Can I change the skills a template loads?

Admins can set a chain override on a custom template or change the chain for a content type across the workspace. The humanizer stays last in every case.

What does the approval checkpoint on a template mean?

Templates for long pieces pause after the outline so someone can read the headings before the run writes the draft. The checkpoint is a property of the template, and the API can set it per run with approvalAfterOutline.

Is there a limit on batch size?

Credits limit a batch, not the number of rows. Each row's run meters its finished words like any other run, and a paid plan keeps going into overage while the free plan pauses new runs when the month's credits run out.

Guide

Templates and briefs

Updated Sep 25, 2026 · 6 min read

A template is a content type with a chain of skills and a brief form. WriterDean ships 91 of them in 19 families, and a workspace can add its own. This guide explains the catalog, the brief fields, how a plain sentence finds the right template, and how to run many pieces at once.

The catalog

Templates is the gallery. Each card names the template, its family and the skills its chain loads, ending with the humanizer. The filter chips group the families the way the reference design does: Blog and SEO, Website copy, Social media, Digital ads, Email, Ecommerce, Video, Sales, PR and launch, Strategy, General writing.

91 platform templates. The counts come from the catalog the app reads, so they change when it does.
Family	Templates	Examples
Blog and long form	8	Blog post, how to guide, listicle, pillar guide, glossary page, statistics roundup, case study, newsletter article
Comparison and alternatives	3	X vs Y, alternatives to X, best of roundup
Programmatic SEO	3	City page, integration page, use case page
Website copy and conversion surfaces	9	Homepage, landing page, pricing page, feature page, signup copy, onboarding copy, paywall copy
Email, cold outreach, SMS	14	Onboarding sequences, launches, newsletters, win back, dunning, outreach
Social and ads	10	LinkedIn posts, threads, carousels, captions, plus ad sets for search and social
Video and audio	5	Scripts, show notes, hooks
Sales, PR, lead magnets, launches	14	One pagers, press releases, launch plans, lead magnets
Ecommerce and app store	6	Product descriptions, category pages, store listings
Strategy documents, reviews, general writing	19	Marketing plans, briefs, critiques, plain documents

A template card. The chain is the real list of skills the router assigns, not a description of them.

1The chain, humanizer last

The brief

Every template shares five fields: the audience, which defaults to the brand's primary decision maker, a persona from the brand document, the call to action, a tone override for a piece that should differ from the brand voice, and notes for the writer. Searchable formats add the SEO fields.

Primary keyword and secondary keywords, with the search intent and the buyer stage.
Target length in words, with a default per template from 600 for a landing page to 4,000 for a pillar guide.
Internal links to place, with anchor text and URL, and competitor URLs to study.
Required facts the draft must include, along with a source URL and pasted source material.

Describe it in a sentence

The search box on the Templates page takes a plain sentence as well as a name. Type what you want, for example a comparison of us and a competitor for people switching, then press enter. The brief page opens on the closest template with the sentence in the notes. The same routing runs behind the blank brief at New.

Custom templates

Admins can add templates to a workspace. Each custom template has its own name, brief fields, defaults, chain override and example output, but runs the same stages as its content type; only the skills and the brief differ. Custom templates sit in the gallery beside the platform ones and appear in list_templates for the API.

Bulk runs from a spreadsheet

Bulk turns rows into runs. Start a new batch, pick the brand and the template, name the batch, then paste rows or drop a CSV where each row is one brief. Choose how many runs execute at once, and the batch page shows every row's run with its status and a link to the piece. Keyword clusters open a batch the same way from the Keywords page.

The New batch dialog. Each row of the file becomes one brief, and the columns map onto the template's fields.

1Brand, template and batch name
2Rows pasted or a file dropped

Repurpose and translate

From a finished piece, Repurpose or translate opens a batch that writes new formats from it: a LinkedIn post, an X thread, a newsletter, a short video script and a carousel outline, each through its own chain and the humanizer. Translate produces the piece in any of twelve languages with the same voice rules; localization is on the Pro plan and above.

Something missing or wrong on this page? Write to hello@writerdean.com and say which section.