Running Active Playbooks
Instantiating a playbook from a template
Take a published Playbook Template and turn it into a running playbook for a specific engagement — pinned to the version you instantiated, ready to be tailored from there.
Templates and playbooks are different things — and the bridge between them is instantiation.
A template is the blueprint: the phases, sessions, agendas, and prep designed once and reused many times. A playbook is the running engagement: a specific instance of that blueprint, with its own client, its own team, its own data, and its own evolving state.
This page covers how to turn the first into the second. Once you've done it, the engagement is yours to run; the template stays where it was, available for the next time you need it.
When to instantiate
You instantiate a template when you're about to start an engagement:
- A new client kick-off — you have a "Customer Onboarding" template and a specific customer to onboard.
- A recurring quarterly cycle — you have a "Quarterly Strategy Review" template and Q3 is starting.
- A repeatable internal practice — you have a "Project Retrospective" template and a project just shipped.
If you're tinkering with a template's structure, edit the template directly in Studio. If you're running a real engagement, instantiate.
The instantiate flow
Three steps:
Pick a version
Templates have versions; you choose which one to instantiate from. Latest published is the default.
2Fill variables
Optional. If the template defines variables (client name, project, dates), you fill them in here so they substitute through the playbook.
3Use playbook
Click Use playbook and the engagement is created. You land in the new playbook's Home tab.
The flow can be triggered from two places:
- From a template in Studio — when you have the template open in the editor and want to run it.
- From a Public template page — when you've found a template via the Marketplace or via a shared link.
Both open the same instantiate flow.
Step 1 — Pick a version
Templates evolve. Each time someone publishes a meaningful change to a template, it gets a new version. The instantiate flow asks which version to use:
- Latest published — the default, and almost always the right choice. The most recent version that the template owner deliberately marked as ready.
- An earlier published version — useful when the engagement explicitly needs the template as it was at a point in time (e.g. the client signed off on the v3 structure and you want to honour that even though v4 has shipped since).
If the template has only one version, you skip this step.
Step 2 — Fill variables
Some templates carry variables — placeholder values the template author left blank for the instantiator to fill in. Common examples:
- Client name — appears in session titles, prep questions, and artefacts.
- Project name — same idea.
- Engagement start date — used to seed session scheduling.
- Sponsor name — appears in introductions and sign-off artefacts.
The variable input form lists every variable the template defines, with the variable name and a brief description. Fill what you can; you can come back to the playbook later to refine references that didn't come pre-substituted.
If the template defines no variables, this step doesn't appear.
Step 3 — Use playbook
Click Use playbook and Gleo:
- Creates a new playbook in your workspace.
- Copies the template's structure (phases, sessions, agendas, prep) into the new playbook.
- Substitutes the variables you filled in.
- Drops you into the new playbook's Home tab, ready to run.
The new playbook is yours to tailor. Edit it freely — the changes you make to the playbook don't propagate back to the template.
What "pinned to a version" means
A running playbook is pinned to the template version it was created with. If the template owner publishes a new version after you've instantiated, your playbook keeps the structure it had at instantiation time — the new version doesn't reach back into running engagements.
This is by design. A live engagement shouldn't be silently restructured because someone updated the template you started from. Updates apply to future instantiations only.
The corollary: edits you make inside a running playbook don't propagate back to the template either. The two are independent once the playbook exists. If you discover during the engagement that the template should be improved, edit the template separately — your playbook keeps the structure that was working for you.
Walkthrough
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1
Find a template
Open Studio for one you've authored, or browse the Marketplace / Company tabs for a published one. Open the template.
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2
Click Use playbook
The instantiate flow opens. The version selector shows the latest published version highlighted as the default.
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3
Pick a version (or accept the default)
Latest published is almost always right. Pick an older version only if you have a clear reason.
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4
Fill variables (if any)
If the template defines variables, fill what you can. The substitutions land in the playbook automatically.
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5
Click Use playbook
The new playbook is created and you land in its Home tab. From here, set start / end dates, build the team, and start prepping the first session.
Tips & pitfalls
Fill variables you know now; iterate later. Not every variable will have an answer at instantiate time. Fill what you can; come back to the playbook to add or adjust the rest. The substitutions update wherever the variable was used.
Default to the latest published version. Picking an older version is a special-case decision. Unless you have a specific reason — a customer signed off on a particular version, an audit need, etc. — take the latest.
Don't instantiate to "preview" a template. Open the template's Public template page or the Studio preview instead. Instantiating creates a real playbook in the workspace; previewing doesn't. (See Preview mode.)