Cross-Reference: Custom template support for AI-generated Office documents

Summary

This is a cross-reference to a feature request filed in nextcloud/richdocuments:

➡️ nextcloud/richdocuments#5431 — Custom template support for AI-generated Office documents (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX)

Context for this repo

When the Nextcloud Assistant generates Office documents (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX) from a user prompt, the resulting files always use default Collabora styling. There is currently no way for users or administrators to select a custom template so that AI-generated documents match organizational branding or formatting standards.

While the core implementation work belongs in nextcloud/richdocuments (where the TaskProcessing providers and TemplateManager live), a UI change is also required in this repository: a template selection step needs to be added to the Assistant’s document generation dialog, similar to the template picker already present in the Files “+” / new document flow.

What would need to change here

• Add an optional template selector to the DOCX/XLSX/PPTX generation dialog in the Assistant UI.
• The selector would query available templates via the existing TemplateManager API in richdocuments.
• The selected templateId would be passed as an additional input parameter to the respective TaskProcessing provider.
• When no template is selected, the current default behavior is preserved (fully backward-compatible).

Related

• nextcloud/richdocuments#5431 — Main feature request with full implementation proposal (primary issue)
• nextcloud/richdocuments PR #3798 — PDF Template Workflow (introduces TemplateFieldService, the technical foundation)
• nextcloud/server#22426 — File templates (broader unified template handling)

This cross-post is intended to make the Assistant team aware of the UI work involved. All technical discussion should happen in the primary issue linked above.

Start with the Assistant UI's DOCX/XLSX/PPTX generation dialog and compare it with the template picker in the Files “+” / new document flow. Read nextcloud/richdocuments#5431 for the TemplateManager API and provider inputs; done means an optional template selection is passed through while no selection preserves current behavior.