Feature: AI Report Builder with Reusable Brief Templates and Multi-Format Exports

[hoangsonww]

Summary

Add an AI report builder that turns document analysis outputs into reusable, editable briefs and exports them to formats such as PDF, DOCX, Markdown, and presentation-ready outlines.

Problem / Opportunity

DocuThinker can already produce summaries, key insights, discussion points, sentiment, recommendations, and chats. The next user workflow is packaging those outputs into something shareable: an executive brief, research memo, legal review note, study guide, meeting prep, or client-facing report.

Right now, users need to copy content manually from different parts of the app. A report builder would turn DocuThinker from an analysis tool into an end-to-end document intelligence workflow.

Proposed Feature

Create a report builder experience across the web app and backend:

• Template library for report types such as executive brief, research memo, legal review, study guide, meeting prep, and action plan.
• Ability to include selected sections from summaries, key ideas, recommendations, sentiment analytics, citations/source snippets when available, and custom user notes.
• Editable generated report draft with section reorder, regenerate-section, and lock-section controls.
• Export pipeline for PDF, DOCX, Markdown, and structured JSON.
• Saved report drafts tied to source document IDs, source analysis versions, and user/workspace ownership.
• Optional mobile read-only access to saved reports.

Scope

• Backend model for report drafts, template definitions, source document references, and export artifacts.
• AI/ML or orchestrator support for template-aware report generation from existing analysis outputs.
• Web UI for template selection, draft editing, section regeneration, and export.
• Export service that produces consistent files and records generation metadata.
• Tests for template rendering, report persistence, permissions, and export output validation.

Acceptance Criteria

• Users can create a report draft from one or more analyzed documents using a named template.
• Report drafts include traceable source metadata for each generated section.
• Users can edit generated text, reorder sections, lock sections, and regenerate only unlocked sections.
• The system can export a saved report as PDF, DOCX, Markdown, and JSON.
• Exported files include title, date, source document list, and generated sections in a professional layout.
• Saved reports appear in a user-accessible report history and respect document/workspace permissions.
• The feature handles stale source analysis by warning users when a report was generated from an older document version or older analysis output.
• Tests cover template generation, partial regeneration, export creation, authorization, and stale-source warnings.

Non-Goals

• Full collaborative rich-text editing.
• Pixel-perfect desktop publishing controls.
• External e-signature or contract lifecycle management.
• Sending reports directly by email in the first version.

Dependencies / Risks

• Export fidelity will depend on choosing a maintainable server-side rendering approach for PDF and DOCX.
• Templates should be stored in a way that allows future customization without hard-coding every report type into UI logic.
• Report generation must avoid silently mixing outputs from different document versions or permission scopes.

Open Questions

• Should templates be code-defined initially, database-defined, or a hybrid?
• Should report generation support multiple documents in the first release, or start with a single source document?
• Should mobile users be able to create reports, or only view/download reports created on web?