| name | contract-brief |
| description | Captures the business intent behind a contract before any drafting happens. A short intake interview — who, what, why, when, how much, what's the risk tolerance — and produces a one-page Contract Brief that every downstream skill (drafting, redlining, approval deck, exec summary) reads. Use when the user says "fill in a contract brief", "kick off a new contract", "intake this deal", "start a contract", "I have a deal to paper", "contract prep", or whenever a new agreement is about to be drafted or negotiated.
|
| argument-hint | [--deal-type vendor|customer|partner|nda|sow] [--counterparty <name>] [--existing-brief <path>] |
/contract-brief
Purpose
The most expensive mistake in contracting is realizing on draft 3 that nobody asked the
business what they were actually trying to do. This skill front-loads the question.
Ten minutes of intake at the top saves an hour of redlining at the bottom.
The output is a single page — markdown, plain — saved to the matter folder. Every
downstream skill (contract-redline, contract-exec-summary, contract-approval-deck,
review) reads it before doing anything.
Load context first
- Read
~/.claude/plugins/config/vallor/CLAUDE.md. If
placeholders are present, stop and prompt for cold-start.
- Apply the /design skill — even though the brief is mostly text, the file uses
the standard masthead and footer.
- Determine the side (sales / purchasing) using the same logic as
vendor-agreement-review.
If ambiguous, ask.
Intake — six questions, fixed order
Ask these one at a time, in order. Don't batch them; the answer to one informs the
next. Use the user's words — don't paraphrase.
-
What are we trying to accomplish?
"What does this contract let us do that we can't do today? In one sentence."
-
Who's the counterparty, and what's the relationship?
"Who are we signing with? Have we worked with them before? New, renewal, or
expansion?"
-
What's at stake — money, time, or strategy?
"Approximate ACV or total contract value, even a range. Term length. And is this
a 'must close by Friday' deal or a 'no rush, get it right' deal?"
-
What are the must-haves?
"Anything that, if we don't get it, the deal doesn't close on our side? Pricing
floor, data residency, exclusivity, an SLA, an exit right?"
-
What are the give-ups we're willing to make?
"Where can we move? Which playbook positions are we already prepared to soften,
and what do we want in return?"
-
Who owns this on the business side, and what's their risk tolerance for this deal?
"Who do I send the stakeholder summary to? Are they conservative, balanced, or
'just close it'?"
After question 6, ask one consolidating question:
"Anything that doesn't fit the questions above but I should know? Pending litigation,
a regulatory deadline, a related vendor we're consolidating, an exec who has strong
feelings about this one?"
Output: Contract Brief
Write to ~/.claude/plugins/config/vallor/briefs/<slug>.md
(or the active matter folder if matter workspaces are on). Slug format:
<YYYY-MM-DD>-<counterparty-kebab-case>.
# Contract Brief — [Counterparty]
**Side:** [sales / purchasing]
**Deal type:** [MSA / SaaS / NDA / SOW / order form / amendment / other]
**Status:** intake complete · ready for [drafting / review / negotiation]
**Date:** [YYYY-MM-DD]
**Business owner:** [name]
**Reviewing attorney:** [name from practice profile]
**Risk posture for this deal:** [conservative / balanced / aggressive — from Q6]
---
## Business intent
[Verbatim or near-verbatim from Q1. One sentence.]
## Counterparty
- Name: [legal entity]
- Relationship: [new / existing / renewal / expansion]
- Prior agreements: [list any found in the CLM or matter folder]
- BigCo vs startup: [tag — affects negotiation latitude]
## Commercial shape
- ACV / TCV: [$X / range / unknown — flag if unknown]
- Term: [length, renewal mechanic]
- Deadline pressure: [hard date / quarter-end / no pressure]
- Notable: [tooling owned, exclusivity ask, multi-year discount, etc.]
## Must-haves (deal-breakers on our side)
- [Item 1 from Q4 — verbatim where possible]
- [Item 2]
- ...
## Give-ups (where we can move, and what we want in return)
| We'll move on… | If we get… |
|---|---|
| [item] | [item] |
## Open questions / context
- [Item from the consolidating question]
---
## Side-specific playbook check
Before drafting begins, the following playbook positions apply to this deal. Pulled
from `~/.claude/plugins/config/vallor/CLAUDE.md` →
`## Playbook` → `### [Sales / Purchasing]-side playbook`:
- **Limitation of liability:** [the practice profile's standard cap and carveouts]
- **Indemnification:** [position]
- **Data protection:** [position]
- **Term and termination:** [position]
- **Governing law / venue:** [position]
- **The one thing:** [the deal-breaker check]
[BLOCKING items already visible from intake: list them here. Otherwise: "No blocking
items visible at intake."]
---
## Next steps
The next step on the decision tree:
1. **Draft from our paper** — I'll produce a first-draft MSA/SOW/order form using the
practice profile defaults, with the must-haves above hardcoded and the give-ups
pre-positioned as fallbacks.
2. **Review their paper** — they've sent a draft. Run `/vallor:review
<file>`; the review will read this brief first.
3. **Build a redline** — they sent terms; I'll diff against the playbook and produce
a tracked-change `.docx`.
4. **Stop here** — brief is filed; resume when the document arrives.
---
⚠️ Reviewer note: brief intake only · no document reviewed · playbook positions
loaded from practice profile · attorney to confirm risk posture for Q6
After writing the brief
- Show the brief to the user.
- Ask: "Anything wrong? I'll edit before we move on."
- Offer the four next-step options above.
- If matter workspaces are on, update
matters/<slug>/matter.md with a one-line
pointer to the brief.
Re-running on an existing brief
If the user passes --existing-brief <path>, load it, show the current state, and
ask which of the six questions they want to update. Re-write only the changed
sections. Append a ## Revisions block at the bottom with the date and a one-line
summary of what changed.
Constraints
- This skill is intake only. It does NOT draft contract language. The output is a
Contract Brief, not a draft.
- It does NOT make legal judgments — it captures business intent for legal to act on.
- It runs before any document exists OR alongside a draft to capture intent the
document doesn't reflect.
Examples
/vallor:contract-brief
/vallor:contract-brief --deal-type vendor --counterparty Acme
/vallor:contract-brief --existing-brief briefs/2026-05-12-acme.md
