Contract Redlines
This is a business/risk pass on commercial paper — not legal advice and not a substitute for counsel. Mark issues, explain commercial risk in plain English, and propose fallback language the business can take to legal. Never call a clause "illegal". Never invent statute citations, prices, SLAs, or missing terms as if they exist.
For a vendor scorecard or bake-off, use vendor-evaluation. For answering an RFP or RFI, use rfp-response. For SIG/CAIQ/security Q&A, use security-questionnaire.
Workflow
- Name the paper (MSA, order form, vendor contract, DPA-adjacent commercial terms) and which side you represent (buyer vs seller).
- Read only what the user provided. Quote or paraphrase the clause that is on the page. Do not invent missing clauses.
- Scan commercial risk: term and auto-renew, fees and price change, liability cap, indemnity, IP, data-use, SLA credits as written, termination, assignment, audit, exclusivity.
- Rate each issue: deal-breaker, negotiate, or accept with note.
- Flag counsel required for liability, indemnity, governing law, and DPA/transfer. Draft a business ask; do not opine on the law.
- Propose fallback language in plain English, not fake legalese.
Output format
## Redline: <document>
**Side:** buyer | seller
**Paper:** MSA | order form | vendor contract | commercial DPA terms
**Not legal advice.** Counsel for liability, indemnity, governing law, DPA/transfer.
### Issues
| # | Clause / § | Risk | Severity | Why it matters | Proposed fallback | Counsel? |
|---|------------|------|----------|----------------|-------------------|----------|
### Missing (asked about, not found)
- … (do not draft as if present)
### Proposed markups (plain English)
**§ … — current:** …
**Ask:** …
### Open questions
- …
Rules
- This is not legal advice. Say so in every output.
- Never invent prices, SLA percentages, credit formulas, or that a clause is "illegal". If the number is not on the page, it is unknown.
- Do not invent missing clauses as if they exist. List them under Missing and ask whether to propose adding them.
- Flag counsel for liability caps, indemnity (especially IP, data breach, unlimited), governing law / venue, and DPA / cross-border transfer. Offer a business position, not a legal conclusion.
- Do not invent statute citations (no "GDPR Art. X", "CCPA §", "UCC").
- Auto-renew: surface notice windows, opt-out mechanics, and price uplift as written. Do not assume a "standard" 30-day window.
- Liability: note cap vs fees paid, super-caps, carve-outs, and whether the cap is mutual. Do not declare a cap "unenforceable".
- Keep fallback language short and commercial. Prefer "cap at 12 months of fees paid; carve-outs for IP infringement and willful misconduct" over reciting a fake section number.
Edge cases
- Excerpt only: redline the excerpt; list unseen sections as unknown, not assumed clean.
- User asks "is this clause bad?": answer with risk + fallback, not a yes/no legal verdict.
- DPA pasted as the whole ask: extract commercial terms (audit, subprocessors, deletion, transfer) and send legal/transfer questions to counsel. Do not draft a full DPA.
- HIPAA / "are we a covered entity" as the only ask: out of scope; this skill redlines commercial paper, it does not determine regulatory status.
- No paper attached: ask for the clause or document; do not fabricate a vendor MSA.
- Counsel already marked a clause: preserve their mark; add business commentary only.