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A Playbook is the structure your firm uses to evaluate one kind of contract — an employment contract, an NDA, a service agreement. It holds the Topics you negotiate, the Positions you’d accept for each, and the Rules that test whether a contract meets each Position. Every Review runs against a Playbook, so writing one is how you turn “our standard terms” into something Libra can check. Playbooks live in the Templates library under the Reviews tab, and any project can run them.
This page is about building a Playbook. To run a Review and read what comes back, see Review basics and Understanding Review results.
Before you start: Playbooks are a Professional capability. On a Starter plan the Reviews tab of the Templates library shows Reviews are a Professional feature instead of your Playbooks, and both the Create new → Reviews item and the project New Playbook button are disabled with an Upgrade to Professional prompt. See Subscription. How the page is laid out:
  1. Open the editor and name the Playbook.
  2. Add a Topic — one for each clause you negotiate.
  3. Write the Positions and Rules — a Starting position, an optional Fallback or two, and a Not acceptable position.
  4. Save it, then run it on a contract.
Libra mascot with a clipboard
Write multiple narrow Rules, not one big one. ”≤ 40 h/week AND ≤ 10 overtime” should be two; you’ll see which condition broke, not an opaque Not met.

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Open the editor

There are two ways in, and they are not quite the same.
1

From the Templates library — the full-page editor

Click Templates in the global part of the sidebar, open the Reviews tab, then click Create new → Reviews. The full-page Playbook editor opens. On an empty Reviews tab the Create review template button in the middle of the page is the same shortcut — a few older surfaces still say review template, but it’s the same object.
2

From a project — the modal

On a project’s Review page, click New Playbook. The same form opens as a modal on top of your Playbooks and Review runs, which is quicker when you are already in the matter.The one difference worth knowing: only the full-page editor carries the chat panel. If you want to build the Playbook by asking for it, take the Templates route.
3

Name it

A new Playbook opens as New playbook with the title placeholder Untitled playbook. Type a name specific enough to find later: “Employment contract, German law”, “Service agreement, Swiss employer side”. Vague names are the single biggest reason a Templates library becomes unreadable.The Playbook Configuration panel beside the Topics holds the description, the Practice area and the Tags. Filling those in is what makes the Playbook findable once the library has thirty of them — see Practice areas & tags.

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Add a Topic

A Topic is one subject of negotiation: Working hours, Place of work, Termination. A Playbook usually has one Topic per clause you actually negotiate — typically 6 to 10 for an employment contract, 3 or 4 for an NDA. Click Add topic (or Add first topic on an empty Playbook) and give it the noun of the negotiation, not the action: “Working hours”, not “Check working hours”. The name is what shows on the Review result, alongside the risk badge. A new Topic arrives with two Positions already in place — a Starting position and a Not acceptable position — each holding one empty Rule. A Fallback is not there by default; you add one only if you need it. A new Topic in the Playbook editor showing Positions 2 — a Starting position and a Not acceptable position, each with one empty Rule — plus the Add fallback, Add rule and Add ideal language controls
If you’d negotiate two things separately at the table, they’re two Topics. Working hours and Overtime compensation might be one Topic if you always negotiate them together; otherwise split them.

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Write the Positions and Rules

Inside each Topic you describe what you’d sign, what you’d take under pressure, and what you’d refuse. Each Position holds one or more Rules — specific, testable conditions Libra evaluates against the contract. Use Add rule in the Position header for each extra one; once a rule box has text in it, an Improve with AI icon button appears in its top-right corner if you want Libra to tighten your wording.
1

Starting position

A position you would accept for this clause. The clause you’d love to see. Write at least one Rule; usually two or three. There is exactly one Starting position per Topic and it cannot be removed.Example for Working hours:
  • Weekly working time does not exceed 40 hours.
  • The agreed gross monthly salary compensates for no more than 10 overtime hours per month.
2

Fallback position (optional, and you can have several)

A compromise you would accept if the Starting Position was not met. Click Add fallback in the Positions header to add one; it slots in above the Not acceptable position. Fallbacks are the only Positions you can delete again.Example for Working hours:
  • Weekly working time does not exceed 45 hours, with above-market overtime compensation.
The Fallback exists to surface real flexibility. If you copy your Starting position into it, the Playbook loses its diagnostic value.
3

Not acceptable position

A position you would not accept for this clause. Your red line — every Rule that triggers here tells you to negotiate. There is exactly one per Topic, and it cannot be removed.Example for Working hours:
  • Weekly working time exceeds 50 hours.
  • Overtime is uncapped or uncompensated.
4

Attach Ideal language (optional)

On a Starting or Fallback position, Add ideal language lets you attach the actual wording you’d accept — the exact text Libra should use when suggesting edits. The Word add-in redrafts a failing clause from it, so treat it as wording your firm has actually approved, not a placeholder.Example for Working hours: “The weekly working time is 40 hours. Reasonable overtime up to 10 hours per month is compensated by the agreed monthly gross salary.”The control is deliberately absent on the Not acceptable position: an “ideal” version of a clause you’d never sign is a contradiction.
For Topics where you can’t easily express your view as Positions and Rules — “does this clause hold up under current case law?” — switch the Topic to Auto Mode with the book icon in the Topic header (its tooltip reads Auto mode – ask Libra to conduct legal research to evaluate this topic). Libra asks you to confirm, because Switch to Auto Mode replaces that Topic’s Positions and Rules with a single research-backed question and a set of research sources.

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Save it, then run it

Add the next Topic (Place of work, Salary, Termination…) and write its Positions and Rules. Repeat until the Playbook covers the things you actually negotiate, then click Save. On a Playbook you’re creating, Save is the only header action. Once it’s saved the editor switches into edit mode: the primary button becomes Start Review, with Save kept alongside for further changes. Start Review opens Select Documents to review, so you can go straight from writing the Playbook to running it. The saved Playbook is filed under the Reviews tab of the Templates library and appears on the project Review page under My Playbooks. Share it and anyone it reaches can run it too.

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Build and edit a Playbook by chatting beside it

You don’t have to fill the form in by hand. The full-page Playbook editor carries the floating chat panel — on a Playbook you’re creating and on one you’re editing — so you can ask for structure instead of typing it.
1

On a new Playbook

Open the editor from the Templates library and describe what you want in the chat bubble: “a Playbook for reviewing standard German employment contracts from the employer’s side, covering working time, remuneration, probation and termination.” Once Libra creates the Playbook, the page moves you onto it — provided you haven’t started editing the form yourself.
2

On an existing Playbook

The Playbook you’re looking at is attached to the conversation automatically, as a locked chip. That attachment is what gives Libra the tools to read and change it, so “add a topic on data protection” or “tighten rule 2 under Termination” lands in the form you have open.
3

When you both edit at once

If a chat edit arrives while you have unsaved changes, Libra doesn’t guess: a dialog titled This Playbook changed in chat offers Reload the new version or Keep editing. With no unsaved changes the form just refreshes itself.
This works on Playbooks you can edit. On one you can only view — a public Libra template, or a Playbook shared with view access — the chat can’t read or change it, so ask on a copy of your own instead.

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Worked example: an employment-contract Playbook

Here’s how a real Playbook might look:
Starting position
  • Weekly working time does not exceed 40 hours.
  • The agreed gross monthly salary compensates for no more than 10 overtime hours per month.
  • Ideal language: “The weekly working time is 40 hours. Reasonable overtime up to 10 hours per month is compensated by the agreed monthly gross salary.”
Not acceptable position
  • Weekly working time exceeds 50 hours.
  • Overtime is uncapped or uncompensated.
Starting position
  • Place of work is named (city, region, or country).
  • Remote work is permitted up to 2 days per week.
Fallback position
  • Place of work is named, but remote work is not permitted.
Not acceptable position
  • Place of work is unspecified.
  • Employer can unilaterally relocate the employee with less than 4 weeks’ notice.
Starting position
  • Gross monthly or annual salary is specified in figures.
  • Payment cadence is monthly.
Not acceptable position
  • Salary is described in vague terms (e.g. “competitive”).
  • Payment cadence is irregular or undefined.

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Tips for writing good Topics, Positions, and Rules

If you’d negotiate two things separately at the table, they’re two Topics. Working hours and Overtime compensation might be one Topic if you always negotiate them together; otherwise split them.
The Fallback is the wording you’d actually accept under pressure, not what you’d hope for. Playbooks that pretend “Starting position or nothing” produce too many high-risk topics on real contracts.
“The clause is reasonable” is aspirational. “Notice period is at least 30 days” is testable. Libra needs the testable kind.
Two specific rules give you better diagnostics than one combined rule. If a Position has ”≤ 40 hours/week AND ≤ 10 overtime hours”, write that as two rules; when the contract fails, you see exactly which condition broke.
Ideal language ends up as a Word add-in suggestion. Make sure it’s wording your firm has actually approved, not a placeholder.
Libra mascot pointing
Ideal language drives Word redlines: on a failed Starting position, the add-in redrafts the clause from it. Use firm-approved wording, not a placeholder.

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Next steps

Review basics

Run your Playbook against a contract.

Understanding results

What the risk badges and Met counts actually mean.

Auto Mode

Skip the rule-writing for research-driven Topics.

Reviews from chat

Run a Review, or draft a whole Playbook, without leaving the conversation.