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This guide walks you through building your first Gavel workflow from start to finish. By the end, you will have a working questionnaire connected to an output document — ready to test and share.
Gavel offers a free trial (no credit card needed) so you can build and test before committing to a plan. Visit gavel.io to sign up and learn more.

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Before you start

Have a document you want to automate ready. Ideally, choose something you draft frequently with consistently collected information — names, dates, addresses, and so on. A one-page letter or short agreement is a good starting point.

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Build your first workflow

1

Sign up or log in

Create your Workflows Free Trial, choosing your personalized subdomain (e.g., yourname). Verify your email address, and your account will be set up at yourname.gavel.io. After signing in to your subdomain, you land on your Dashboard, where all your workflows live.
2

Create a new workflow

Click New Workflow from the Dashboard. Give it a name that reflects the document you are automating (for example, “Client Engagement Letter”). Gavel opens the Builder View — the workflow editor where you design the questionnaire and connect documents.
3

Add your questions

In the Builder View, add questions that correspond to every piece of variable information in your document. For each question:
  1. Click + Question (bottom right) or + New → Question in the left sidebar.
  2. Select the appropriate question type (Text, Date, Yes/No, etc.).
  3. Enter the Question name (a label your respondent will see).
  4. Enter the Variable Name (e.g., ClientFullName) — you will use this to tag your document template.
Repeat until you have created a question for every field that will need to exist in your output document.
Use descriptive variable names like ClientFullName or EffectiveDate rather than generic names. You will insert these into your document template, so clarity matters.
4

Organize questions into pages

Long questionnaires are easier to complete when grouped into logical pages. Click + Add Page (top right) to add a page. Drag questions between pages (using the left sidebar) to arrange them. Each page becomes one screen in the questionnaire experience.You can also add sections to group pages under a heading, which gives respondents a visual sense of progress (each section name will appear on the left while respondents fill out the questionnaire, showing them how far along they are). Some Builders find it easiest to add sections first, then add pages to each section, then add questions to each page.
5

Connect a Word or PDF template

Navigate to the Document Templates tab of your workflow.
  1. Install the free Gavel Word Add-in from the Microsoft AppSource if you haven’t already. Follow these steps to get set up.
  2. Open your Word document and use the Add-in to insert variable tags — for example, {{ ClientFullName }} — wherever variable content should appear.
  3. Save the document and upload it to the Document Templates tab in Gavel.
You can attach multiple output documents to a single workflow. All connected templates are generated simultaneously when the questionnaire is submitted. You can also set up document logic to only output certain documents depending on the respondent’s answers to the questionnaire.
6

Test the workflow

Save your workflow, and click **Run **in the Builder View to run through the questionnaire as a respondent would. Fill in sample answers and proceed to the output page to confirm that the generated documents look correct.Check that:
  • All variable fields populate with the correct answers
  • Conditional clauses show and hide as expected
  • Formatting in the output document matches your template
Always test before sharing with clients. A quick test run catches missing variables and formatting issues before they reach a real respondent.
7

Share the workflow

Once you are satisfied with the test output, choose how you would like to share your workflow. Depending on how you want to use it, you can:
  • Share a direct link with specific colleagues or clients
  • Embed the workflow on your website or client portal
  • Restrict access to specific users or require login
  • Set it to public so anyone with the link can complete it
Respondents follow the link and complete the questionnaire. They can receive the generated documents on the output page, or you can hide the output documents and have them emailed to you for review.

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Next steps

Now that you have a working workflow, explore more advanced features to make it smarter and more polished.

Question types

Learn about all available question types, including text questions, repeating items, and file uploads.

Pages and sections

Organize your questionnaire into a clean, navigable structure.

Repeating items

Collect variable-length lists like children, assets, or parties to a contract.

What can you build?

Get inspired by use cases and examples from real legal workflows.