> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.libratech.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Discovery templates

> Save your column configurations once. Reuse them on every similar set of documents.

<video autoPlay muted loop playsInline src="https://mintcdn.com/libra-4206ec93/azhR9hqtFjs66ITC/assets/videos/features/discovery-templates.webm?fit=max&auto=format&n=azhR9hqtFjs66ITC&q=85&s=71e8ca72559886b5b51659047980790a" className="rounded-xl border w-full" data-path="assets/videos/features/discovery-templates.webm" />

A **Discovery template** is a saved set of columns. Once you've tuned the columns for *"NDA data extraction"*, you can run the same Discovery on next quarter's NDAs without defining anything again. Discovery templates live in the global [Templates library](/en/features/templates/about), on the **Discoveries** tab, alongside **Assistants**, **Workflows** and **Reviews**.

<div className="libra-buddy-callout">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/libra-4206ec93/wgVZXcGnHS4aJk9T/assets/images/libra-buddy/clipboard.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=wgVZXcGnHS4aJk9T&q=85&s=cde036cf23ea2d67cd50f1c295db549a" alt="Libra mascot with a clipboard" width="725" height="605" data-path="assets/images/libra-buddy/clipboard.png" />

  <div className="libra-buddy-callout-content">
    Templates published by Libra are read-only. Use **Duplicate** to get an editable copy of your own — Libra appends *(Copy)* to the name. Your edits never travel back to the original, so the Libra version stays as a baseline.
  </div>
</div>

## Finding a template

Click **Templates** in the global section of the sidebar, then open the **Discoveries** tab. Each card shows the template's name and description, a badge with its column count, and its author.

The controls above the cards narrow the list. All of them apply to the tab you are on, so a search run from **Discoveries** never turns up an Assistant.

* **Author** filters by who owns the template: **Yours**, **Team** or **Libra**. You can select more than one. **Team** is hidden if you are the only person on your account.
* **Practice area** and **Tags** filter on how templates were classified — see [Practice areas & tags](/en/features/templates/practice-areas-and-tags).
* **Sort by** defaults to **Last updated**.
* The magnifier opens a **Search templates…** box.
* The gear opens **Advanced filters**, which adds **Jurisdictions** and **Language**.

<Note>
  Discoveries is a Professional-tier feature in the Templates library. On the Starter plan the **Discoveries** tab is visible but locked behind an upgrade prompt.
</Note>

## Running a template

A Discovery always belongs to a project, so select the project you want the results in — and make sure you have edit rights there — before you run anything.

Hover a template card and two buttons appear: **View** and **Run**. The same actions sit in the **⋯** menu in the card's top-right corner.

**Run** opens a new, empty Discovery in your current project with the template's columns already in place. Add your documents and click **Start discovery**.

**View** opens the template itself. For a template you own, or one shared with you at **Edit** or **Full Access**, that's the editor, where the primary button is **Run**. For a read-only template — anything by Libra, or shared with you as **View only** — you get a detail view whose primary button is **Start Discovery**.

You can also start from the Discovery section itself. The strip across the top of **Discovery** shows template cards under **My Discoveries**, **Shared** and **Libra**, and **Browse templates** jumps straight to the **Discoveries** tab of the library. The **Libra** strip is filtered by your active jurisdictions: if none of them has a published template, it reads *"No templates available for your active jurisdictions."* The **My Discoveries** strip also carries a **Create New Template** card.

## Creating a template

Two routes: build one in the library, or save the columns of a Discovery you have already put together.

### From scratch

<Steps>
  <Step title="Start a new Discovery template">
    On the **Templates** page, click **Create new** in the top right and choose **Discoveries** from the menu. The menu lists template types by their plural names — **Assistants**, **Workflows**, **Reviews**, **Discoveries** — and on the Starter plan every item except **Assistants** is disabled.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Name and describe it">
    The title field starts as **Untitled discovery**. The description goes in the **Discovery Configuration** panel on the left. Write both for a colleague who has never seen the template: *"M\&A NDA extraction"* beats *"NDA v2"*.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add the columns">
    Click **Add first column**, then **Add column** for each one after that. A column card holds a **Column title**, a **Question** — the question Libra applies to each document in that column — and an answer type: **Text**, **Number**, **Date**, **Yes/No**, **Bullet list** or **Currency**. **Improve** rewrites a rough question into a sharper one.

    For guidance on wording questions and choosing answer types, see [Create a Discovery](/en/features/discovery/create-discovery#add-columns).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Classify it">
    Still in **Discovery Configuration**, use **Select practice area** and **Tags** so the template stays findable once the library grows.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Save">
    Click **Save**. The template appears on the **Discoveries** tab.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Saving unlocks the rest of the header. **Run** becomes the primary button, **Save** moves beside it, and icon buttons appear for **Add to favorites**, **Duplicate**, **Share** and **Delete**.

### From a Discovery you have already built

This is the common path: you built a Discovery, the columns work, you want them again next quarter.

Open the Discovery and click **Save as Template** in the header row, next to **Author** and **Updated**.

There is no dialog and nothing to confirm. Libra copies every column — title, question and answer type — into a new template, names it after the Discovery, and gives it the fixed description *"This is a new template created from a discovery"*. The control turns into **Saved as Template** and a *Template saved successfully* message confirms it.

Because nothing is editable at the moment you click, treat the result as a starting point. Open it on the **Discoveries** tab afterwards to give it a real name and description and to set its practice area and tags.

## Customising a Libra template

Libra's own templates cannot be edited in place. Open the **⋯** menu on the card and choose **Duplicate**. You get a copy with *(Copy)* appended to the name, owned by you and reachable through the **Yours** author filter. Change its columns, questions and answer types as you like — the original is untouched.

The same menu carries **Favorite**, **View** and **Run**. **Delete** appears only on templates you are allowed to manage, which is why it is missing from Libra's.

## Sharing a Discovery template

**Share** lives in the template's header, and it only becomes available after the first save — there is no template to share until one exists, so you cannot set access while creating one. Sharing is a team feature: on a single-user account the control is unavailable.

Under **General access** you choose between **Everyone in the team** and **Only people invited**. On top of that you can invite specific people or groups and give each **Can view**, **Can edit** or **Full access**. The full model is covered in [Starring & sharing](/en/features/templates/starring-and-sharing).

## Tips for good Discovery templates

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Be specific in the question">
    *"Extract the date when all parties signed"* is better than *"Contract date"*. Specific questions produce consistent answers across documents.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Match the answer type to the data">
    Set each column to the type the answer actually is — **Date** for a signing date, **Currency** for a purchase price, **Yes/No** for a presence check — rather than leaving everything as **Text**. See [Create a Discovery](/en/features/discovery/create-discovery#add-columns) for what each type is best at.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Start with a small column set">
    A template with five well-tuned columns gives cleaner results than one with twenty. Add columns once the basics work.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="One template per document type">
    A template for *NDAs* and a template for *Lease agreements* gives better results than one mixed template. Documents within a Discovery should share a structure.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Tag templates so the library scales">
    A library with five templates needs no organisation. A library with fifty does. Set a practice area and tags from the start.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Next steps

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Create a Discovery" icon="play" href="/en/features/discovery/create-discovery">
    Start a Discovery from scratch or from a template.
  </Card>

  <Card title="About templates" icon="book-marked" href="/en/features/templates/about">
    The full Templates library overview.
  </Card>
</Columns>