Contract Review — Agent Skill for Legal Analysis
AI-powered contract review with CUAD risk detection, market benchmarks, and lawyer-ready redlines
Works with: Claude Code · OpenAI Codex · Cursor · GitHub Copilot · Gemini CLI · 26+ tools
Quick Install
# Claude Code
git clone https://github.com/evolsb/claude-legal-skill ~/.claude/skills/contract-review
# OpenAI Codex
git clone https://github.com/evolsb/claude-legal-skill ~/.codex/skills/contract-review
# Other Agent Skills-compatible tools — clone to your tool's skills directory
Try It
Review this NDA - I'm the receiving party
Example Output
Why This Exists
I was reviewing real contracts — NDAs, SaaS agreements, M&A docs, merchant agreements — and wanted AI assistance directly in my coding workflow. So I researched what was available:
- Commercial legal AI (Kira, Ironclad, LegalOn, Harvey, Spellbook) — enterprise-only, custom quotes, no API access for individual developers
- Open source tools (LexNLP, OpenContracts, LawGlance) — incomplete projects requiring significant integration work, none designed for AI coding assistants
- Generic contract checklists — one-size-fits-all reviews that don’t differentiate between an NDA and an M&A agreement, give the same advice to buyers and sellers, and say “negotiate this” without telling you what to ask for
Nothing worked as a drop-in skill. So I built one grounded in the CUAD dataset (41 legal risk categories from 510 real contracts), tested it against actual agreements, and iterated until the output was useful for real negotiations.
The result: position-aware review with market benchmarks, document-type checklists, and actual redline language — not just a list of issues.
What It Does
Analyzes legal contracts and outputs:
- Risk assessment with severity ratings (🔴 Critical / 🟡 Important / 🟢 Acceptable)
- Red flags quick scan — instant danger sign detection
- Key terms table with section references
- Market standard benchmarks — how terms compare to industry norms
- Negotiability ratings — what’s realistic to change given power dynamics
- Specific redlines — actual replacement language, not just “negotiate this”
- Missing provisions with suggested language to add
- Internal consistency checks (broken cross-references, undefined terms)
This skill outputs structured JSON redlines. To produce the tracked-changes Word docs and redline PDFs that lawyers actually send, pair with legal-redline-tools:
pip install git+https://github.com/evolsb/legal-redline-tools.git
# After the skill generates redlines.json:
legal-redline apply contract.docx redlined.docx \
--from-json redlines.json \
--pdf redline.pdf \
--memo-pdf internal-memo.pdf
Features
Position-Aware Review
Tell it which party you are (customer, vendor, buyer, seller, receiving party) — the skill adjusts what it flags as risky.
Document Type Checklists
Specialized checklists for each contract type:
- NDA — confidentiality term, non-solicitation, standstill, destruction certification
- SaaS/MSA — SLA, data export, suspension rights, price caps
- Payment/Merchant — reserves, chargebacks, network rules, auto-debit
- M&A — earnouts, escrow, rep survival, sandbagging
- Finder/Broker — fee tails, covered buyer definitions, joint representation
Market Standard Benchmarks
Compares terms to industry norms with clear thresholds:
| Provision |
Standard |
Yellow |
Red |
| Liability cap |
12 months |
6-11 mo |
<6 mo |
| Auto-renewal notice |
90+ days |
60-89 |
<60 |
| Non-compete |
1-2 years |
3-4 years |
5+ |
| Rep survival (M&A) |
12-18 mo |
24-30 mo |
36+ mo |
Negotiability Ratings
Tells you what’s actually changeable:
- High — Mutual termination, cure periods, data export
- Medium — Liability cap increases, price caps
- Low — Network rules, regulatory requirements
Red Flags Quick Scan
Instant detection of danger signs:
- Liability cap < 6 months
- Uncapped indemnification
- Unilateral amendment rights
- Perpetual obligations
- Offshore jurisdiction (BVI, Cayman)
Jurisdiction Awareness
Flags when governing law affects enforceability:
- Non-competes void in CA/ND/OK/MN
- Delaware vs NY vs CA implications
- Offshore jurisdiction cost/enforcement concerns
M&A Support
Special handling for acquisition agreements:
- Earnout mechanics and measurement
- Rep & warranty survival periods
- Working capital adjustments
- Escrow/holdback provisions
- Employment comp in deal value calculations
Installation
This skill follows the open Agent Skills standard and works with any compatible tool.
# Claude Code
git clone https://github.com/evolsb/claude-legal-skill ~/.claude/skills/contract-review
# OpenAI Codex
git clone https://github.com/evolsb/claude-legal-skill ~/.codex/skills/contract-review
# Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, etc.
# Clone to your tool's skills directory
Development (Symlink)
git clone https://github.com/evolsb/claude-legal-skill ~/Developer/claude-legal-skill
ln -s ~/Developer/claude-legal-skill ~/.claude/skills/contract-review
Usage Examples
Review this NDA for red flags - I'm the receiving party
Analyze the indemnification in this MSA - I'm the vendor
What are the termination provisions? I'm the customer.
Review this acquisition agreement - I'm the seller
Check this merchant agreement - what's my chargeback exposure?
See examples/ for full sample outputs.
Limitations
- Not legal advice — always have material terms reviewed by qualified counsel
- US law focus — analysis defaults to US; provisions vary by jurisdiction
- Context window — very long contracts may need section-by-section review
Accuracy
Based on ContractEval benchmarks, Claude achieves F1 ~0.62 on clause extraction. Best for first-pass review and issue flagging — not a replacement for attorney review on material deals.
Credits
Next Steps
Questions or feedback? Open an issue or email [email protected].
License
MIT — see LICENSE
Built by Chris Sheehan.
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