the same standards

  • You manage a portfolio of similar agreements requiring consistent treatment

  • You want to standardize how junior attorneys approach first-pass review

  • You need to apply firm-wide positions across multiple deals

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