How AI clients use DocsAutomator

• Server instructions: a short text every client receives when it connects.
• Session guide: a short text that DocsAutomator adds to the first answer of each session, because some clients ignore the server instructions.
• Tool descriptions: each of the 22 tools describes what it does, what each input means and what it changes.

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Safety rules

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What protects a send

• Every tool that sends email or changes your setup is marked as such for your AI client (MCP tool annotations). AI clients that ask before such actions, such as ChatGPT with its Allow card, ask you first.
• DocsAutomator refuses a live document while the automation is in test mode, and before the automation has made its first test document.
• A preview is a watermarked PDF. Nothing is sent and nothing counts against your plan.
• An automation moved to the trash can be restored from the Trash in the DocsAutomator app.

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A confirmation dialog in your AI client

• The dialog names the document and every recipient. Nothing is sent until you confirm.
• DocsAutomator asks before:
  • a document goes out in test or live mode, for signing, acceptance or by email (create_document),
  • a reminder (send_esign_reminder), a new invitation (resend_esign_invite) or a cancellation (cancel_esign_session),
  • an automation with email recipients goes live (configure_automation),
  • a change to who a live automation emails (configure_output).
• A preview never asks.
• When you decline, close the dialog or do not answer within 10 minutes, nothing is sent or changed, and your AI client is told so in plain words.
• AI clients without confirmation dialogs confirm the recipients with you in the chat instead.

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Test before live

• The first document of a new setup goes out in test mode. Test mode runs the full flow for free: the real signing or acceptance emails go to the real recipients, with a watermark, and nothing counts against your plan.
• Going live is the last step. It only removes the watermark and counts the documents.
• DocsAutomator also checks this on the server: when your AI client does not ask for a mode, the first document of a new automation goes out in test mode, and a live document from an automation that has not made a test document yet is refused.

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Templates

• Your AI client uses your own template first: a Word or PDF file you upload, or a Google Doc you already have. Then a ready-made template from the DocsAutomator gallery. It designs a new Word template with AI only when none fits or when you ask for it.
• Your AI client never creates or edits a Google Doc.
• A template is reusable: the details of each case become placeholders. Your AI client does not fill in a one-off document.

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Sending documents

• Your AI client sends from the automation you already have.
• On a record source (Airtable, Notion, Google Sheets, Google Forms, SmartSuite or ClickUp), it passes the record ID. The record fills the document, and the signer emails come from the record’s mapped fields. It names other recipients only when you name a different person.
• On Airtable, Notion, Google Sheets, SmartSuite or ClickUp, your AI client can find the record by its name. The DocsAutomator search returns up to five matching records, with only the ID and name of each. When several records match, your AI client asks which one you mean.
• It never copies an automation to send from the chat, and it never replaces the automation’s data source.
• When you ask for an approval, your AI client names the approvers for that one document. The document waits until they approve, even when approval is off for the automation. See Approvals.
• Your AI client can give each document its own key. When it sends the same request again with the same key within 7 days, DocsAutomator returns the first result and creates nothing new, so a retry after a timeout never sends a document twice.
• If the automation creates an e-invoice, the document your AI client creates is an e-invoice too, and a problem in the data stops it with a message that names the field. See E-invoices from MCP clients.

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Values and formats

• Your AI client sends raw values: numbers as numbers and dates as ISO dates (2026-10-01). DocsAutomator formats every value itself, by the automation’s placeholder formats and locale.
• Your AI client reads the automation before it creates a document, so it knows the placeholders and what each one means.

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Choices

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The texts as your AI client receives them

Send RAW values: numbers as numbers, dates as ISO dates. Read get_automation before create_document; pass a mode ('test' for a new setup's first document).
Templates: theirs first (set_template: upload, Google Doc), then gallery (set_template); generate_word_template only if none fits. Never create or edit a Google Doc.
Ask in plain text when you need a choice.

DocsAutomator session guide (shown once per session):
- Templates, in this order: the user's own (set_template takes their upload or Google Doc), then a ready-made one from our gallery (search with in: "templates", then set_template), and only when none fits or they ask for AI, generate_word_template. Never lead with an AI design. Never create or edit a Google Doc.
- Build a reusable template: the case details become placeholders. Never fill in a one-off document.
- Send from the existing automation. On a record source (Airtable, Notion, Google Sheets, Google Forms, SmartSuite, ClickUp), pass the record id; the record fills the document and the signer emails come from its mapped fields. Pass recipients only when the user names a different person.
- Never copy an automation into an API copy to send from chat, and never replace its data source.
- These tools cannot search records. Get the record from the user, or from their own connector for that app.

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Related

• DocsAutomator MCP: connect your AI client and see every tool.