Archie Playbooks Best Practices

This guide covers the purpose and functionality of Archie Playbooks, including what they can and cannot do, and best practices for writing rules that deliver reliable, consistent results. 

Table of Contents

• Getting Started
• What are Playbooks
• What Playbooks are useful
  • Example document types
• Understanding your review results
• What Archie Playbooks can and cannot check
• Rules for writing effective playbooks 
  • Structure and Writing Tips 
• Before you publish a Playbook
  • triConvey AI disclaimer 

Getting Started

New to Archie? Learn more about Archie AI. Please note, you will need to install the Archie Word Add-In to use Playbooks. 

What are Playbooks

A Playbook is a collection of rules that tells Archie what to look for when reviewing a document. As a user, you can define the requirements for a playbook (the clauses that must be present, the language that must be used, the sections that must appear) and Archie will apply these requirements against a document you're reviewing in Microsoft Word. 

This means your whole team is able to review documents to the same standard, every time. Nothing gets missed because someone was in a hurry, and junior staff get the same guidance as someone with years of experience reviewing that document type.

What Playbooks are useful

• Checking required clauses and sections are present.
  
  
• Enforcing standard statutory citations and legal references in a document.
  
  
• Standardising language and ensuring required legal phrases are used.
  
  
• Catching missing party details as written in the document.
  
  
• Verifying structural requirements (headings, labelling as text).
  
  
• Catching common drafting errors before a document gets sent to an external party.

Example document types

Below are some examples of where Archie playbooks can help. Start with a pre-built playbook from our legal content team where available (marked below). 

• General: Costs Disclosure 
• Conveyancing: Contract for Sale
  

Understanding your review results

When you run a Playbook, Archie evaluates every rule included in the playbook and returns one of three outcomes for each rule:

This is what it will look like when running a Playbook:

Once a fix is applied, the rule counts as passed in the compliance score.

NOTE: When Archie flags an issue with a rule, it will usually offer a one-click fix with suggested replacement text. However, if the required content is completely missing from the document, a fix suggestion will not be available. Archie will tell you what is missing, but you will need to add it manually into the document.

What Archie Playbooks can and cannot check

Archie can only read the text of the open Word document you are viewing at the time. 

It has no access to the triConvey matter (e.g. client records, filed documents, or any other information outside the document). If something is not written in the document, Archie cannot check it. 

• Archie can verify structure and language - whether the right clauses are present, the wording meets the standard, the correct statutory references and party labels are used.
  
  
• Archie cannot verify whether the content is correct - it can see that a purchase price, party name, or governing law is stated, but not whether any of it is right. That remains a matter for the law professional to work through. 

In summary, Playbooks can check that a document is structured correctly and contains the right content. However, they cannot tell you whether the information inside that content is accurate.

Rules for writing effective playbooks 

Follow the steps to create a playbook and apply the following structure and writing recommendations to build the most effective playbooks for your firm. 

Structure and Writing Tips 

We recommend using this structure as a starting point: 

The document must [contain / include / state] [specific element] [in / within the X section / clause / paragraph]. 

Matter specific example

Conveyancing Law matter - Residential Purchase Agreement

• The agreement must state the total purchase price as a specific dollar amount and identify the amount of the earnest money deposit and who will hold it.
  
  
• The agreement must include a property description that states the full legal address, the lot or parcel number or legal description, and either specifies any inclusions or exclusions such as fixtures or appliances, or explicitly states that no inclusions or exclusions apply.

General Guidelines

• Write rules that check for the presence of specific, named elements.
  
  
• Reference the exact section or clause where the element should appear — this helps Archie find it.
  
  
• The more precise the language — a full citation, a defined term, a specific phrase — the more reliable the check.
  
  
• Write separate rules for separate requirements and do not combine multiple unrelated checks into one rule.
  
  
• Make both the rule name and description clear — the name is what users see, the description is what Archie evaluates against.
  
  
• Test every rule on a real, fully-drafted document before publishing it.
  
  
• Do not write rules that depend on information not present in the document.
  
  
• Do not expect a rule to confirm that amounts, dates, or names in a document are correct (only that they are present).
  
  
• Do not use vague language like 'solid legal argument', 'complete and accurate', or 'appropriate tone'.
  
  
• Do not build rules intended to replace a lawyer's substantive judgment.
  
  
• Do not write rules for images, charts, or any content that isn't typed document text — Archie cannot see these elements of a document.
  
  
• Do not write rules that check or depend on character formatting — bold, italic, font size, or colour text formatting in a document is not visible to Archie so cannot be checked.

Before you publish a Playbook

We recommend going through these questions before creating a new Playbook or adding a new rule to a Playbook: 

1.    Is every rule answerable solely from the document text? 

2.    Have I avoided rules that require access to triConvey matter data to evaluate? 

3.    Is my pass/fail condition clear enough that two lawyers would agree on the result? 

4.    Have I written a description for each rule so users understand what it checks? 

5.    Have I tested the Playbook on a real, fully-drafted document before publishing? 

6.    Have I avoided rules that ask Archie to assess legal quality rather than document content?

triConvey AI disclaimer 

Like all AI tools, Archie is powerful but not infallible. Always review Archie's findings carefully before acting on them. Archie is a document review assistant, not a substitute for legal judgment.