Features
Every tool your prep needs, in one place.
Backfile is built around the workflow you already use — Verbatim docs, card cutting, block writing. We just make every step faster and smarter.
Features
Everything you need to prep, nothing you don’t.
Parse any backfile instantly
Upload your Verbatim docs. Backfile understands pockets, hats, blocks, tags, cites, and card bodies — no manual tagging required.
Search your entire file library
Every card, analytic, and block across all your files — searchable in milliseconds. Find that one impact turn from camp in seconds, not minutes.
AI-powered response advisor
Upload an opponent's case. Get ranked counter-evidence from your own files, plus AI-written analytics for gaps in your coverage.
Export debate-ready documents
Generate Verbatim-formatted .docx files with proper pocket, hat, and block structure. Opens natively in Word with the Debate ribbon.
How it works
Upload your files. Drop in a case. Get your blocks.
Upload your backfiles
Drop in your team's Verbatim docs and Backfile indexes every card, cite, and analytic across your entire library.
Drop in an opponent's case
Backfile analyzes every position — DAs, Ks, CPs, case arguments, T shells — and identifies what you need to answer.
Get your responses
Cards, blocks, and analytics from your own files, ranked by relevance and grouped by strategy. Export to Verbatim and you're ready.
Built for how debaters actually work.
Backfile understands the rigid hierarchy of debate documents: Pockets, Hats, Blocks, Tags, Cites, and Card Bodies. It knows the difference between a tag and an analytic, between a short cite and a full cite. Every feature is designed around the real structure of competitive policy debate.
Your exported documents open in Microsoft Word with the Debate ribbon tab, formatted exactly how you’d write them yourself. No reformatting, no cleanup. Drop them into your team’s shared drive and they’re ready for round.
Roadmap
We’re building the future of debate prep.
Live Speech Transcription
Real-time transcription tracks what your opponent reads, what they skip, and auto-flows the round as it happens.
Partner Sync
Shared workspace so both partners see the same prep, same cards, same responses — updated in real time.
Ready to prep smarter?
Join debaters who are building blocks in hours, not days.