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Guide · Agent skill

How to use the Ramp clinic onboarding agent skill

Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data

Ramp is an agent skill for law clinic students that acts as a guided tutor during onboarding. It reads the clinic handbook and settings a supervising professor set up earlier, then teaches the clinic's practice areas, clients, jurisdiction, case management and review rules through questions and short practice exercises. After this guide you will know what the skill needs, how to install it, how to trigger it, and how to run its practice exercises safely.

Clinic Student Onboardinganthropics/claude-for-legal · Apache-2.0

Quick start

  1. 1Confirm the clinic setup. Make sure the CLAUDE.md file exists at ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/legal-clinic/. If it has placeholders, ask your supervising professor to run the cold-start-interview command first.
  2. 2Download and unzip the skill. Download the ZIP from this skill's page and unzip it. Put it in ~/.claude/skills/ or a project's .claude/skills/ folder.
  3. 3Start with a natural request. Tell the agent "onboard me" or "I'm new to the clinic" to begin the walkthrough.
  4. 4Work through the clinic context. Answer the interactive questions about practice areas, clients, jurisdiction, case management and supervision.
  5. 5Run the practice exercises. Complete the fake intake, the practice draft and the research roadmap, and verify one citation by hand.
  6. 6Get the reference card. Ask for the --card option to generate the one-page reference card and keep it for day one.

What the Ramp skill makes the agent do

When a new student asks to be onboarded, Ramp walks through the clinic in a fixed order: clinic context from the handbook, the commands the student will use, practice exercises with a fake client, and verification habits. It teaches interactively and checks understanding with questions rather than lecturing.

The practice exercises use a fake client so students try the tools before a real case. The skill can also generate a one-page reference card on request.

  • Practice areas, clients, jurisdiction, case management and supervision are covered from the clinic's own CLAUDE.md and handbook.
  • Practice exercises: a fake intake, a practice draft, and a research roadmap.
  • Outputs are described as starting points that must be checked by a human lawyer.

What you need before installing

Ramp needs Claude Code or a compatible agent with the claude-for-legal plugin installed. It also needs a completed clinic setup: a CLAUDE.md config file at ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/legal-clinic/, created by the professor's cold-start-interview command.

The other legal-clinic commands Ramp refers to must also be available: /client-intake, /draft, /memo, /research-start, /status and /client-letter.

  • Claude Code or compatible agent with the claude-for-legal plugin.
  • A completed clinic setup (CLAUDE.md created by /legal-clinic:cold-start-interview).
  • The legal-clinic commands listed above available.

Install the Ramp skill

Download the ZIP from the skill's page on this site and unzip it. The skill ships as a single file, SKILL.md. Place the unzipped folder in ~/.claude/skills/ to make it available to you everywhere, or in a project's .claude/skills/ folder to limit it to that project.

If you use the Claude apps instead, upload the skill under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

  • Personal install: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/.
  • Project install: unzip into the project's .claude/skills/ folder.
  • Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload.

How to trigger Ramp with natural requests

You do not need a special command to start. The skill is triggered by natural requests such as "onboard me", "I'm new to the clinic" or "getting started", and it is also meant for the start of each semester.

To get the one-page reference card instead of the full walkthrough, ask for it with the --card option.

  • "Onboard me to the clinic."
  • "I'm new to the clinic, where do I start?"
  • "Getting started this semester."
/legal-clinic:ramp /legal-clinic:ramp --card

Walk through a practice session

The walkthrough takes about twenty minutes and you can pause at any time. Exercise 1 is a practice intake: the skill gives you a fake client scenario and you run /client-intake and interview it as the client. Afterward, check what issues the summary spotted.

Exercise 2 uses the same intake to run /draft on a document type. Read the draft critically and note what you would change before showing it to the professor. Exercise 3 runs /research-start on an issue. The citations it returns are leads, not verified authorities, so you pick one statute and explain how you would verify it is current and applies.

  • Exercise 1: practice intake with /client-intake.
  • Exercise 2: practice draft with /draft, read critically.
  • Exercise 3: research roadmap with /research-start, then verify one lead.
/client-intake /draft eviction-answer /research-start "habitability defense to eviction in [state]"

Verification habits to keep

Every output is a starting point. Verify every citation before it goes into anything, since /research-start gives leads rather than authorities. Check jurisdiction-specific details against current local rules, because the skill knows your state from setup but local court practice changes.

If an output contains a [UNCERTAIN: ...] flag, treat it as a prompt to research or ask the professor, not something to delete. Supervision rules come from the clinic's CLAUDE.md, so follow the review path it describes.

  • Read every output critically before relying on it.
  • Verify every citation independently.
  • Treat [UNCERTAIN: ...] flags as prompts to act.
  • Follow the review path in CLAUDE.md.

Safety notes: scripts and network

Ramp does not run scripts and does not use the network, according to its listing. It is a single SKILL.md instruction file that reads your clinic's configuration and handbook and produces text.

The skill does not replace professor orientation, does not teach substantive law in depth, and does not certify a student as ready for a real case. The professor decides when a student takes a real case.

  • Runs scripts: no.
  • Uses network: no.
  • Does not replace the professor's orientation or decide readiness for real cases.

What people use it for

  • A first-semester student learning the clinic's practice areas and case management before taking a client.
  • A student practising client intake on a fake housing scenario before a real interview.
  • A student reviewing a practice draft critically before showing it to the professor.
  • A clinic supervisor who wants every incoming student to get the same onboarding walkthrough each term.
  • A student who needs a printable one-page card of commands and verification habits.

Frequently asked questions

How do I install the Ramp skill?

Download the ZIP from this skill's page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder. In the Claude apps, you can instead upload it under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

What do I need to use Ramp?

You need Claude Code or a compatible agent with the claude-for-legal plugin installed, and a completed clinic setup with a CLAUDE.md file created by the professor's cold-start-interview command. The legal-clinic commands /client-intake, /draft, /memo, /research-start, /status and /client-letter must also be available.

Is Ramp free to use?

The source listing does not state pricing or licence terms for the skill beyond its licence, which is Apache-2.0. Check the repository's licence file for the terms that apply to you.

Does Ramp run scripts or use the internet?

According to its listing, Ramp runs no scripts and uses no network. It is a single SKILL.md file that reads your clinic configuration and handbook and produces text.

Can a professor use Ramp to set up the clinic?

No. Ramp is written for students. Professors run a separate setup command, /legal-clinic:cold-start-interview, to create the clinic configuration that Ramp reads.

Can I rely on Ramp's legal analysis or citations?

No. The skill teaches clinic procedure and says its outputs are starting points that must be verified by a human lawyer. Research roadmaps give leads, not verified citations, so check every citation yourself.

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Our verdict

Ramp suits new law clinic students starting their first semester or first case, and supervisors who want a consistent onboarding walkthrough each term. It is not suited to anyone seeking binding legal advice, or to professors, who should use the separate setup command. If you need substantive legal research or final work product, use a licensed lawyer and primary sources instead.

Download the skill