Anatomy of a Legal Agent

01

Model and Harness

The language model is interchangeable. What defines the Agent is the environment around it — known in technical terms as the Harness.

Model

Prediction of the next token. Probabilistic, not rule-based.

Context

Everything present in the context window at runtime. What is not there does not exist for the Agent.

Tools

Defined interfaces the model may invoke — to read, write and execute.

Boundaries

The only part that does not depend on the model.Everything above is interpretation. Only here does a rule become mandatory.

It is called Claude Code because the environment comes from software development. What you write in it is still prose.

02

The CLAUDE.md

A file in the working directory that is loaded into the context in full at every start. It defines who the Agent is and what it does not do.

# Legal Department — Working Instructions

## Role
Legal department associate.
Responds in English and uses a formal register externally.

## Boundaries
- Creates drafts only.
- Never sends anything itself.
- Never sets the status to “completed”.
- If the basis is unclear: ask a follow-up question;
  do not make assumptions.

## Filing
Matters:    matters/
Templates:  templates/

Scope

Applies to every session in this directory — without anyone having to invoke it.

Role

Defines perspective, language and register.

Boundaries

Prohibitions in prose. The model reads them and generally follows them.A default rule, subject to discretion — see section 04.

Hierarchy

Multiple files overlap; the more specific one prevails.

Lex specialis derogat legi generali — the principle is familiar to you. Here, it is the loading order.

03

The SKILL.md

A working instruction with two parts: a header that defines its scope and a body that specifies the steps.

---
name: ticket-intake
description: Use this Skill when a new ticket
  has the status “received” and the initial
  review must be carried out.
---

# Initial review

1. Load the ticket and review attachments.
2. If the contractual basis is missing:
   ask a follow-up question and stop.
3. Set category and contract type —
   field values: see references/board-fields.md
4. Record a deadline — only if it is legally or
   contractually binding. Requested dates are not
   binding deadlines. Review the contract for term
   and termination clauses.
5. Set the status to “open”.

description

The scope. For every request, the model checks whether the facts fall within it — and loads the Skill only then.In effect, this is legal subsumption. If the constituent elements are imprecise, the rule applies too rarely or too often.

Body

The prescribed steps. Prose, numbered and written in the organisation's language.

references/

Externalised details loaded only when needed — keeping the context lean.Incorporation by reference rather than full quotation.

The most common error is not an incorrect body, but an imprecise description: the Skill is then never activated in the first place.

04

Three levels of control

They are routinely confused. The distinction determines whether a requirement is merely a statement of intent or an effective control.

If compliance is addressed at the first level, it has merely been requested. Only at the third level has it been enforced.

05

How a Hook decides

Event, scope, assessment, legal consequence. The structure is familiar — except that here it runs before every individual tool invocation.

• ↳ exit 0 — invocation proceeds
• ↳ exit 2 — invocation is stopped

Outbound block

No transmission to external recipients, under any circumstances.

Independent reviewer

No status change without a completed review.

The Hook does not ask the model for permission. It runs before the model can do anything at all.

06

Separation of drafting and review

A second Agent with its own context, its own mandate and its own tools — one that did not write the draft.

• ↳ Objection — returned for revision

The same context that produced an error will not reliably detect it afterwards.

07

Development is not an end state

No Agent covers every case. Use reveals situations that were not anticipated — and that are then addressed separately through Skills and organisational knowledge.

Unanticipated case

A situation that was not considered during initial planning.

Knowledge feedback

Turning a resolved exceptional situation into readable, reusable rules.

An Agent is never finished. It develops with the cases recorded in Skills and knowledge.

08

The case from the lab

The seven sections above explain the building blocks. Here they are applied to the case we worked through in the lab — a real working environment, not an example from a brochure.

## 4 · Recording deadlines

A deadline is recorded only if it is legally or
contractually binding — a statutory or court deadline,
a termination or objection deadline, or a deadline
arising from the contract itself.

A requested date from a business unit is not a binding
deadline. Record it as Requested date; Deadline remains empty.

Review the contract specifically for term, renewal
and termination clauses.

STOPPED — Outbound block

This invocation would have sent a message externally.

Nothing leaves this working environment for a third party.
Drafts are filed, then approved and sent by a human.