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Guide · Agent skill

How to use the Commercial Contract Review Router agent skill

Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data

The review skill is an agent skill for Claude that takes an inbound commercial agreement, works out whether it is an NDA, vendor agreement or SaaS subscription from its titles, and checks it against a playbook file you have written. This guide explains what the skill does, how to install it, how to trigger it with plain requests, and what it needs before it will run. After reading it you should be able to install the skill, configure the playbook it depends on, and run a first review.

Commercial Contract Review Routeranthropics/claude-for-legal · Apache-2.0

Quick start

  1. 1Download and unzip the skill. Download the ZIP from the directory page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or the project's .claude/skills/ folder for one project.
  2. 2Or upload it in the Claude apps. In the Claude apps, go to Settings → Capabilities → Skills and upload the ZIP instead.
  3. 3Run the cold-start interview. If the playbook is missing or contains placeholders, run /commercial-legal:cold-start-interview so your playbook is created at the expected path.
  4. 4Check the Review preferences setting. Confirm that confirm_routing is set in the Review preferences section of the playbook. Leave it true if you want to approve routing.
  5. 5Start a review. Ask in plain language or run /commercial-legal:review with a file path, Drive link, CLM ID, or pasted text.
  6. 6Confirm the routing. Read the list of documents and skills the agent identified, then reply yes or correct it.
  7. 7Use the memo and follow-ups. Read the single review memo, have a qualified lawyer check it, then ask for a stakeholder summary or redline if needed.

What the review skill makes the agent do

The skill acts as a coordinator for legal review rather than a standalone legal reviewer. It reads the agreement's main title and the titles of any exhibits, schedules, addenda and attachments before reading the body. Based on those titles it selects the matching review skill: nda-review, vendor-agreement-review or saas-msa-review, with escalation-flagger used when an issue exceeds the reviewer's authority.

Before it reviews anything, the skill asks you to confirm how it has routed the document, unless you have turned that check off. It then combines the findings from the review skills into one review memo, with the routing decision logged at the top.

  • Reads titles first, so a long MSA that mentions confidentiality throughout is not mistaken for an NDA.
  • Checks the agreement against your configured playbook file.
  • Can offer follow-ups: a stakeholder summary, a redline .docx with tracked changes, a CLM record, or an entry in a renewal register if auto-renewal is found.

Before you install: what the skill needs

The skill will not review anything useful on its own. It reads a playbook file at ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/commercial-legal/CLAUDE.md. If that file still contains placeholders, the skill stops and asks you to run the cold-start interview first. The companion review skills it routes to (vendor-agreement-review, nda-review, saas-msa-review and escalation-flagger) are not included in the files for this skill and must be available separately.

Optional inputs are a contract lifecycle management (CLM) system or a Google Drive link, if you use those. The skill can also take a local file path or pasted text.

  • A configured playbook file created through the cold-start interview.
  • The companion review skills named above.
  • Optional: access to a CLM system or a Google Drive link.

Install the review skill

The skill is distributed as a ZIP file from the directory page. You can install it in one of two ways. For personal use, unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/. For a single project, unzip it into that project's .claude/skills/ folder. Alternatively, upload the ZIP in the Claude apps under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

The download contains a single file, SKILL.md. Keep the folder structure intact when you unzip so the skill is found in the correct location.

  • Personal install: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/.
  • Project install: unzip into the project's .claude/skills/ folder.
  • Claude apps: upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

Set up your playbook

Run the cold-start interview from the commercial-legal plugin, which the skill tells you to run when the playbook is missing or incomplete. The interview creates the playbook at ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/commercial-legal/CLAUDE.md. The skill expects a section called Review preferences in that file.

The confirm_routing setting lives in that section. If the field is missing, the skill treats it as true, so it asks for confirmation before proceeding. Set it to false only when you are comfortable with the skill proceeding without asking.

  • Default: confirm_routing is true, so routing is confirmed before review.
  • Set confirm_routing to false to skip the confirmation and log the routing decision in the memo instead.
## Review preferences confirm_routing: true # Set to false to skip routing confirmation and proceed automatically

Trigger the skill with natural requests

You can ask for a review in plain language. The skill's description lists phrases such as "review this contract", "check this MSA", "is this NDA okay" and "look at this SaaS agreement". Attaching an inbound agreement and asking for a review also triggers it.

You can also invoke it directly with a slash command. The argument can be a file path, a Google Drive link, a CLM ID, or pasted text. If you give no input, the skill asks for one.

  • "Review this contract" with the file attached.
  • "Check this MSA for anything unusual before I send it to counsel."
  • "Is this NDA okay?"
  • "Look at this SaaS agreement and tell me if it auto-renews."
/commercial-legal:review vendor-msa.pdf

Work through a review step by step

When you start a review, the skill reads the playbook, gets the agreement, and extracts the main agreement title and every exhibit, schedule, addendum and annex title. It maps each one to a review skill. A common case is an MSA with a DPA exhibit, which goes to vendor-agreement-review with the DPA noted. A SaaS subscription with an order form and SLA exhibit goes to saas-msa-review, which covers all three.

If the structure is unclear, for example a document titled only "Agreement" with no exhibits listed, the skill reads the first two pages of the body and then routes. It then shows you the documents it found and the skill assigned to each, and waits for you to say yes or correct it.

  • Multiple skills can apply to one set of documents, for example vendor-agreement-review plus a saas-msa-review overlay for an MSA with an auto-renewing order form.
  • The skill produces one memo, not separate memos per skill.
  • Deviations are reported specifically, with redline language and a named approver where the matrix requires one.

Safety notes: scripts and network

According to the directory listing, this skill does not run scripts and does not use the network. The SKILL.md file describes reading local files, a Drive link or a CLM ID as inputs, and writing the output to the location named in the playbook's House style section. Check the listing and your own setup if these points matter to your organisation.

The skill is not a substitute for legal advice. It checks only against a playbook you have written, and a qualified lawyer should review its output.

  • Scripts: none, per the listing.
  • Network: none, per the listing.
  • Output is work product that should be reviewed by counsel.

Tips for better results

The quality of the review depends on the playbook. Spend time on the cold-start interview so the playbook reflects your real positions. Keep confirm_routing on until you have seen the skill route several agreements correctly.

Treat title-based routing as a first pass. Highly unusual or non-standard agreements can be misclassified, so read the routing confirmation carefully.

  • Complete the cold-start interview before the first review.
  • Keep confirm_routing set to true at first.
  • Check the routing list for unusual document names.
  • Confirm that the companion review skills are installed before running.

What people use it for

  • An in-house team reviewing an inbound NDA against its standard confidentiality positions.
  • A business owner who receives a vendor MSA and wants a first-pass routing and memo before sending it to counsel.
  • A procurement or legal team checking a SaaS order form for auto-renewal terms and adding the renewal to a register.
  • A team applying one consistent process to NDAs, MSAs and SaaS subscriptions across deals.

Frequently asked questions

Is the review skill free to use?

The source does not state a price or licence terms beyond the listing's Apache-2.0 licence. Check the licence text on the directory page for the terms that apply to you.

Do I need the cold-start interview before using it?

Yes. If the playbook at ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/commercial-legal/CLAUDE.md has placeholders, the skill stops and asks you to run the cold-start interview first.

Where do I install the review skill?

Unzip the downloaded ZIP into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder. You can also upload the ZIP in the Claude apps under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

Does the skill need the other review skills?

Yes. It routes to vendor-agreement-review, nda-review, saas-msa-review and escalation-flagger. These companion skills are not included in the files for this skill, so they must be installed separately.

Can it give me final legal advice?

No. It checks the agreement against a playbook you have written, and the output must be reviewed by a qualified lawyer.

What should I use instead if my contract is unusual?

For highly unusual or non-standard agreements, title-based routing may misclassify the document. Have a qualified lawyer review those contracts directly rather than relying on the routing.

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Our verdict

This skill suits in-house or commercial legal teams that already use the claude-for-legal commercial-legal plugin with a configured playbook, and business staff who want a first-pass routing and memo before counsel reviews a contract. It is a poor fit for anyone wanting final legal advice, for setups without a playbook, or for non-standard agreements where title-based routing may fail. Choose a qualified lawyer or a different tool in those cases.

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