Contract review automation template
This template takes a contract through three named gates: conflicts clearance, a reviewing lawyer and a senior lawyer’s sign-off. You can add an agent first read before the lawyer, which does not replace any gate.
Last reviewed 7 October 2026
Shipped template
The status rests on the governed template contract-review, Contract review with senior sign-off, which the site lists as a shipped template. Whether it is listed for your plan: <template availability by plan - founder to fill>. The agent first read and your clause playbook are not part of it.
A template that does this job exists in the Swfte library today. Content and availability vary by plan.
What this template does
Contract review is owned by legal, with a reviewing lawyer doing the reading and a more senior lawyer taking responsibility for what goes out. The job is to make sure a contract is cleared, read by the right person and signed off by someone accountable.
By hand the process lives in inboxes. A contract is read before conflicts are cleared, comments sit in one file and the decision in another, and months later nobody can say who approved a clause. This template makes each of those a gate with a name on it. An agent can prepare a first read, but its output is an input to the lawyer, never a sign-off.
The workflow, step by step
Steps marked as approval gates pause the run until a named person approves. Nothing after a gate runs before that decision, and the decision is recorded.
- 01
Take in the contract
The requester submits the contract with the parties, the contract type, the value and the date it is needed by. Studio opens a case, stores the file and notifies legal. Nothing is read by a reviewer yet. The next step receives the case and the party names. - 02
Clear conflicts
The case holds at the conflicts-clearance gate. The person responsible checks the parties against your conflicts records and clears the case or blocks it, with a note. A blocked case stops here. A cleared case moves to the next step with the clearance recorded.Approval gate: a named person approves before the next step runs. - 03
Add an agent first read (your addition)
This step is not in the shipped template. If you add it, an agent reads the contract against your clause playbook and lists missing, unusual or off-playbook clauses with the page they appear on. The list is passed to the reviewing lawyer as notes. It is never treated as a review. - 04
Review by the lawyer
The run pauses for the reviewing lawyer. They read the contract, add comments to the case and record a decision: proceed, proceed with changes or refer back. Any first-read notes are shown beside the text. The case then moves, with the comments, to the senior lawyer.Approval gate: a named person approves before the next step runs. - 05
Senior sign-off
The run pauses for the senior lawyer, who reads the case, the comments and the reviewer’s decision, then signs off or sends it back. You assign a different person from the reviewer, because the platform does not enforce that. The outcome is recorded on the case.Approval gate: a named person approves before the next step runs. - 06
Record the outcome
The case is closed with its outcome and links to the contract version reviewed. The requester is told the result. Signing and sending the contract to the counterparty happen outside the workflow, by the people authorised to do so.
What it can do, cannot do, needs approval for, and records
Can
- Intake the contract and the parties
- Hold the case at a conflicts-clearance gate
- Route to the reviewing lawyer, then to the senior lawyer
- Record each decision and comment on the case
Cannot
- Skip a gate, or move a case on without a decision
- Treat an agent’s read as a lawyer’s review
- Sign or send the contract
- Give legal advice to the requester
Requires approval
- Conflicts clearance
- Review by the reviewing lawyer
- Sign-off by the senior lawyer
Records
- The contract version and the parties
- Each gate, who decided and when
- Comments on the case
- Any agent notes, labelled as such
What the library holds for this job
| Asset | Type | Covers | Role in this flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract review with senior sign-off | Governed template | The job as described | Intake, a conflicts-clearance gate, a reviewing lawyer and a senior lawyer, each a named gate, with every decision recorded on the case. |
| Contract review pipeline | Marketplace sample listing | Sample listing, no template behind it | A sample listing described as clause extraction, redlining and risk flag. Nothing is seeded behind it, so redlining is not described here as a built feature. |
| Legal Jargon Simplification | Prompt | Used inside the flow | A starting prompt for turning a clause into plain language for the business requester. |
| Box | Integration | Used inside the flow | A place to hold the contract files if Box is where legal stores them. |
Integrations this flow uses
- Box: A place to hold contract files if legal already uses it.
- Slack: Tells the next named person that a gate is waiting for them.
- ReadPdf: Extracts text from PDF contracts for the optional first read.
The full list of tools Studio connects to is on the integrations page.
What you supply, and what this page does not cover
- You supply the conflicts records, the names of the reviewing and senior lawyers, and your clause playbook if you add the agent first read.
- The template routes and records. It gives no legal advice, and an agent’s notes are not a legal review.
- Redlining and risk scoring are not described here as built features. The Marketplace listing for them is a sample with nothing seeded behind it.
- Signing, e-signature and filing are outside the workflow.
Common questions
- Does the agent approve contracts?
- No. The three gates are for people: conflicts clearance, the reviewing lawyer and the senior lawyer. An agent first read, if you add one, produces notes for the lawyer. Its output is never recorded as a review or a sign-off, and the template labels it that way on the case.
- Is this really a shipped template?
- The governed template exists in the platform’s seed data and the site lists it as shipped on the compliance workflow templates page. What is not shipped is the agent first read, your playbook and any redlining. Listing for your plan is a separate question, shown above as a placeholder.
- Can the same lawyer review and sign off?
- The platform does not prevent it. Separation of duties is not enforced today, so you enforce it by assigning two different people to those gates. Each decision is recorded with the person and the time, which lets you check afterwards that the rule held.
- What about the Contract review pipeline listing?
- It is a sample Marketplace listing for clause extraction, redlining and risk flags. No template is seeded behind it, so we do not treat it as a feature. If you want a first read, you build it in Studio with an agent step, and keep it advisory.