Open-source playbook · 19 of 20 · For ops, finance and HR

Contract Risk Review

Every contract waits days for someone senior to read it in full.

The systemCompares each contract with your standard terms and flags the clauses that need a lawyer’s eye.

// The problem

Every contract waits for the one person who can read it.

Most of a contract is terms you’ve accepted many times before. Finding the few clauses that aren’t takes a senior person hours, so contracts queue, and the deals and suppliers behind them wait.

The system reads every clause first, so the senior read starts at the three that matter.

Waiting for a senior read5

Corvane LogisticsMaster services agreement · 18 pages
6 days
Brightwell HealthData processing addendum · 9 pages
4 days
Ostrava MediaReseller agreement · 22 pages
3 days
Kettle & PineMutual NDA · 3 pages
2 days
Halden GroupStatement of work · 7 pages
1 day

Sample queue, fictional companies.

// How it works

Every clause, checked against your terms and lit like a traffic light.

You write your standard positions once: what you prefer, what you’ll accept and who decides. The system reads each contract against them and drafts the redlines. Sample contract, fictional companies.

MatchesMatches your standard
Business callOutside your standard, inside your fallback: the contract owner decides
Needs a lawyerOutside your fallback: a lawyer reviews, and a redline is drafted

Master Services Agreement

Corvane Logistics Inc. (Customer) and Larkspur Software Ltd. (Supplier) · draft received 14 Oct

3 match2 business calls3 need a lawyerShowing 8 of 24 clauses

§2Term and renewal
This Agreement starts on the Effective Date and runs for 12 months. It renews for further 12-month terms unless either party gives 60 days’ written notice.

Matches
Your standard: 12-month term, renewing automatically, with 30–90 days’ notice.
§4Payment
Customer will pay each undisputed invoice within 45 days of receiving it.

Business call
Your standard: Net 30.
Up to net 45 with finance approval. Finance decides.
§6Limitation of liability
Supplier’s total liability arising out of or in connection with this Agreement ~~shall be unlimited~~ shall not exceed the fees paid in the 12 months before the claim, except for breaches of Section 9 (Confidentiality).

Needs a lawyer
Your standard: Each party’s liability is capped at 12 months’ fees, except for breaches of confidentiality.
Redline drafted from your fallback wording, for the lawyer to approve or change.
§8Data protection
Each party will comply with applicable data protection law. Supplier will process Customer personal data only as set out in Schedule 2 (Data Processing Addendum).

Matches
Your standard: Our standard DPA, unchanged. Schedule 2 matches it.
§9Confidentiality
Each party will keep the other’s Confidential Information confidential during the term and for 3 years after it ends.

Matches
Your standard: 2–5 years after the term ends.
§10Intellectual property
~~All deliverables, software and materials provided by Supplier, including pre-existing materials,~~ Custom deliverables made for Customer under a Statement of Work become the property of Customer on payment.

Needs a lawyer
Your standard: Customer owns its data and custom deliverables. We keep our platform and anything we built before.
Redline drafted from your fallback wording, for the lawyer to approve or change.
§11Termination
Customer may terminate this Agreement ~~at any time on 7 days’ notice and receive a refund of any prepaid fees~~ for convenience after the first 12 months on 90 days’ written notice. Fees already paid are not refundable.

Needs a lawyer
Your standard: No exit for convenience in the first 12 months. After that, 90 days’ notice and no refund for the current term.
Redline drafted from your fallback wording, for the lawyer to approve or change.
§13Assignment
Customer may assign this Agreement to any affiliate or successor without Supplier’s consent.

Business call
Your standard: Either party may assign to a successor in a merger or sale. Anything else needs consent.
Accept if the right is made mutual. The contract owner decides.

// What the decider gets

One page for the person who signs. Not eighteen.

The memo goes to the lawyer and the contract owner with the marked-up copy attached. It says what’s off, what’s been drafted and what needs a decision.

Read in two minutes.Short enough to read before the call with the other side.
Every line links back.Each flag points to the clause and the playbook entry it was checked against.
Nothing goes out on its own.The system never sends the redlines or signs. A person does both.

Contract review memo

To: Dana Okafor, General Counsel
Owner: Leo Brandt, VP Sales
Re: Corvane Logistics master services agreement (draft received 14 Oct, 18 pages, 24 clauses)

Mostly standard. Three clauses are outside what we accept: unlimited liability (§6), Corvane owning our pre-existing materials (§10) and a 7-day exit with refunds (§11). Redlines are drafted for all three.

Needs a lawyer3 clauses

§6 Liability: uncapped. Redline caps it at 12 months’ fees.
§10 IP: takes our platform. Redline limits it to custom deliverables.
§11 Termination: 7-day exit and refunds. Redline adds 12 months and 90 days’ notice.

Business call2 clauses

§4 Payment at 45 days: finance to approve.
§13 Assignment is one-sided: accept if mutual.

Matches19 clauses

§2, §8, §9 and 16 more clauses match the playbook.

Suggested next stepApprove or edit the three redlines, get finance’s answer on §4, then send the marked-up copy to Corvane.

// Where it stops

It reads and drafts. A lawyer decides and signs.

The system

Reads the contract inside your approved AI tool
Splits it into clauses and finds the playbook entry for each one
Lights every clause green, amber or red, and says why
Drafts redline wording for red clauses from your fallback language
Writes a one-page memo for the person who decides

Your lawyer or the contract owner

Reads every red clause in full, and anything else they choose
Edits, keeps or throws out each suggested redline
Makes the business calls on amber clauses
Decides what goes back to the other side, and sends it
Signs, or decides not to

Not legal advice. It compares a contract with the positions you wrote. Whether to accept a clause is a decision for a lawyer or the contract owner.

Confidential documents stay in approved tools. Contracts go only into your company’s AI workspace or a model on business terms that don’t train on your data, never a personal account.

// For your tech lead

Can we build it? Here’s what it takes.

Most of the work is writing the playbook: your positions, clause by clause. If you sign a lot of contracts, compare the build with a dedicated tool such as Spellbook, Luminance or your contract system’s AI review.

Tools you’ll use

Job	Use	Or
Where contracts arrive	A shared Google Drive or SharePoint folder	an intake form
Your standard positions	A playbook doc: each clause, your standard, your fallback, who decides	a sheet in Google Sheets or Excel
Reading and comparing	Claude (Team, Enterprise or API)	ChatGPT Enterprise, Gemini for Google Workspace
Running the steps	n8n	Power Automate, Make
What comes out	A marked-up copy in Word or Google Docs, plus the memo	comments in the original file

Access it needs

Read access to one intake folder, not the whole drive
Write access to a review folder for the marked-up copy and memo
An AI account on business terms that don’t allow training on your documents

Three ways to build it

Start simple1–2 days
Your playbook and the contract in a Claude or ChatGPT project on your company’s plan. Ask for the traffic-light table and the memo.
Production1–2 weeks
n8n picks up each new contract, checks every clause against the playbook and saves a marked-up copy and memo for the owner.
Custom3–6 weeks
Adds one playbook per contract type, your clause library and a tracker of every contract’s status and what was agreed.

Guardrails

Not legal advice: a lawyer or the contract owner decides on every flag, and signs
It never sends anything to the other side and never signs
Confidential documents stay in approved tools, never personal AI accounts
A clause type that isn’t in the playbook is marked red for a person, never guessed

What to measure

Days from contract received to a decision
Senior review hours per contract
Flags the lawyer overturns (a check on the playbook)
Issues found later that the system missed

Who builds and runs it

A lawyer or legal ops lead who writes the playbook, and someone comfortable with n8n for the first one to two weeks. After that, the playbook owner updates positions when they change, and contract owners get a memo with every new contract.

Needs

01Company Brain

Next to build

11Proposal Builder 16Sales-to-Delivery Handoff

// Want help building it?

We’ll build your Contract Risk Review with your team.

In 30 minutes with our founder, we’ll look at your tools and your week, and work out what your first AI systems should be and how long they’ll take.

Book a Strategy Call

Free 30-minute call with our founder · No commitmentPallav Kaushish Co-Founder, AIxGrowth