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AI Blocks Start in the Template

The fastest way to get Rootly AI-generated retrospectives is to add AI blocks to a template. Every retrospective created from that template will generate those sections automatically — so your team gets a consistent first draft every time, without anyone inserting blocks by hand. The quickest start of all is a starter template — a ready-made, Rootly AI-powered template you can adopt in one click. You can also drop AI blocks into an individual document on the fly (see Using AI Blocks), but templates are where you set the standard for the whole team. For how templates work in general — formats, Liquid, data blocks, and defaults — see Configuring Templates.

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Start from a starter template

If you don’t want to build from scratch, start from a starter template — a curated, Rootly AI-powered template that already has the right AI blocks and structure for a common scenario. Most teams only ever use the basic default template, so starters are the fastest way to get the full value of AI blocks. Rootly ships four starter templates: There are two ways to use a starter.

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Try a starter from the Document Templates page

1

Open the Document Templates page

In Rootly, go to Retrospectives → Document Templates. The AI Starter Templates section sits above your team’s own templates.
2

Pick a starter and click Try template

Each starter card shows a preview thumbnail, name, and description. Click Try template to open the full template builder preloaded with that starter’s content.
3

Make it your own

Rename it, adjust the blocks and instructions, and save. Nothing is created until you save — backing out leaves no template behind.

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Insert a starter while you’re building

Already in the template builder? Open the AI Library tab in the sidebar. It has two parts: Starter templates at the top and the AI Blocks palette below.
  • Click a starter to insert its content. If your document is empty, the starter seeds it; if you’ve already added content, the starter’s content is appended.
  • You can insert more than one — each insert gets fresh blocks, so nothing collides.

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Open the template builder

To build a template from scratch:
1

Go to the Document Templates page

In Rootly, go to Retrospectives → Document Templates.
2

Create a template

Click New Template for a blank document, or Try template on a starter to begin from a ready-made one (see above).
3

Find the AI Library

The builder opens with a two-panel layout: the document you’re building on one side, and the AI Library sidebar — starter templates and the AI Blocks palette — on the other.

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Add AI blocks from the palette

The AI Blocks palette sits in the AI Library sidebar tab, below the starter templates. To add an AI block:
  • Drag it from the palette into the position you want in the document, or
  • Click into the document, type /, and pick it from the slash menu.
In the document, AI blocks sit alongside the other building blocks you already use — headings, text, the Timeline and Follow-ups data blocks, and Liquid variables.

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The preset blocks

Rootly ships six preset AI blocks. Each one has an expert prompt behind it, so it knows how to write that section from the incident’s context.

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Custom AI blocks

When none of the presets fit, add a Custom AI block:
1

Add the custom block

Add it from the palette or the slash menu.
2

Give it a title

The title becomes the section heading.
3

Write a prompt

Describe what you want this section to contain in plain language — for example, “Summarize the customer communications sent during the incident and whether they went out on time.”
Rootly AI drafts that section from the same incident context as the presets.

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Steer generation with instructions

You don’t have to accept the preset prompts as-is. You can layer your own guidance on top:
  • Per-block custom instructions. Add instructions to any preset block to put your own spin on it — for example, “Write Impact in customer-minutes-lost” or “Keep Root Cause to three sentences and name the failing service.” The instruction is saved on the template and applied every time that block generates.
  • Template-level general instructions. Set instructions that apply to every AI block in the template — tone, audience, house style — so all your retrospectives read consistently.
Instructions are saved on the template, so they apply on every generation and regeneration — both for new documents and when a reader regenerates a block later.

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Preview against a past incident

Before you roll a template out, preview it against a real past incident to see exactly what each AI block would produce with that incident’s data.
1

Choose Preview

In the builder, choose Preview and select a past incident.
2

Review the generated output

Rootly AI generates the document as it would for that incident, including the AI block content.
3

Refine and preview again

Adjust your blocks and instructions, and preview again until it reads the way you want.

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Publish

When the template looks right, save and publish it. New retrospectives created from that template will generate its AI blocks automatically. To control which incidents get which template (by severity, team, or incident type), see Configuring Templates.

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FAQs

No — you can insert AI blocks into any document on the fly from the editor’s slash menu. But adding them to a template is how you make every retrospective generate them automatically.
Four curated, Rootly AI-powered templates that ship with Rootly: Standard Incident Retrospective, Quick Retro, Customer-Facing RCA / COE, and Major Incident (SEV1) Deep-Dive. Each already contains the right AI blocks and data blocks for that scenario. Use Try template on the Document Templates page to start a new template from one, or insert one from the AI Library tab while you’re building.
No. Try template opens the builder preloaded with the starter’s content, but nothing is created until you save — and saving adds a new template, it never overwrites your existing ones.
The Timeline data block lists every event on the incident. The Curated Timeline AI block writes a readable narrative of the key moments. Many teams use both.
On the template. They’re applied every time the block generates, including when someone regenerates it later in a document.
Not yet — custom blocks are defined per template. A reusable custom-block library is on the roadmap.