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Contract lifecycle manager

Extracts structured metadata from any contract — parties, effective and expiration dates, term type, auto-renewal terms, notice periods, governing law, payment terms, key obligations, and termination rights — and flags…

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Purpose

Turn raw contract text into a structured, standardized metadata abstract — capturing every field a legal ops team needs to track a contract through its lifecycle, with critical dates and renewal deadlines surfaced so nothing lapses or auto-renews by accident. Eliminates manual abstraction and produces a record ready to load into a CLM, spreadsheet, or renewal calendar.

When to Use

Invoke this skill when the user asks to:

  • Extract key terms or metadata from a contract
  • Abstract or summarize a contract for a database or CLM system
  • Build a renewal tracker or find critical dates in an agreement
  • Identify the notice period, auto-renewal terms, or termination rights in a contract
  • Review a contract for governing law, parties, term, or key obligations
  • Standardize a batch of agreements into a consistent record format

Inputs Required

Before starting, collect:

  • Contract text: The full contract or the relevant sections (pasted text or file)
  • Contract type: MSA, SOW, NDA, lease, employment, license, vendor/supply, or other
  • Effective date reference: The date to calculate renewal/notice deadlines from (defaults to the stated effective date if present)
  • Perspective: Which party the abstract is for (Us / Counterparty) — determines whose obligations and notice rights are highlighted
  • Output destination: CLM system, spreadsheet, or standalone summary (affects field formatting)
  • Fields of special interest: Any custom fields the team tracks (e.g., insurance requirements, data processing terms, SLA credits)

If perspective is not specified, default to "Us" (the reviewing party). If a field is absent from the contract, mark it "Not specified in contract" rather than inferring.

Instructions

Step 1: Identify Contract Type and Structure

Confirm the document type and locate its major sections (recitals, definitions, term, payment, termination, general/boilerplate). Note the contract type on record — extraction priorities differ by type (e.g., SOWs need scope and deliverables; NDAs need term of confidentiality and permitted use).

Step 2: Extract Core Party Metadata

  • Parties: Full legal entity names exactly as written, plus entity type/jurisdiction if stated (e.g., "Acme, Inc., a Delaware corporation")
  • Roles: Who is which party (Provider/Customer, Licensor/Licensee, Disclosing/Receiving, Landlord/Tenant)
  • Signatories & notice addresses: Named signers and the addresses/contacts designated for legal notices

Step 3: Extract Term and Date Metadata

  • Effective date: When the contract begins
  • Term type: Fixed / Auto-renewing / Evergreen / Month-to-month
  • Initial term length: Duration of the first term
  • Expiration date: Calculated end of current term
  • Renewal terms: Length and number of renewal periods; whether renewal is automatic or requires affirmative action
  • Notice period: How many days before expiration a party must give notice to prevent renewal or to terminate for convenience — state the exact number of days and the derived deadline date

Step 4: Extract Financial and Obligation Metadata

  • Payment terms: Fees, payment schedule, net terms, late-payment penalties, price-escalation clauses
  • Key obligations (reviewing party): The 3–6 most operationally significant commitments the reviewing party must perform
  • Key obligations (counterparty): The 3–6 most significant commitments owed to the reviewing party
  • Deliverables/SLAs: Any scope, service levels, or milestones with dates

Step 5: Extract Legal and Risk Metadata

  • Governing law & venue: Jurisdiction whose law applies and the forum for disputes
  • Termination rights: For cause / for convenience — conditions, cure periods, notice required for each
  • Liability & indemnity: Liability cap (amount or formula), indemnification obligations, and any exclusions
  • Assignment & change of control: Whether the contract can be assigned and under what conditions
  • Confidentiality & data terms: Duration of confidentiality; any data protection/DPA references
  • Auto-renewal risk flag: Explicitly flag if the contract auto-renews and the last date to act to prevent it

Step 6: Build Critical Date Register

Compile every date that requires future action into a dated list, sorted chronologically:

  • Renewal notice deadline (with calculated date)
  • Expiration date
  • Price-escalation trigger dates
  • Any milestone, review, or reporting dates

Step 7: Flag Risks and Gaps

List any missing standard terms, ambiguous language, unfavorable clauses (e.g., uncapped liability, short/asymmetric notice periods, unilateral termination rights for the counterparty), and fields the contract does not address.

Output Format

  • Structure: A metadata abstract organized as a labeled field table, followed by a Critical Date Register and a Risk & Gap Flags section
  • Length: 600–1,000 words depending on contract complexity
  • Format: Metadata as a two-column table (Field | Value); critical dates as a chronological dated list; risk flags as a bulleted list
  • Sections: Contract Summary Line → Metadata Table (Parties / Term & Dates / Financial / Legal & Risk) → Critical Date Register → Risk & Gap Flags
  • Tone: Precise, neutral, and record-oriented — no legal advice or opinion beyond factual flagging of terms

Quality Checklist

Before delivering output, verify:

  • [ ] Every metadata field is populated or explicitly marked "Not specified in contract"
  • [ ] The notice period is stated as an exact number of days AND converted to a calculated deadline date
  • [ ] Auto-renewal status is flagged with the last date to act if applicable
  • [ ] Party names are quoted exactly as written in the contract, including entity type
  • [ ] The Critical Date Register lists every actionable date in chronological order
  • [ ] No inferred or invented terms — anything not in the text is marked as absent, not guessed

Notes

  • The single highest-value output is the renewal notice deadline — miss it and the contract auto-renews. Always calculate and surface this date first.
  • When the contract text is ambiguous about a date or term, quote the exact clause language rather than resolving the ambiguity, and add it to Risk & Gap Flags.
  • For batch abstraction, keep the field order and labels identical across contracts so records import cleanly into a CLM or spreadsheet.
  • This skill extracts and organizes contract terms; it does not constitute legal advice. Flag anything unusual for review by counsel.

How to use this skill

This file is a Claude Code skill in Anthropic's standard format — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top.

Installing in Claude Code:

  • ~/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md — auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects)
  • <your-project>/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md — auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills)

Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register.

Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:

  1. Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
  2. Send your task or request as your next message — the AI will apply the skill where it fits

For Claude Code skill details: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills