Templify: Schema-Driven DOCX Automation for the GenAI Age

As generative AI becomes central to enterprise document workflows, one challenge keeps coming up:

How do you take raw LLM output (plaintext) and consistently transform it into a styled, production-ready DOCX document that matches your organization’s templates?

Enter Templify — an LLM middleware layer designed for document automation pipelines. Templify isn’t another DOCX SDK. Instead, it bridges the gap between unstructured AI output and the structured world of Word templates using schemas, configs, and inline keys.

The Schema Builder

At the heart of Templify is the Schema Builder.

When you upload a DOCX template (or even a completed document), the schema builder parses the unzipped XML into a lean JSON schema. This schema captures only what matters for templating:

• Sections → logical document divisions (title, headings, lists, tables).

• Pattern Descriptors → detected patterns in text (Objective, Education, Appendix), each referencing style and layout.

• Style Snapshots → font, size, bold/italic, color, paragraph alignment, spacing.

• Layout Groups → page geometry (columns, margins, headers/footers).

• Global Defaults → fallbacks when style/layout info isn’t explicitly found.

The schema doesn’t dump raw XML — that’s python-docx’s job. Instead, it gives you a pattern-to-style contract you can use when rebuilding documents.

Titles Config

While schemas can be auto-generated, some documents require explicit rules. That’s where a Titles Config comes in.

A Titles Config is a developer-authored mapping from known section titles (or regex rules) to styles and layout groups. For example:

rules:
  - when: "text equals 'Objective'"
    type: HEADING
    style: Heading2
    layout_group: group0

  - when: "text matches '^Part [0-9]+:'"
    type: SECTION_HEADING
    style: Heading1
    layout_group: group1

This makes it trivial to rebuild recurring templates like resumes, reports, or legal docs. With a Titles Config, you don’t spend weeks hand-coding formatting logic — you define rules once and reuse them across plaintext inputs.

Pattern Descriptors with Styles and Paragraph Properties

Every line of plaintext can be associated with a Pattern Descriptor in the schema.

A pattern descriptor ties together:

• The detected text.

• Its semantic type (TITLE, HEADING, LIST_ITEM).

• Its resolved style (Heading1, BodyText, custom styles).

• Paragraph-level properties (alignment, spacing, numbering).

• Its layout group (e.g. one-column body vs. two-column sidebar).

Example:

{
  "id": "pat_1234",
  "paragraph_id": "A1B2C3",
  "type": "HEADING",
  "features": { "text": "Education", "clean_text": "Education" },
  "style": {
    "style_name": "Heading2",
    "font": { "name": "Arial", "size": 14, "bold": true },
    "paragraph": { "alignment": "left", "spacing_after": 6 }
  },
  "layout_group": "group0"
}

This descriptor is the bridge: when Templify processes new plaintext, it knows exactly which style and layout to apply.

Layout Groups

DOCX isn’t just text and styles — it’s also page design. Templify captures this through Layout Groups.

• group0: 1-column body text.

• group1: 2-column sidebar.

• group2: appendix layout.

Patterns are always tied to a layout group. So when the schema says:

• "Objective" → Heading2 in group0

• "Appendix" → Heading1 in group2

Templify can rebuild the document with the correct geometry.

Inline Templify Keys

Configs and heuristics get you far, but sometimes you need surgical control. That’s where inline keys come in.

Inline keys are lightweight markers you can inject into plaintext (manually or via an LLM agent) to override schema defaults:

$Templify-Layout-Start name=DefaultResume

John Doe 
Email: john.doe@templify.com

$Templify-Section-Start name=ProfessionalExperience
$Templify-Style-Heading2
Professional Experience

$Templify-List-Start type=Bullet
- Software Engineer, Lilly
- Backend Developer, DevPro
$Templify-List-End

$Templify-Section-End
$Templify-Layout-End

• $Templify-Layout-GroupX → force text into a specific layout group.

• $Templify-Style-Name → force a style regardless of config.

• $Templify-Image-id → insert an image placeholder.

Templify automatically strips these keys before final DOCX generation, so they never pollute your output.

Think of inline keys as developer overrides or agent hints — not something end-users see.

Why This Matters in the GenAI Era

LLMs are great at producing text, but:

• They don’t understand DOCX internals.

• They aren’t reliable at preserving styles, layouts, or custom templates.

Templify solves this by becoming the middleware between LLM output and document automation:

1. Schema Builder → capture styles, layouts, patterns.

2. Titles Config → enforce rules for recurring documents.

3. Pattern Descriptors → map plaintext to style + paragraph + layout.

4. Inline Keys → provide ultimate precision when needed.

Together, these pieces make Templify the missing layer in any GenAI DOCX automation pipeline.

🔹 Developer Value

• Weeks → Days: Stand up a new templating workflow in a day instead of weeks of custom SDK code.

• Reusability: Schema + config works across multiple docs.

• Flexibility: Use heuristics, configs, or inline keys — whatever the case demands.

• Scalability: Handle simple resumes or complex multi-layout scientific reports.