Build a Contract Playbook Assistant in a Claude Project

Claude can only cite what it can read. A playbook with clear row labels gives you citations you can check in seconds.

1. Open your playbook. Make sure every position has a label you could say out loud, such as "Limitation of Liability, Row 3" or "Governing Law, Fallback B".
2. For each clause topic, write three things: the preferred position, the approved fallbacks, and the walk-away term.
3. Put the approval matrix in its own file or its own clearly titled section. State who must approve each departure.
4. Remove anything the assistant should not use: live deal notes, names of counterparties, and anything under privilege that your company has not cleared for this tool.
5. Add a short change log at the end: date, what changed, who agreed.

What you should see: One to three clean documents with labelled rows and no deal-specific content. Troubleshooting: If your playbook is a long narrative, split it by topic and add a heading to each section. Claude cites headings far more reliably than paragraphs.

1. Sign in to Claude and open Projects from the left side of the screen.
2. Click + New Project in the upper right corner.
3. Name it "Contract Playbook Assistant" and add a short description.
4. If your plan is Team or Enterprise, choose the visibility setting. Keep it private while you test.

What you should see: An empty project page with a chat box in the centre and a knowledge area on the right side. Troubleshooting: Claude does not see the project name or description (per Anthropic's help center). Anything Claude needs to know goes into the instructions in Step 4.

1. On the project page, find the project knowledge area on the right.
2. Click the + button and upload your playbook, templates and approval matrix.
3. Wait for each file to finish processing before you move on.

What you should see: Each file listed in the knowledge area. Troubleshooting: Project files are limited by size and Claude's context window, and text is extracted from them. Tables that are really images will not come through. Paste such tables into a text or Word file first.

1. Click Set project instructions.
2. Paste the block below, edit the bracketed parts, and click Save instructions.

You are a first-pass contract review assistant for the legal department of [Company]. The lawyer using you is responsible for all final judgments.

Use only the playbook, templates and approval matrix in project knowledge. Do not use general knowledge to fill a gap.

When the lawyer pastes a clause or a contract section, return a table with these columns:
1. Clause (a short label)
2. Playbook row (the exact heading or row label from the playbook file)
3. Where the pasted text stands (meets preferred position, within an approved fallback, outside the playbook)
4. Approval needed (taken from the approval matrix, or "not stated")
5. Suggested response for the business owner, in plain language

If the playbook does not cover a clause, write "The playbook is silent on this" in the Playbook row column and stop. Do not guess a position. List these gaps again at the end under "Playbook gaps".

Quote playbook wording only when it appears in the file. Never cite a case, statute or regulation. Where the pasted text conflicts with two playbook rows, say so and name both.

Finish with a short issues list for the business owner: the three to five points that most need a decision, in order.

What you should see: The instructions saved and shown in the project. Troubleshooting: If the table comes back unformatted, add "Always use a table" to the instructions and test again.

1. Start a new chat inside the project.
2. Paste an abstracted clause where you already know the right answer from the playbook.
3. Check that the cited row is the one you expected.
4. Paste a clause on a topic your playbook never covered. The answer should be "The playbook is silent on this."

What you should see: A cited row for the first test and an honest gap for the second. Troubleshooting: If Claude fills the gap with its own view, tighten the instruction: "If you cannot point to a heading in the project files, you may not state a position."