Composing an RFP
Designing the procurement with the AI agent, then drafting and reviewing your tender document set.
The Compose feature lets you create RFP documents from scratch with AI assistance, instead of uploading existing ones. You describe what you need to procure, shape the procurement design with the agent, and approve it. The agent then drafts the full document set, and an automatic review checks it before you finalise.
Where composing happens
Composing is a tab of the procurement workspace, not a separate kind of procurement. Create a procurement as usual, open the RFP group, and choose the Compose tab instead of uploading documents. The same workspace later holds the requirements, items, bids, and analysis for the composed RFP.
Give your procurement a descriptive name — something like "Office Renovation 2026" or "IT Infrastructure Upgrade" — so you can find it later.
A procurement created for an RFP quality check is a locked, read-only review of an uploaded package, so its Compose tab stays unavailable.
How RFP composition works
The Compose tab shows a five-step bar:
- Brief — describe what you're procuring and choose a workflow mode.
- Procurement design — the agent works out the procurement with you: it asks questions, records your decisions, and proposes the documents to draft. You approve the design before any drafting begins.
- Draft — the agent drafts each planned document from the approved design.
- Validate draft — an automatic review checks the drafted documents, then composition pauses for you.
- Documents — download the files and finalise the RFP.
Steps you can't open yet are shown as locked, with the reason underneath.
Workflow modes
You choose the mode on the Brief step:
- Guided mode — the agent asks you questions during the procurement design, waits for you to approve the design, and pauses after each drafted document so you can review or adjust it.
- Autopilot mode — the agent records what it doesn't know as explicit assumptions and approves the design on its own once it's ready. It only stops for a question when your answer is indispensable. Assumptions stay marked for your review, and the drafted documents flag the terms that rely on one.
In both modes, composition pauses for your review after the automatic check. It never finalises the RFP for you.
Starting the draft
Describe what you're procuring
On the Brief step, fill in What are you procuring? The more context you give, the fewer questions the agent needs to ask. Include things like:
- What goods or services you need
- Key technical requirements or specifications
- Timeline and delivery expectations
- Budget constraints or evaluation criteria
- Any regulatory or compliance requirements
Under Optional starting references, you can pick templates or past RFPs from your organization's library for the agent to use as context. Choose a Workflow mode, then click Start designing. The description is saved automatically when you start.
Shape the procurement design
The agent reads your brief and any references, then brings its questions to the Procurement design step in rounds. Each question explains the options and their consequences, and may mark one as Agent recommendation. For each question you can:
- Answer now — pick an option or enter a value.
- Defer this decision — leave it open for later, where the question allows it.
- Not applicable — tell the agent it doesn't apply, where the question allows it.
- Describe a different arrangement — give your own answer instead of the listed options.
You can also Add an explanation or note to any answer, and use Additional context for anything else the agent should consider. Save answers keeps your input without sending it; Continue designing sends it to the agent for the next round.
Check the saved design
Every decision is saved to the Saved procurement design panel as a new revision. Each entry shows its status (Proposal, Confirmed value, Assumption, Deferred, Not applicable, or Needs review), and Reasoning, sources and history shows why it was chosen, which sources it relies on, and earlier values. The panel also lists the Planned documents.
You can change things directly: Edit saved decisions, add a note with Save note, or Edit planned documents to add, remove, or change documents — title, format (DOCX, XLSX, HTML, or Markdown), order, and notes. After an edit, click Continue designing so the agent can reassess.
Approve the design
When the agent considers the design complete, the step shows Review your procurement design. Anything that still blocks drafting is listed under To resolve before drafting. Once nothing blocks it, click Approve design and draft. Saving edits or continuing the design never approves drafting on its own.
The approved design becomes read-only and is the basis for every drafted document. Changing the scope after that needs a new design cycle.
Watch the draft
Once drafting starts, the Compose tab moves to the Draft step and shows a live activity feed of what the agent is doing — reading the design, drafting each document, publishing it. You can watch or navigate away; the agent keeps running in the background, and the top bar shows the running draft from anywhere in the app.
In guided mode, the agent pauses after each document so you can review or adjust it, and whenever it needs a detail it can't take from the approved design. Answer in the clarification panel and submit to continue.
Review when drafting finishes
When drafting completes, an automatic review runs and composition pauses for your review — see Review and finishing below.
Working with composed documents
Composed documents are files — there is no in-app document editor. Finished documents land on the Documents step of the Compose tab as downloadable files in the format set for each planned document.
From there you can download each file individually, or use Download all (ZIP) to grab the whole set at once. To change a document, use feedback on the review findings or Request document changes — see below.
Review and finishing
When drafting finishes, the Validate draft step reviews each document against the approved procurement design, the package terms, and your instructions, including your original brief. Click Open review to see the results.
- Review coverage tells you what the review covered. If part of the package couldn't be reviewed, it shows Review incomplete and names the affected files. In that case, no findings does not mean the package passed.
- Findings can be triaged one by one; the Apply N changes button sends your feedback to the agent.
- Request document changes lets you describe any correction in your own words, for one document or the entire package, even if the review didn't flag it.
See compose validation for the details. RFP composition always pauses for your review after this check; it never revises on its own.
When you're happy with the documents, click Finalise RFP on the Documents or Validate draft step. This marks the composed files as the procurement's RFP: they appear under RFP documents, and the workspace moves on to extracting requirements, adding bids, and analysis. Finalising is one-way — composing is locked afterwards, and the button disappears once the RFP is final. It is refused until the current files have been reviewed, and while a quality check is still running on the procurement.
Quality and integrity checks
Two separate AI checks are available after composition:
- RFP quality review — flags clarity, completeness, and consistency issues. Run it from the Run quality check button after composition completes.
- RFP integrity check — flags fairness and integrity risks (vendor-specific language, overly narrow specs). Run it from the procurement page.
Both produce a separate review with findings and an overall recommendation. They're a useful second-opinion pass on top of the automatic review that runs when drafting finishes.
Using reference materials
The compose agent can draw on your organization's library — templates, standard clauses, past RFPs, and other reference materials you've uploaded. References you pick on the Brief step are given to the agent as context, not attached to the package. The agent can also search the library on its own when relevant. If you have good templates, the agent will adapt them rather than starting from scratch.
Credit cost
Composing an RFP uses credits based on the amount of AI processing required. Typical ranges:
| Scenario | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Simple procurement, autopilot mode | 1–5 credits |
| Medium complexity, guided mode | 5–10 credits |
| Complex procurement, guided mode | 5–15 credits |
| Full flow (procurement design + drafting + review) | 8–20 credits |
Credits are charged as the AI runs. If the agent fails mid-run, you're only charged for what it completed.
Make sure your organization has enough credits before starting. You can check your balance in the top bar.
When things go wrong
If the compose agent seems stuck:
- Check if there's a question round or clarification waiting for your response.
- Refresh the page — the agent runs server-side, so your browser just needs to reconnect.
- If the design work stops, your saved decisions are kept. If drafting fails, the Draft step shows the reason.
- If problems persist, contact support.
Any documents the agent published before a failure are saved on the Documents step. You don't lose work.