Chat answers a question. Document Studio produces a deliverable: a structured, sectioned, cited document built from the same knowledge base — the memo, the report, the policy, the filing. It is the difference between asking your corpus a question and asking it to write something down.
1. What Document Studio is
Open a bot and choose Documents under Interactions. You give it a document type, a target length and a prompt; it plans sections, drafts each one against retrieved evidence, and assembles the result with citations pointing back to the source material.
Structured
Real sections with stated objectives, not a wall of generated prose.
Cited
Numbered footnotes or inline references, depending on the document type.
Exportable
Word and PDF, ready to send.
2. Document types
The type is not cosmetic. It sets the default section structure, the tone, and whether citations render as numbered footnotes or inline references.
| Type | Shape |
|---|---|
| Report | General-purpose structured report — the sensible default |
| Regulatory memorandum | Formal memo with footnoted citations |
| Opinion paper | Position and argument, sourced |
| Docket summary | Condensed account of a proceeding |
| Comparative analysis | Structured comparison across options or sources |
| Flash report | Short dashboard-style summary |
| Security policy | Policy document in the conventional shape |
| Security procedure | Step-level operational procedure |
| PREB draft order | Regulatory draft order |
| DCPSC outage compliance filing | Jurisdiction-specific compliance filing |
| HIPAA self-assessment report | Structured self-assessment output |
The last few are narrow by design — they exist because specific regulated workflows needed them. If none fits, Report plus a template (section 4) will get you closer than forcing a mismatched type.
3. Generating a document
- 1
Pick the type and the length
Target length runs from one to ten pages. Ask for what the content supports, not for what sounds impressive — a padded ten-page document reads worse than a dense four-page one.
- 2
Write the prompt
This is the brief, and it is where most of the quality comes from. Say who the reader is, what decision the document supports, and what must be covered. Section 6 goes into this properly.
- 3
Optionally seed it from a conversation
You can attach specific chat messages as verbatim source material — useful when you have already worked something out in chat and want it written up rather than rediscovered.
- 4
Get a quote
Before generating, request a quote for the cost of the run. Longer documents cost more; the quote means you find out before rather than after.
- 5
Generate
Output streams as it is produced, so you can see the shape early and cancel if the brief was wrong — rather than waiting for a finished document you do not want.
4. Templates
When you produce the same kind of document repeatedly, fix its structure once. A template holds:
| Field | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Name & description | How you and your team recognise it |
| Document type | The base shape it builds on |
| Section blueprints | Up to twelve sections, each with a title and a stated objective — the objective is what the drafter actually works to |
| Citation style | Numbered footnotes or inline references |
| Prompt guidance | Standing instructions applied to every document from this template — tone, conventions, things to always or never do |
5. Refining & exporting
A generated document is not final. You can issue a refinement instruction against it — “tighten the executive summary”, “add a paragraph on the cost implications”, “make the tone more formal” — and it revises in place, streaming as it goes.
Refinement is usually the better move when a document is 80% right. Regenerating from scratch throws away the parts that worked and rolls the dice again.
Export
Finished documents download as:
- Word (.docx) — when someone will edit it further
- PDF — when it is going out as-is
Both carry the document's formatting and citations.
6. Getting good output
Brief it like a person
The prompt is the strongest lever you have. Compare “write a report on our security posture” with: “Write a report for the board summarising our security posture as of Q3, covering the control gaps identified in the last assessment, what has been remediated since, and what remains open with owners and dates. Assume the reader is not technical.” The second produces a usable document; the first produces filler.
Check the citations, not just the prose
Generated text reads fluently whether or not it is well grounded — fluency is exactly what these models are best at. The citations are how you tell. Open a few and confirm they support the sentence they are attached to. If citations are thin or wrong, the problem is the knowledge base, and citation quality covers the fixes.
Feed it the corpus before you ask for the document
The most common disappointment is a document generated over a knowledge base that never contained the source material. Load what the document should be built from — see the knowledge upload playbook — and then ask.
Do not ship it unread
Everything here produces a strong draft, and the whole point is that a strong draft saves hours. It is still a draft. Read it as its author, because on anything that leaves your organisation, you are.