> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://vaquill.ai/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Document I/O steps

> Pick which documents the workflow reads, wait for an upload to finish ingesting, and save an output back to a matter

Three steps. These are the bookends of most workflows: getting documents in at the start, and putting a result somewhere at the end.

***

## Pick Documents

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Kind" icon="calculator">Deterministic</Card>
  <Card title="Latency" icon="bolt">Fast</Card>
</CardGroup>

Select the documents to feed downstream steps. This is the first step in most workflows.

**Config**

| Field     | Type            | Required | Notes               |
| --------- | --------------- | -------- | ------------------- |
| Documents | Document picker | Yes      | 1 to 200 documents. |

**Outputs**

| Field     | Contents                                                                                 |
| --------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Documents | The list of document references, ready to wire into any step that takes a document list. |

<Note>
  The picker is **matter-scoped**. When the workflow is launched against a matter, only that matter's documents are pickable, so cross-matter picking is structurally impossible. Org-wide workflows launched without a matter can pick any document in the organization, which is intentional.
</Note>

***

## Wait For Document Ingestion

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Kind" icon="calculator">Deterministic</Card>
  <Card title="Latency" icon="hourglass">Slow</Card>
</CardGroup>

Blocks until the supplied documents finish ingestion: chunked, embedded, and indexed. **Required before any retrieval step that runs immediately after a fresh upload**, otherwise the retrieval step searches an index that does not have the documents yet.

**Config**

| Field                    | Type          | Required | Default | Notes                                                                                     |
| ------------------------ | ------------- | -------- | ------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Documents                | Document list | Yes      |         | 1 to 200. Usually wired from Pick Documents.                                              |
| Timeout (seconds)        | Integer       | No       | 600     | 10 to 1,800. The step fails if any document is still processing when the timeout expires. |
| Check interval (seconds) | Integer       | No       | 5       | 2 to 30. How often to re-check.                                                           |

**Outputs**

| Field          | Contents                                             |
| -------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| Documents      | The document references, now confirmed ready.        |
| Waited Seconds | How long the step actually waited.                   |
| Already Ready  | How many documents were already ingested on arrival. |

<Tip>
  Already Ready equal to the document count means the step was a no-op and you could reorder it. It is still cheap insurance on any workflow where documents might be fresh.
</Tip>

***

## Smart Auto-Fill Inputs

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  <Card title="Kind" icon="robot">AI</Card>
  <Card title="Latency" icon="gauge">Medium</Card>
</CardGroup>

Extracts structured input hints (party names, claim summaries, dates) from a document or a matter, shaped to fill a specific built-in workflow's input fields. Pair it with a downstream drafting step so you are not retyping facts that are already in a file.

**Config**

| Field                        | Type               | Required | Notes                                                                                       |
| ---------------------------- | ------------------ | -------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Read from                    | Document or Matter | Yes      | Document reads one file's content; matter reads structured matter metadata.                 |
| Source                       | Picker             | Yes      | Becomes a document picker or a matter picker depending on the field above.                  |
| Also include matter metadata | Boolean            | No       | When reading from a document, additionally pull the run's matter metadata. Defaults to off. |
| Target workflow              | Workflow picker    | Yes      | Which built-in workflow's input fields the hints should be shaped to fill.                  |

**Outputs**

| Field      | Contents                      |
| ---------- | ----------------------------- |
| Hints      | The extracted field hints.    |
| Hint Count | How many hints were produced. |

***

## Save to Matter

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  <Card title="Kind" icon="floppy-disk">Output</Card>
  <Card title="Latency" icon="bolt">Fast</Card>
</CardGroup>

Attaches a document to a matter so it appears in that matter's document list. Usually the final step after a Generate Legal Draft.

**Config**

| Field    | Type            | Required | Notes                                                                  |
| -------- | --------------- | -------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Document | Document picker | Yes      | Usually wired from an upstream Pick Documents or Generate Legal Draft. |
| Matter   | Matter picker   | Yes      | Where the document should appear.                                      |

**Outputs**

| Field                         | Contents                                 |
| ----------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| Document Id, Matter Id, Saved | Confirmation of what was attached where. |

<Warning>
  This is a **side-effect step**. It short-circuits to a no-op on a Test Run, and it cannot be used as the inner step of a Loop Over Documents. Run it once, outside the loop, on the loop's results.
</Warning>

***

## Related

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Retrieval steps" icon="magnifying-glass" href="/docs/workflows/builder/steps/retrieval">
    What usually comes next after Pick Documents.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Output steps" icon="file-export" href="/docs/workflows/builder/steps/output">
    Exporting rather than filing into a matter.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>