Plain-English Contract Explanation

Overview

Explain readable supplied clauses for the intended audience and preserve the qualifications that affect meaning. Tie each explanation to the original text, mark ambiguity and distinguish an explanatory draft from a legal conclusion.

Prerequisites

• A selected contract file or pasted text, with relevant schedules when available.
• The audience and any party perspective the user has supplied. If the party is unknown, use neutral party labels instead of assuming what "you" must do.
• Requested coverage and output path. Record missing pages, unreadable images, table extraction, comments/redline mode and unavailable incorporated terms.

Use only supplied or authorized inputs. Do not upload contracts to external conversion services, alter originals or infer that confidentiality is guaranteed by the model or file format.

Instructions

1. Use Glob within the selected location if discovery is needed, then Read the supplied material. State the pages/sections actually reviewed. If an attachment or image cannot be read, request usable text or leave that part unreviewed.
2. Map clauses and their definitions/cross-references. Use Grep to locate terms in readable supplied text and Read surrounding provisions. Do not automatically skip signatures, notices, order forms or headings when they contain party names, effective dates, exceptions or other operative details.
3. Explain clauses using short sentences and the audience's vocabulary. Preserve who must or may act, the action, trigger, deadline, amount/unit, conditions, exceptions, limits, negations and referenced definitions. Keep a specialized term alongside its explanation when a casual synonym would change its scope.
4. Follow the explanation checks. Do not translate indemnity, damages exclusions or ownership language into a universal outcome. When wording supports several readings, show the ambiguity and the specific missing context instead of choosing one as established law.
5. Flag observed obligations, dependencies, exceptions, conflicting text or unclear meaning with a source locator. Dense wording alone is not proof of deception, deliberate concealment or a drafter's intent. Explain the concrete concern.
6. Build a quick-reference summary of the mapped parties' actions, restrictions, dates, payments, exit/renewal process and unresolved questions. Trace important summary statements back to clauses. Do not infer a right or remedy merely because one section does not mention it.
7. Review the explanation against the source. If readability metrics are requested and actually measured, report the method/tool, text sample and limits. Otherwise mark them unmeasured; do not invent a Flesch-Kincaid grade or promise a measured grade-eight result. A formula alone does not prove reader comprehension.
8. Return the requested report. When saving is requested, use Write at the chosen path; suggest plain-english-{matter-slug}.md for new work and inspect an existing destination before replacing it. Preserve the original contract.

Output

An explanatory draft containing document identity, audience/party mapping, reviewed coverage and gaps, a quick-reference summary and clause-by-clause notes. For each note include a section/page locator, a minimal exact source excerpt, plain explanation, dependencies and unresolved meaning. Label paraphrases and examples clearly. Include measured readability results only when they exist.

The report does not amend the contract, establish enforceability or create an attorney-client relationship. Identify decisions needing qualified legal review without presenting the explanation as a replacement for that review.

Error Handling

Examples

Damages exclusion: A clause lists several excluded damage types. Explain what it purports to exclude and preserve its exceptions and relationship to any cap. Do not turn that wording into "the company owes you nothing" or assume a refund is the only remaining remedy.

Definition dependency: A definition of Services includes customer-created integrations. Explain the expanded label, then inspect the supplied provisions that use it. Ownership and licensing effects remain conditional on those clauses; the definition alone does not establish who owns the integrations.

Obligation summary: A supplied clause requires written notice thirty days before renewal, subject to an exception in a schedule. Preserve the notice form, period, renewal reference and missing exception; do not replace it with "cancel anytime" or invent a calendar deadline without the relevant dates.

Resources

• Clause explanation and readability checks
• The supplied clauses, definitions, schedules and actual user questions.