| name | client-comms-log |
| description | Log a client communication — call, email, text, letter, in-person, voicemail. Append-only per-case record with dated entries, direction, medium, summary, action items. Works alongside /client-letter and /status client. Use when logging a call or client email, reviewing a communication log, or asking "what did we tell [client] last time".
|
| argument-hint | [case-id] [--add (default) | --read | --summary | --patterns] |
/client-comms-log
- Use the workflow below.
- Require case-id (prompt if not provided).
- Route by flag:
--add (default): capture direction, medium, student, summary, action items, follow-up due. Confirm with user. Append (prepend most-recent-first) to ~/.codebuddy/plugins/config/legal-workflows/legal-clinic/client-comms/[case-id]/log.md.--read: show the most recent N entries.--summary: one-paragraph condensed read.--patterns: scan for unanswered comms, missed follow-ups, language gaps, tone shifts, contact gaps. Supervision-oriented.
- Integration: offer
/legal-clinic:deadlines --add if the log establishes a deadline; route to /legal-clinic:semester-handoff via --summary when relevant.
Client Communications Log
Purpose
Four reasons to keep this log:
- Malpractice defense. If a client claims "no one ever told me [X]," a dated entry showing otherwise is the answer. Clinical professors carry professional liability on student work; contemporaneous records protect them.
- Continuity at handoff. The next semester's student takes over and reads the log; they don't re-ask the client questions already answered.
- Supervision visibility. Five unreturned voicemails over six weeks is a pattern. The log makes patterns visible that individual students might not flag on their own.
- File retention. Law school clinics have obligations to maintain complete client files. Communication history is part of that.
Light. Append-only. The student's job is to write a two-sentence entry after every contact; the skill formats it and appends.
Load context
~/.codebuddy/plugins/config/legal-workflows/legal-clinic/client-comms/[case-id]/log.md (if exists) — append target~/.codebuddy/plugins/config/legal-workflows/legal-clinic/practice-profile.md → not heavily read; this skill is case-scoped
Modes
Flag: --add | --read | --summary | --patterns (default: add)
--add (default) — log a new entry
Inputs:
- Case ID (required — which case)
- Date + time (default: now)
- Direction:
in (client → clinic) | out (clinic → client)
- Medium:
call | email | text | letter | in-person | video | voicemail-left | voicemail-received
- Who (student): name
- Who (client side): client name, or "third-party: [description]" if from opposing counsel, family member, etc.
- Duration / length (e.g., "10 min call", "3-paragraph email", "45 min in-person meeting")
- Summary: 2-4 sentences. What happened, what was substantive.
- Action items:
- What the student owes the client (with deadline)
- What the client owes the student (with expected timing)
- Follow-up due: date if applicable
- Notes: anything that matters but doesn't fit above — language used, emotional tone, family dynamic observed
Before writing: show the user the formatted entry and ask for confirmation. Clinic records should be reviewed before they're written, not after.
Append to ~/.codebuddy/plugins/config/legal-workflows/legal-clinic/client-comms/[case-id]/log.md. If the log doesn't exist, create it with a header:
# Communications Log — [case name]
**Case ID:** [case-id]
**Client:** [name]
**Opened:** [YYYY-MM-DD]
Append-only. Most recent at top.
---
Then prepend new entries at the top (most recent first).
--read — show recent entries
Print the most recent N entries (default 5). Useful when picking up a case mid-semester or before a client call.
--summary — condensed read
Produce a one-paragraph summary of the log — most recent contact, total entries, common medium, any open action items from the student side, any unanswered communications. Feeds /semester-handoff and /status.
--patterns — flag concerns across the log
Scan for:
- Unanswered communications from client. Client called or emailed N times without a response entry.
- Missed follow-up. Action item with follow-up due date, and no later entry resolving it.
- Language / accommodation issues. Client language noted as non-English; check whether outgoing communications have been in that language.
- Escalation patterns. Client tone shifting (frustrated / distressed) across entries.
- Gaps. Long stretches with no contact on an active case.
This is a supervision tool. Clinical professors running --patterns across their cases see which students might need support.
Integration
/client-letter: after generating and sending a letter, offer to log it as an outgoing comm./status client: when producing a client-facing status summary, offer to log it (often these summaries go to clients)./client-intake: first entry in every new case's log is the intake contact./semester-handoff: handoff memos read --summary for each case to populate the communications-history section./deadlines: if a communication established a deadline ("client said they need to respond by Friday"), offer to /deadlines --add.
What this skill does not do
- Store substantive legal analysis. That lives in intake, memo, and status files. The log is communication record — facts of contact, not legal strategy.
- Auto-log from outside systems. If the clinic uses a case management system (Clio), an integration could pull call logs and emails automatically. That's a future add; not v1.
- Edit past entries. Append-only. If an entry is wrong, write a new entry referencing and correcting it. The integrity of the log depends on not rewriting history.
- Enforce log discipline. If a student doesn't log a call, the skill can't know. Log hygiene is a clinic-culture problem; the skill just makes logging easy.
- Handle privileged or attorney-only notes. If the student needs to record strategic thinking, that goes in the case's internal analysis file, not the comms log.
