draft-cli

Part of the contract-operations CLI suite. draft-cli (fill placeholders) → nda-review-cli (review, redline, negotiate) → docx2pdf-cli (DOCX → PDF) → sign-cli (signing + audit). Showcase site.

Agent-first placeholder-filler for legal-document templates. Reads bracketed ([Party A]) or mustache markup, .docx yellow highlights, or generic-name heuristics; substitutes from CLI flags, a JSON params file, a shared parties.json registry, or — optionally — values extracted by an LLM from a free-form deal description; writes a ready-to-review draft as text or .docx (round-trip, runs and styles preserved). Schema-declared placeholders can be typed (date / money / party), computed (date arithmetic from another placeholder), positional (same text disambiguated by role), and bundled (fill multiple templates with one set of values).

The asymmetry is the architecture: every step is deterministic and machine-driven except the values themselves — which can come from a flag, a params file, a parties registry, or an LLM extracting them from a prose deal description that a human wrote.

Run this

npx @drbaher/draft-cli@latest --demo

30 seconds, no file authoring required. Walks through a bracketed-template NDA with three placeholders, demoing the full cascade end-to-end. Or if you want to dive into a real template:

npm i -g @drbaher/draft-cli
draft --list-placeholders examples/cp-mutual-nda-coverpage.md

Where to go next

If you are…	Start here
A new user evaluating the tool	This README's Quick start and What this gives you
A drafter filling your first template	GETTING_STARTED.md — 10-minute walkthrough of the main flows
An LLM agent driving the CLI	AGENTS.md → draft --list-placeholders --json → PARAM_SCHEMA.md for the locked contract
A schema author declaring typed / computed / positional placeholders	PARAM_SCHEMA.md §5
A contributor	ARCHITECTURE.md, CONTRIBUTING.md

Concept deep-dives live in PARAM_SCHEMA.md (the v1 + v2 contract); architecture in ARCHITECTURE.md; FAQ in FAQ.md.

Quick start

# Install
npm i -g @drbaher/draft-cli

# Or run without installing
npx @drbaher/draft-cli@latest --demo

# After install, the binary is named `draft`
draft --version
draft --demo

Requires Node.js ≥ 18. Tested on Ubuntu and macOS, Node 18 / 20 / 22.

Shell completion

# bash
draft --completion bash >> ~/.bashrc

# zsh
draft --completion zsh > ~/.zsh/completions/_draft
# ensure ~/.zsh/completions is in fpath, then: autoload -U compinit && compinit

Completes flags, the --syntax bracket|mustache value, --completion bash|zsh, and file paths for --params, --output, --dictionary, --parties, --bundle, --from-deal.

What this gives you

• Five-tier detection cascade — [Title Case] brackets / {{mustache}} / .docx highlights (yellow/green/cyan/magenta) / heuristic dictionary / optional LLM. First tier with hits wins; the rest are skipped. Deterministic through tier 4.
• .docx round-trip — read a .docx template, fill placeholders, write <basename>-filled.docx with runs/styles/paragraph-breaks preserved. T3 highlight detection works against real templates (Common Paper, YC SAFE).
• Schema file for canonical keys, alias phrases, defaults, required-ness, and the v2 fields below (type, format, currency, computed, positions). Without a schema, every detected bracketed phrase is treated as a required parameter.
• Typed parameters — type: date | money | party validates and normalizes inputs before substitution. "01/15/2027" → "January 15, 2027"; "$5M" → "$5,000,000.00". Bad inputs exit 4 with per-key error.
• Computed placeholders — derive one placeholder's value from another via date arithmetic: { "from": "effective_date", "op": "+", "value": "2 years" }. Cycle detection at schema parse time.
• Positional addressing — same placeholder text with different semantic roles, addressed by position. Validated against the YC SAFE $[_____________] × 2 case.
• parties.json registry — declare known parties once; schemas reference ref:parties.<key>.<field>. Eliminates duplicating party metadata across templates.
• Multi-document bundles — fill multiple templates with one shared set of values: draft --bundle deal.bundle.json --params deal.json. Abort-all on any pre-write error.
• LLM-from-deal inference — --from-deal PATH reads a free-form deal description and asks the configured T5 provider (Anthropic / OpenAI / DRAFT_LLM_*) to fill the schema's parameters. CLI / --params still win over inferred values.
• Composable I/O — stdin (-), stdout default, --output PATH, template-vault get integration for <category>/<name>[@version] template refs.
• Three modes — draft (substitute and emit), --list-placeholders (enumerate), --validate (completeness check). All support --json and --why.
• Single file, stdlib + jszip, no telemetry, local-first. Network only when the LLM tier is explicitly configured.

End-to-end transcript

$ cat > nda.md <<'EOF'
This Agreement is between [Party A] and [Party B], effective [Effective Date].
[Party A] and [Party B] agree to keep confidential information confidential.
EOF

$ draft --list-placeholders nda.md
party_a  (Party A)  ×2  [tier=bracket]
party_b  (Party B)  ×2  [tier=bracket]
effective_date  (Effective Date)  ×1  [tier=bracket]

$ draft nda.md --party-a "Acme" --party-b "Vendor Inc." --effective-date 2026-06-01
This Agreement is between Acme and Vendor Inc., effective 2026-06-01.
Acme and Vendor Inc. agree to keep confidential information confidential.

$ cat > deal.json <<'EOF'
{"party_a": "Acme", "party_b": "Vendor Inc.", "effective_date": "2026-06-01"}
EOF

$ draft nda.md --params deal.json --output draft.md --why
draft: substituted 3 of 3 placeholders → draft.md
why:
  input         = nda.md
  tier          = bracket
  schema        = (none, inferred)
  placeholders  = 3 distinct, 5 occurrences
  resolved      = 3 (0 from CLI, 3 from --params, 0 interactive, 0 default)
  defaulted     = 0
  unresolved    = 0
  unmapped      = 0
  warnings      = 0

$ draft --validate nda.md --params deal.json && echo "ok"
ok: 3 parameter(s) resolved
ok

Detection cascade

draft-cli finds placeholders by trying five strategies in order. The first non-empty tier wins and the others are skipped.

Tier	Strategy	When
1	[Title Case]	Default. Matches Common Paper / YC SAFE / Bonterms convention.
2	{{Title Case}}	Opt-in with --syntax mustache.
3	.docx highlights	Auto on .docx input. Yellow / green / cyan / magenta runs.
4	Heuristic dictionary	Bundled list of generic names (Acme Corporation, John Doe, example@example.com, etc.). Warn-only by default.
5	LLM	Last resort. Runs only when .env or process env configures ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, or DRAFT_LLM_*.

The cascade is deterministic through tier 4. Tier 5 is the only non-deterministic step and runs only when you've explicitly configured a provider key. Pass --no-llm to disable it even when configured. Pass --no-heuristic to skip tier 4.

See PARAM_SCHEMA.md for the full contract.

Schema file (optional)

A sibling <template>.params.json lets you declare canonical keys, alias phrases, defaults, and required-ness. The long form (gated on _meta) unlocks the v2 fields:

{
  "_meta": { "schema_version": 1 },
  "party_a":         { "aliases": ["Party A"], "required": true, "type": "party" },
  "effective_date":  { "aliases": ["Effective Date"], "type": "date", "format": "MMMM d, yyyy" },
  "term_end":        { "aliases": ["Term End"], "type": "date",
                       "computed": { "from": "effective_date", "op": "+", "value": "2 years" } },
  "purchase_amount": { "aliases": ["Purchase Amount"], "type": "money", "currency": "USD" },
  "blank":           { "aliases": ["_____________"], "type": "money", "currency": "USD",
                       "positions": [{ "role": "valuation_cap" }, { "role": "purchase_amount" }] }
}

With a schema, draft-cli substitutes only declared parameters and leaves other bracketed text untouched. Without one, every detected bracketed phrase is treated as a required parameter.

The short form is just an aliases map: { "party_a": ["Party A"] }.

See PARAM_SCHEMA.md §5 for the full schema contract and the locked design decisions per v2 feature.

Command reference

draft <template>              fill placeholders and emit the result
draft <category>/<name>       pull via `template-vault get`
draft -                       template body on stdin
draft --demo                  bundled demo, no file needed
draft --list-placeholders <t> enumerate placeholders and exit
draft --validate <t> --params completeness check, no output
draft --bundle <bundle.json>  multi-doc bundle mode (v0.7.0)

OPTIONS
  --params FILE          JSON file of param values (snake_case keys)
  --parties PATH         parties.json registry for ref:parties.<key>.<field>  (v0.6.0)
  --bundle PATH          fill multiple templates in one invocation             (v0.7.0)
  --from-deal PATH       LLM-extract values from a free-form deal description  (v0.8.0)
  -o, --output PATH      write to PATH (default: stdout). `-` forces stdout.
                         For .docx input, default is <basename>-filled.docx   (v0.2.0)
  --syntax bracket|mustache
  -i, --interactive      prompt for missing required parameters
  --why                  structured explanation to stderr
  --json                 machine-readable result on stdout
  -q, --silent           suppress all stderr (warnings, --why, notes)
  --no-heuristic         disable tier 4
  --yes-heuristic        substitute tier-4 matches without confirmation
  --no-llm               disable tier 5 + --from-deal even when env is configured
  --llm                  assert that env is configured (fail-fast if not)
  --check-llm            one-token roundtrip to verify provider config
  --diff                 show substitution table without writing output
  --dictionary PATH      override the bundled heuristic dictionary
  --<param-name> VALUE   set a parameter directly (kebab → snake_case)
  -h, --help             show full help
  -V, --version          show version

Exit codes: 0 ok · 1 i/o · 2 validation · 3 template-vault failure · 4 schema validation / typed parameter / computed / ref / positional · 5 llm failure.

LLM tier (env-gated, opt-in)

When tiers 1–4 all find nothing, draft-cli falls back to a language model only if a provider key is in the environment. Read order: .env in the working directory, then process.env (process wins).

echo 'ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-…' >> .env
draft some-freeform-draft.md          # tier 5 auto-runs when 1-4 empty

Supported providers: Anthropic (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY), OpenAI (OPENAI_API_KEY), or explicit (DRAFT_LLM_PROVIDER + DRAFT_LLM_API_KEY + optional DRAFT_LLM_MODEL). The LLM receives template text only — no params file, no .env contents, no other data. Pass --no-llm to disable even when configured.

v0.8.0 inverse direction — --from-deal PATH: feed prose deal notes and the LLM extracts values for the schema's placeholders (instead of inferring where placeholders are). Uses the same provider config. Errors on provider missing, network failure, or non-JSON response. CLI / --params values always win over LLM-inferred ones. See PARAM_SCHEMA.md §5.

Composability

draft-cli reads from stdin, writes to stdout by default, and exits with distinct codes for each failure class. It composes with template-vault-cli on the read side and nda-review-cli / docx2pdf-cli / sign-cli on the write side:

# Pull a versioned template, fill it, hand it to review, convert to PDF, sign.
template-vault get nda/house-mutual@v3 \
  | draft - --from-deal deal-notes.txt --parties parties.json \
  | nda-review --redline \
  | docx2pdf - draft.pdf
sign-cli send draft.pdf --signer counsel@counterparty.com

Each tool stays small and replaceable. None of them know about each other beyond the standard stdin / stdout / argv / exit codes contract.

Documentation

• GETTING_STARTED.md — 10-minute walkthrough of the main flows.
• AGENTS.md — JSON shapes, exit codes, library use; everything an LLM agent driving draft-cli needs.
• ARCHITECTURE.md — how the cascade, schema, and substitution pipeline fit together.
• PARAM_SCHEMA.md — v1 + v2 schema contract; locked decisions per feature.
• FAQ.md — common questions about detection rules, T4 heuristics, and the LLM tier.
• V2_BRIEFS_REMAINING.md — design briefs for the four v2 items shipped after v0.1.x; historical now that all four have landed.
• SECURITY.md — reporting vulnerabilities.
• CHANGELOG.md — every shipped version with locked design decisions.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.