docusign-execution-date-blank-pre-sign
DocuSign: Execution Date Blank on Document (Pre-Sign cfexporter Payload)
What This Skill Debugs
Issue class: For DocuSign (and similar external signing) template workflows, contract$execution_date is null in the payload used to generate the pre-sign document. The field is only set in the database after execution; the document sent to DocuSign is generated before execution, so the execution-date variable stays empty on the signed PDF. This is separate from “execution date column missing from a repository report” (see execution-date-missing-from-report).
Product nuance: Externally signed documents cannot be modified after they return from DocuSign, so you cannot “inject” the true execution date into the PDF post-signing. The supported engineering workaround is to pre-fill a date at send time (feature flag), which is the sending date, not necessarily the date all parties finish signing.
Confirmed engineering mechanism (Mar 2026): get_cfexporter_payload_for_contract builds blanks_json via CFExporterPayloadGenerator.convert_blanks_data_for_unsigned_contract. Blanks from questionnaire data are merged into flattened_data, then contract_variables (from self.contract.execution_date in the DB) are merged. For an unsigned contract, DB execution_date is typically null, so flattened keys such as contract$execution_date end up null in the payload sent to CF exporter—unless overridden later in the pre-sign path.
Mitigation shipped: Workspace feature flag DOCUSIGN_PRE_POPULATE_EXECUTION_DATE. When enabled and the contract uses DocuSign, save_pre_sign_pdf_for_template_contract computes a formatted “today” (workspace timezone + date format) and get_contract_docx_preview sets cfexporter_payload["blanks_json"]["contract$execution_date"] after the payload is built and before generate_docx_for_payload—so the generated pre-sign PDF includes a visible date.