How to use the Commercial Contracts Setup Interview agent skill

What an agent skill is and what this one makes the agent do

An agent skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file with instructions that an AI agent loads when a request matches the skill's description. This skill runs on first use of the commercial-legal plugin and walks the team through a setup interview.

During the interview the agent asks about the team's contract practice and requests 5-10 recently signed agreements and an escalation matrix if one exists. It extracts the team's actual playbook positions from those documents and notes differences between stated positions and what was signed. It then writes a practice profile to ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/commercial-legal/CLAUDE.md. Other skills in the plugin read this file before they work.

Install the cold-start-interview skill

Download the ZIP for this skill from this page and unzip it into one of two places. For a personal install available across projects, unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/. For a single project, unzip it into that project's .claude/skills/ folder.

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

• Requires the claude-for-legal commercial-legal plugin to be installed first.
• Requires access to the local filesystem under ~/.claude/plugins/config so the agent can read and write the CLAUDE.md practice profile.

Trigger the skill with natural requests

The skill is triggered when the config file is missing or still contains template placeholders, or when you say things like "set up the plugin", "configure commercial contracts", "onboard me", or "let's get started". The skill description says it is the only skill that should run on a fresh install.

Its command-style options are --redo to re-run the interview on an already configured plugin, --check-integrations to re-probe integrations only, and --side sales or --side purchasing to re-run only the playbook for one side.

• First run: ask for setup in plain words, for example "set up the plugin" or "onboard me".
• Re-run everything: use --redo. The agent shows a diff before overwriting the config file.
• Refresh connectors only: use --check-integrations after you connect or disconnect an integration.
• Rebuild one side: use --side purchasing or --side sales.

What to prepare before you start

The skill asks for signed agreements you supply as file paths, Google Drive links, or CLM record IDs. More documents give a clearer pattern; the skill notes that 20 gives a clearer pattern than 5. Have your escalation matrix ready if you have one.

Integrations are optional. MCP connectors for contract management (CLM), e-signature, document storage, or Slack are used only for integration checks.

• 5-10 recent signed agreements minimum; more is better.
• An escalation matrix, if one exists.
• Optional MCP connectors: CLM, e-signature, document storage, Slack.

Safety notes: scripts and network

This skill does not run scripts and does not use the network, according to its listing. Its work happens by reading your documents and writing the config file on your local filesystem.

Read the config file before you rely on it. The profile drives how later skills behave, so an error here carries into their output. The skill also overwrites or migrates existing config files when re-run, which can lose settings if used carelessly. Keep a copy of your current CLAUDE.md before running --redo.

• Runs scripts: no.
• Uses network: no.
• Integration checks only report a connector as working if a tool call actually succeeded; connectors that are configured but untested are marked as not yet confirmed.

Tips for a better practice profile

Use the lawyer's own words where possible; the profile is meant to be a document your team can edit in plain English. Provide a range of signed agreements rather than a single template so the agent can see a pattern. After the summary, tell the agent what it got wrong.

Use the skill for setup, not for advice on a specific contract. It configures a profile and is not a substitute for lawyer judgement.

• Review the written CLAUDE.md line by line before later skills run.
• Offer a test contract after setup to check the profile's behaviour.
• Re-run only the side that changed, rather than the whole interview.