Creating Report Templates

A great research report isn't just data dumped onto a page. It has structure — an executive summary that busy stakeholders actually read, sections that flow logically, and citations that let readers dig deeper. In this lesson, you'll build reusable templates that shape how OpenClaw organizes its findings.

Prerequisites

How Templates Work

  Raw Research Data          Template Engine           Formatted Report
  ┌────────────────┐        ┌──────────────┐        ┌──────────────────┐
  │ 47 sources     │        │              │        │ Executive Summary│
  │ 128 data points│───────>│  Template    │───────>│ Section 1: ...   │
  │ 15 statistics  │        │  rules +     │        │ Section 2: ...   │
  │ 8 quotes       │        │  structure   │        │ Key Findings     │
  └────────────────┘        └──────────────┘        │ Sources [47]     │
                                                     └──────────────────┘

Templates define what goes where. The AI decides what content fits each section based on the research data and template constraints.

Create Your First Template

Templates live in your OpenClaw config directory. Start with a general-purpose market research template.

templates/market-research.yaml

Add Section Constraints

Each section can have constraints that control depth and data requirements.

Section constraint options

require_data is Your Friend

Setting require_data: true means the section only appears if OpenClaw found relevant data. This prevents the AI from hallucinating content when sources come up empty. Use it on any data-heavy section.

Create a Competitor Analysis Template

Different research goals need different templates. Here's one optimized for competitor comparisons.

templates/competitor-analysis.yaml

Set Template Defaults

Configure which template applies to different types of research requests.

openclaw.config.yaml

With auto_detect: true, a request like "compare Notion vs Coda vs Obsidian" automatically selects the competitor-analysis template without you specifying it.

Test a Template

Generate a quick test report to see your template in action.

Terminal

openclaw research generate --topic "AI in healthcare 2024" --template market-research --preview

The --preview flag generates a report outline without making API calls, so you can verify the structure looks right.

Preview Output

You can define conditional sections that appear only when certain data types are found.

Conditional section example

This way, a healthcare report includes a regulatory section automatically, but a general tech report skips it.

Templates support a language field for generating reports in other languages.

language: es         # Spanish
citation_style: apa  # APA citations in Spanish

The AI translates section titles, instructions are interpreted in the target language, and sources are prioritized from that language when available.

Knowledge Check

What does the `require_data: true` option do on a template section?