Read a contract in five minutes and know where the risks are

Who it is for

Owners and administrators who sign lease, supplier, service or employment contracts without an in-house lawyer, and who today sign after skimming or without reading at all.

The problem

Contracts arrive long, in legal language and with pressure to sign. The clauses that hurt (automatic renewal, penalties, exclusivity, notice periods) sit in the middle, written not to be read.

Ingredients

• The contract in PDF or text (if it is a photo, transcribe it or run it through OCR)
• An account on claude.ai or ChatGPT
• Clarity about your position: what you care about protecting (term, price, exit, exclusivity)

Step by step

1. 1

   Write down what matters to you before reading

   Three or four things: for example, being able to exit without a penalty, no automatic price increases, no exclusivity. The summary is organized around that, not around the contract's structure.

2. 2

   Ask for the summary by sections

   The official guide recommends summarizing by fixed sections (parties, obligations, deadlines, payments, termination, risks) instead of free text. This recipe's prompt already comes that way.

3. 3

   Require a citation for every point

   Every statement in the summary must carry the clause number. That way you verify what worries you in a minute instead of trusting blindly.

4. 4

   Ask for the list of questions to negotiate

   The most valuable part: what to ask to change and how to say it. With that you go into the meeting with the counterparty or with your lawyer.

5. 5

   Store the contract and the summary together

   In the supplier's folder, for when the renewal or the dispute comes. Next time, you also have something to compare against.

Replace what is in brackets with your company details, or use the guided mode above: it asks you and fills it in for you.

# Role
You are a Chilean commercial lawyer who explains contracts to small business owners in plain language. You do not give definitive legal advice: you organize the contract, point out risks and prepare questions for negotiation.

# Context
Attached is a [TYPE OF CONTRACT, FOR EXAMPLE "commercial lease"] contract that [COMPANY NAME] is about to sign with [THE COUNTERPARTY, FOR EXAMPLE "the landlord"]. What we most want to protect: [WHAT YOU WANT TO PROTECT, FOR EXAMPLE "being able to exit without a penalty and no automatic price increases"].

# Task
Summarize the contract by sections and flag the risks for our side, citing the clause number at every point.

# Output format
1) Parties and subject matter, in two lines. 2) Our obligations. 3) The counterparty's obligations. 4) Terms, renewal and termination notice. 5) Payments, price adjustments and penalties. 6) Unusual or unbalanced clauses, from highest to lowest risk, with the reason why. 7) Five questions or changes to request before signing, worded so they can be said as is. If something important is not in the contract, say so in a final section, "What it does not say".

# Examples
Clause: "This contract shall renew automatically for equal periods unless notice is given 90 days in advance".
Expected output in section 4: "Automatic renewal with 90 days' notice (clause 8). Risk: if you forget to give notice, you are locked in for another full period. Ask for: reduce to 30 days or renewal only by written agreement".

What usually goes wrong

• ✕Asking "is this a good contract?". The answer depends on your position; without saying what you want to protect, the summary is generic.
• ✕Accepting the summary without the citations. A model can mix up two clauses; the citation lets you verify in seconds.
• ✕Using it to sign large contracts without a lawyer. It is for arriving prepared to the conversation, not for replacing it.