Templates, the shape of a post
A template is an ordered list of blocks saying what a post has to contain. Bind one to a collection, a post, or a seer.
Without a template, the research agent decides a post's shape and the kernel writes free-form prose. That's a perfectly good default. A template is for when the shape matters: a comparison that must have a table, a how-to with numbered steps, a release note with a fixed sign-off.
Make one
Primitives → Data → Templates → New template.
- Name it ("Comparison", "Release notes"). A new template offers examples to start from; they become ordinary blocks once inserted.
- Add block for each part of the post, in order. A block is Structured (a rich editor whose toolbar gives the text a shape: a heading, a list, steps, a comparison, fixed text, a fill-in, or a source the research must read) or Open-ended (a note to the engine, which decides how many sections it becomes). Each block has an Optional switch and controls to move or delete it.
- How this parsed shows how the platform read a structured block, line by line, so you can check the shape is what you meant.
What each block guarantees
| Block | What's held |
|---|---|
| Heading | Printed as a section heading exactly as you wrote it, in this order. A block without one gets a heading the engine writes. |
| List / Steps | It is a list of that kind, bulleted or numbered. The number of items comes from what the research found. |
| Comparison | The prose states the comparison, and a table is drawn under the heading, one row or column per thing compared, laid out the way you drew it. Needs a heading, and the collection's Comparison tables switch on. |
| Prose | The section is paragraphs, with no list. |
| Fixed text | Preserved word for word, as a quote block. Only when the whole block is quoted. |
Fill-in {Name} | Filled in per post from what that post is about, everywhere it appears, including in headings. Spell it the same way each time. |
The prose guarantee matters more than it looks: the writer volunteers lists readily, so no list here is the half of the problem a request in prose never solved.
An Optional block is left out when the source has too little to say for it. A block that isn't optional and can't be filled fails that post rather than shipping a gap.
Bind it
- Collection: Control Room → Setup → Writing → the Auto-Pen card → Content template (default). Every post in the collection takes the shape, seer drafts included.
- Post: the post's Auto-Pen panel has a Template picker: Inherit from collection or No template · free-form prose to opt out for one post.
- Seer: the seer's Output template setting (KB-207).
Deleting a template is safe: anything bound to it goes back to writing plain articles, and posts already written are untouched.
One writer, one shape
The kernel writes the whole article in one pass, section by section under your headings; the platform checks each section came back in the shape its block asked for and repairs one that didn't, then assembles the post and runs the same accuracy gate every Auto-Pen draft passes (KB-301). Figures the research verified reach the writer as a ledger it states verbatim, which is why a templated post's numbers match its source.