Redline a vendor's standard OEM agreement with Claude for the first three rounds, then have a lawyer do the final check
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- by jedberg (Hacker News)
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Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.
Outcome
jedberg regularly negotiates OEM agreements with vendors that mostly use the same template and draw the same objections. They tried Claude first, and their lawyer was impressed that it found things the lawyer had missed. jedberg then used Claude to redline that type of contract, and the other side remarked that the lawyer had been surprisingly thorough. The lawyer did the final check and by then basically said it looked good, and jedberg saved a lot of money by doing the first three rounds with Claude.
Agent
Prompt Recreated prompt
The source didn't share its exact prompt, so we wrote this from what it describes.
Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to. Goal: Do a first-pass redline of a standard contract from my side's point of view, ready for my lawyer to check. Fill in before running: - The contract: [ATTACH] - Which side I'm on and what matters most to us: [DETAILS] - Changes we usually ask for, if any: [DETAILS] You're not my lawyer. Stick to facts I give you, label any rule you mention as something to check against the official source, and keep the tone firm but polite. Rules: - List every clause I should push back on, quote it and suggest replacement wording. - Explain each change in one plain sentence. - Rank the changes from must-have to nice-to-have. - Mark anything that needs a lawyer's judgment rather than a wording fix. - Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify. Output: A redline table (clause, issue, suggested wording, priority) and a short covering note. You'll know it worked when: my lawyer's final review needs few or no changes.
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Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to. Goal: Do a first-pass redline of a standard contract from my side's point of view, ready for my lawyer to check. Fill in before running: - The contract: [ATTACH] - Which side I'm on and what matters most to us: [DETAILS] - Changes we usually ask for, if any: [DETAILS] You're not my lawyer. Stick to facts I give you, label any rule you mention as something to check against the official source, and keep the tone firm but polite. Rules: - List every clause I should push back on, quote it and suggest replacement wording. - Explain each change in one plain sentence. - Rank the changes from must-have to nice-to-have. - Mark anything that needs a lawyer's judgment rather than a wording fix. - Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify. Output: A redline table (clause, issue, suggested wording, priority) and a short covering note. You'll know it worked when: my lawyer's final review needs few or no changes.
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Optional stronger version
Our rewrite with extra checks. The poster didn't test it.
Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to. Goal: Do a first-pass redline of a standard contract from my side's point of view, ready for my lawyer to check. Fill in before running: - The contract: [ATTACH] - Which side I'm on and what matters most to us: [DETAILS] - Changes we usually ask for, if any: [DETAILS] You're not my lawyer. Stick to facts I give you, label any rule you mention as something to check against the official source, and keep the tone firm but polite. Rules: - List every clause I should push back on, quote it and suggest replacement wording. - Explain each change in one plain sentence. - Rank the changes from must-have to nice-to-have. - Mark anything that needs a lawyer's judgment rather than a wording fix. - Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify. - Keep a running list of our standard asks so the next contract starts from it. Output: A redline table (clause, issue, suggested wording, priority) and a short covering note. You'll know it worked when: my lawyer's final review needs few or no changes. Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.
Source
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50060191
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