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Harvey for Word: Managing Playbooks

Learn the components of a playbook, how Harvey applies them during review, and best practices for creating effective playbooks.

Last updated: Oct 8, 2025

Overview

Using Playbooks in Word streamlines contract review by analyzing documents against customized playbooks that reflect your company’s established positions. Harvey Playbooks allow you to apply consistent legal and business standards when reviewing contracts. Each playbook is built on a set of rules that define what is acceptable, needs review, or is unacceptable.

As a Playbook manager you will be able to upload, edit, publish and manage visibility of the playbooks for your workspace.

How Playbooks Work

When you create a playbook in Harvey, you’ll define rules based on your contract or an existing playbook. Each rule instructs Harvey on how to evaluate a clause—or the contract as a whole—for adherence. Every rule consists of three customizable components:

  1. Positions — Define standard, fall back, and unacceptable positions
  2. Guidance — Provide instructions, contextual notes, or strategic advice for team members who use the playbook
  3. Required clauses — Decide if the rule requires a clause is found in the contract

Positions

Each rule in a playbook can contain up to three types of positions.

Position Types

Definition

Examples

Standard position

  • Preferred position / rule
  • The “ideal” clause language or rule outcome from your company’s perspective.
  • “Payment must be made within 30 days”

Fallback positions

  • Acceptable deviations
  • Alternative positions that are not ideal (do not match the preferred position) but may be acceptable after team member’s review.
  • These don’t need to be full clauses, concepts work, but should be specific enough for Harvey to detect.

Less helpful: “less than standard position”

More helpful:

  • “Payment terms longer than 30 days”
  • “Payment within 45 days”
  • “The agreement contains a non-compete clause”

Unacceptable deviations

  • Red flags
  • Strict dealbreakers that override everything else. If present, the clause or rule will return as unacceptable.
  • “Payment after 90 days”
  • ”Automatic renewal without notice”
  • “Counterparty is located in an embargoed country.”

A standard position may be specific clause language or a general rule. It's important to determine which applies—whether the standard position requires the exact clause in the contract or just adherence to general concepts.

If you don’t have or need to establish a standard, preferred position, but want to flag dealbreakers or areas for team member review, you can skip defining a standard position. This setup is useful when the company doesn’t have a single “ideal” stance but still wants to ensure high-risk or discretionary issues don’t slip through unnoticed.

Guidance

Input guidance for team members to aid their review of a contract using the playbook in Word. Include contextual notes, commentary, or strategic advice on how to interpret clauses, understand intent, or navigate negotiations. Note, this is not information that the model will use to evaluate, but rather context meant to support team members during review.

  • For example, “Push for 30 days, but if counterparty insists on 45 days, accept only with VP approval.”

Required Clause

Required Clause Checkbox

Definition

Example

Checked

If checked, the clause must appear in the contract.

Confidentiality clauses are typically required and the absence of it will be flagged as unacceptable.

Unchecked

If unchecked, the clause is optional—absence is not flagged as unacceptable, but if present, it will be evaluated.

Publicity clauses are often optional. If the clause is not present, it does not need to be addressed, but if it appears, it should be reviewed based on the rule.

Tip: Want to ensure a clause is excluded? You have two options:

  1. Define your standard position as “Agreement does not include [X],”
  2. Create a rule with only an unacceptable deviation (e.g., “Agreement contains a non-compete clause”) and leave the required clause checkbox unchecked.

How Harvey Reviews Contracts

Harvey applies playbook rules in a structured, lawyer-like order:

  1. Check for Unacceptable Deviations first. If a red flag appears, the clause is unacceptable.
  2. If no red flags:
    • Matches the standard position → Acceptable
    • Matches a fallback → Needs Review
    • Matches neither → Unacceptable

Helpful to note: Harvey can interpret redlines and comments.

How to Upload an Existing Playbook

Note: Only Playbook managers and creators can perform these steps.

  1. In Harvey, go to Settings → Playbooks.
  2. Upload the desired playbook.
    Upload the playbook into Harvey.
  3. Harvey will extract your standard position, fallback positions, unacceptable deviations, or guidance notes from your existing playbook. We recommend that you review the conversions to ensure they accurately reflect your company's positions. You can edit or add these rules directly in the editor if needed.
    Make changes directly in Harvey.
  4. Click Save.
  5. To make playbooks visible to users, click Share to grant access to specific individuals or your entire workspace.
    Share playbooks to make them visible to workspace users.

Making Edits to a Playbook from Word

You can edit a playbook two ways:

  1. From Settings, select the Playbook and click the rule in which you wish to edit (as described above in Step 3).
  2. When in Harvey for Word viewing a clause, click View playbook rule and Edit rule.
    Click edit rule.

View and Restore Playbook Versions

  1. Go to Settings > Playbooks.
  2. Open a playbook.
  3. Click the version history from the top menu. From here, you can choose to restore or compare versions.
    Image of viewing playbook version history in harvey

Tips for Effective Playbooks

  • Use a decision-tree mental model: Write rules so Harvey can follow clear yes/no paths.
  • Chunk wisely: Combine related conditions into comprehensive rules, or split into smaller rules if you want finer control.
  • Be clear and direct: Use positive/negative language that leaves no ambiguity.
  • Spell out synonyms: Don’t assume “agents” = “representatives.” List both.
  • Decide on lists: Clarify whether a list is exhaustive or illustrative.
  • Use verbatim language when needed: Write the exact text into the rule if Harvey must require specific phrasing. For example, “The Agreement must include: [insert text]”). This anchors Harvey to verbatim phrasing.
  • Distinguish global vs. local rules:
    • Local rule: Applies to one clause (e.g., “Tenant may assign lease to affiliate without consent”).
    • Global rule: Applies across the contract (e.g., “No provision may give Landlord sole discretion”).

View Playbook Samples

Sample MSA, NDA, and Commercial contract playbooks are available in your Harvey workspace.

  1. In Harvey, go to Settings > Playbooks
  2. Above the table of playbooks, locate the tabs that organize them and select Harvey.

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