Scoping a Contract Review

What it is for

A general summary of a contract tells you what is in it, not what matters to this deal. Scoping the review to the clauses that carry your risk is what turns the output into something you can negotiate from.

The skill Copy

A general "review this contract" returns a general summary, which is the one
output a lawyer cannot use.

Scope it by the risk you are actually carrying:
1. **State your side and the deal.** "We are the supplier. Two-year SaaS
   agreement, our standard terms were not used."
2. **Name the clauses to examine**, and what "bad" means for each:
   - Limitation of liability — is it mutual, is there a cap, what is uncapped?
   - Indemnities — what are we indemnifying, and is it limited to third-party
     claims?
   - Termination for convenience — whose, and with what notice?
   - IP ownership of anything created during the engagement.
   - Auto-renewal and the notice window to stop it.
3. **Give the fallback position** for each: what you will accept if the ideal
   is refused. This turns a review into a negotiation brief.

Ask for output as: clause reference, what it says in one line, the risk to us,
and suggested redline language. Not prose.

Then read the clauses it did NOT flag in your list. A review is as much about
what is absent from a contract as what is in it, and absence is what
summarisation is worst at.

How to install it Copy

1. Open the tool and start a new conversation, project or template.
2. Paste the text below wherever the tool keeps standing instructions
   — usually called system prompt, instructions, or persona.
3. Save it so it applies to every run rather than a single message.

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Where it came from