If you're new to automation on Avvoka, this article is your starting point. We recommend beginning with the short video below, it's a great way to visualise the steps in action. After that, use this guide to revisit or clarify any of the key concepts covered.

Once you're comfortable with the basics, you can explore:

If anything's unclear or you want a second pair of eyes, your Customer Success Manager is always happy to help.

Before you can start automating, you’ll need to upload your precedent document into Avvoka, to do this follow these steps:

Once you’ve selected the profile, you’ll be prompted to choose how to create your template. There are three options:

It’s best to make sure your document’s formatting and styles are in a good place before you start automating - this keeps things tidy and easier to manage. But if you need to make updates later, that’s no problem. You can download the template as a .docx, make your edits directly in Word, and reupload it to Avvoka without losing any of your automation.

For a step-by-step walkthrough on how to do this, check out our guide on editing templates in Word and reuploading to Avvoka.

Once your template is created, click into the “Document” tab on the left-hand panel of the Template page. This is where you’ll begin adding placeholders, conditions, and other automation to your document.

A placeholder marks an input field in the document - this is where answers from the questionnaire will drop into the final version. In a traditional legal document, this is usually where you'd find square brackets.

For example, if you want the user to be able to insert the borrower’s name, you might create a placeholder called “Borrower Name”.

You’ll recognise placeholders in Avvoka by their yellow highlight in the template.

To create one:

For a more detailed walkthrough on placeholders, check out this article.

You can also use keyboard shortcuts to speed things up:

Just highlight the text and press the shortcut to create a placeholder.

If you need the same input in multiple places, once created, you can copy and paste the yellow-highlighted placeholder anywhere else in your template, it will pull the same answer across all locations.

Every time you create a placeholder (or a new attribute for a condition), Avvoka will automatically generate a corresponding question in the Questionnaire tab.
Learn more about building and editing the questionnaire here.

For more advanced control over how placeholder values appear, you can apply placeholder transformations directly from the editor.

These let you apply simple formatting rules without needing operations or extra attributes. For example:

To apply a transformation:

The transformation only applies to the instance you select, so you can display the same data in different formats across your document.

Conditions let you control whether certain parts of your document appear, based on the answers given in the questionnaire.

To add one:

Once added, the text will only appear when the condition you define is met (e.g. “Include a probation clause only if the answer to ‘Does this contract have a probation period?’ is ‘Yes’”).

You can learn more about how conditions work, plus the difference between block and inline conditions, in this article.

Clicking on either the Block or Inline Condition icons will load the “Condition Builder”, where you define the logic that controls when the text appears: 

The Condition Builder has three parts:

If the condition is satisfied, the selected text will appear in the document. If not, it stays hidden.

For example: In a loan agreement, you may want a clause to appear only if there is a guarantor.

Creating a condition like this will automatically generate a new question in the Questionnaire for your chosen attribute (e.g. Guarantor).

You can customise the question text—for example, change it to:
​“Is there a guarantor?”

To make it even more user-friendly, switch the Input Type to Radio Button, so users can easily select Yes or No with a simple toggle.

You can apply the same logic across multiple areas like the title, recitals, definitions, body clauses, and even the signature page.

You can easily reuse existing conditions elsewhere in your template - no need to rebuild the logic from scratch.

To do this:

This is especially useful if the same condition applies across multiple parts of your document (e.g. header, definitions, and signature block).
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Note: To enable this feature, ensure clipboard access is allowed. When prompted by your browser, select Allow for “See text and images copied to the clipboard.”

Avvoka’s advanced tools help you handle more complex drafting scenarios - especially when working at scale. These features reduce manual edits, increase consistency, and streamline your workflows.

Here are some of the most commonly used:

The Questionnaire is where users provide the answers that drive your document. Each placeholder or condition either creates a new question or connects to an existing one - ensuring the right data is captured at the right time.

This centralises input and keeps your documents accurate, consistent, and easy to complete.

You can customise the Questionnaire to guide users and reduce drafting errors. For each question, you can:

A well-designed questionnaire makes the drafting process intuitive, while ensuring documents are generated accurately and consistently every time.

You can also toggle to split-screen view to see the questionnaire alongside the document. This is especially helpful for live editing and checking that placeholders are linked correctly in context.

Learn more about editing and managing the questionnaire here.

You can sort the Questionnaire to reflect the order you want questions to appear - either for logical flow or to match the structure of the final document.

The most common (and most precise) method is to drag and drop questions using the “Drag” icon beside each one.

To make rearranging easier, use the “Compress” toggle to collapse long questions and see more of the list at once.

You can tick multiple questions to drag them all at the same time.

Another option is to click the “Sort” icon. This automatically reorders the questionnaire based on how placeholders and conditions appear in the document.

As the name suggests, you can also use AI to help build your questionnaire. Clicking the “AI-powered Questionnaire builder” button at the top of the questionnaire opens a modal where you can enter prompts or hints for either the questionnaire as a whole (for general question phrasing) or for each question individually.

Avvoka’s AI will then generate relevant questions for the questionnaire, helping you get a strong first draft in seconds.

Once you’ve automated your template, you can either save or publish it - each option serves a different purpose:

In both cases, you’ll be prompted to add (optional) release notes - a short description of what’s changed.

All saved and published versions are stored in the History tab, where you can view, compare, or restore any version as needed.

Learn more about publishing templates here.

Live Demo lets you test your template in real time - without generating a full document.

From the left-hand sidebar, click Live Demo to preview how the most recently saved version of your template behaves. This allows you to:

It’s a quick and easy way to validate your automation before publishing.

Generating a document works much like Live Demo - you’ll complete the questionnaire and test how the automation behaves. But with one key difference: generated documents can be shared, downloaded, and collaborated on with counterparties.

To generate a document:

Once generated, the document can be accessed from the My Documents area, where you can review, edit, negotiate, and share it as needed.
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