Hi everyone,
In a previous article I discussed how every post-signature enterprise contract workstream, big or small, can be framed as the same underlying six-part process:
Trigger — an event occurs that requires contracts work
Define criteria — determine what you’re looking for and why
Find — apply the criteria to locate the target population of contracts
Analyze — go deeper on the population: validate the initial search results, incorporate nuances, exceptions, and additional criteria, and perform a comprehensive assessment
Decide — translate the analysis into recommendations, remediation paths, answers to stakeholder questions and other internal deliverables
Remediate — take action through counterparty outreach, internal communication, negotiation, and workflow tracking
This article focuses on creating a skill to support the first phase: Trigger / Intake.
One call-out re terminology: the trigger is the event or request (usually outside of our control). Intake is the process of turning that event or request into enough structured context to begin planning the work.
Problem / Scenario
Imagine receiving this hypothetical request for M&A diligence:
Quick update: we signed an LOI to acquire ABC corporation and expect to close soon. Please start reviewing the top 100 customer contracts (will send a data-room link once available).
It can be tempting to get access to the repository and immediately start reviewing contracts. However, it’s usually better to scope out what the request is asking for in greater detail along with any available context to help inform execution.
What the skill does
The intake skill acts as a thought partner that helps clarify and understand an inbound request for contracts analysis in sufficient depth to effectively begin planning and execution.
If you provide context to the skill, it helps produce a structured intake brief that:
Classifies the trigger or request
Identifies the decision or deliverable that the contract analysis needs to support
Translates business context into relevant scope (contract populations, data points, etc.)
Flags missing inputs, assumptions, unknowns, and potential blockers
Generates recommended next steps, including what can begin now versus what should wait and related scope-change risks
Two ways to use the skill
Option 1: Provide the underlying context directly
If your organization’s AI use, information security and related policies permit it, you can provide the relevant context directly to the model.
Option 2: Use the skill to generate an intake checklist
Where providing the underlying context directly is not appropriate, the skill can instead generate a structured checklist of the information that would be helpful to collect.
You can then work through that checklist separately and return only the information that is appropriate to provide. This is less direct, but it can still help structure an incomplete request and identify the inputs most likely to affect scope or execution.
Limitations
The skill’s goal is to create a better starting point for later stages: defining the final scope of the work, performing contract analysis, making decisions, and perform remediation actions. However, its output should be checked and confirmed as being correct by the relevant stakeholders.
Subscriber resources
Subscribers receive:
The complete intake-contract-workstream skill bundle for each of Claude and Codex
Installation instructions
A practical M&A example (hypothetical)
Future updates to the intake framework and request category modules