Guide · Agent skill
How to use the Renewal Tracker agent skill
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
The renewal-tracker skill gives an AI agent a structured way to track when business contracts renew and when you must send a cancellation notice. It is aimed at in-house legal, contract managers, and operations or finance staff who handle auto-renewing vendor and SaaS agreements. After this guide you will know how to install the skill, set up its renewal register, ask for deadline reports in plain language, and check the results before you rely on them.
Renewal Trackeranthropics/claude-for-legal · Apache-2.0 Download the skill Quick start
- 1Download the ZIP. Download the renewal-tracker ZIP from the skill's page in this directory.
- 2Install the skill. Unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder, or upload the ZIP in the Claude apps under Settings, Capabilities, Skills.
- 3Create or confirm the register. Check that renewal-register.yaml exists at ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/commercial-legal/ and that the Claude for Legal commercial-legal plugin context is available.
- 4Add your contracts. Add each auto-renewing contract as an entry, or hand off a renewal from a review skill so the agent appends it.
- 5Ask for your deadlines. Request what's renewing soon, or use /commercial-legal:renewal-tracker with --days or --missed for a different window or a lapsed-window check.
- 6Verify before acting. Check each calculated cancel-by date against the actual contract and its notice clause, then send notice through the method the contract requires.
What the renewal-tracker skill makes the agent do
The skill maintains a renewal register, a YAML file that records each contract's counterparty, term end dates, notice period, notice method and business owner. From that file the agent calculates cancel-by dates, adjusting for weekends, holidays and the time notice takes to be delivered.
It can show you upcoming deadlines for the next 90 days grouped by urgency, list deadlines that passed without a recorded cancellation, and suggest who to contact before each window closes. The skill's own notes say it calculates and reports deadlines but does not send any cancellation notice.
- Shows contracts with cancel-by deadlines in the next 90 days, grouped into red, orange and yellow urgency bands
- Lists cancel-by deadlines that passed without a recorded cancellation
- Flags which contracts have uncapped pricing so you can seek leverage before the window closes
- Appends new renewals handed off from related review skills to the register
Install the renewal-tracker skill
Download the ZIP from the skill's page in this directory. You can install it in one of two ways, depending on where you run Claude.
For Claude Code, unzip the download into your personal skills folder at ~/.claude/skills/, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder if you want the skill limited to that project. For the Claude apps, upload the ZIP under Settings, then Capabilities, then Skills.
- Personal use across projects: ~/.claude/skills/
- Single project only: the .claude/skills/ folder inside that project
- Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP
Set up the renewal register
The skill reads a file named renewal-register.yaml from the Claude plugin config directory at ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/commercial-legal/. That location is used so the file survives plugin updates. The skill needs the Claude for Legal commercial-legal plugin context to work.
Each contract is one entry. The key fields are the counterparty, agreement name, current term end, notice period in days, notice method, transit buffer in days, the calculated cancel-by dates, the business owner and the status (active, cancelled, renewed or lapsed). If you connect a contract lifecycle management (CLM) system or DocuSign, the entry can also hold a CLM ID and an envelope reference. Those integrations are optional.
- When the review skills hand off a renewal, the agent appends it to the register; if the counterparty already has an entry it asks whether this is a replacement or an extra agreement
- If the register is empty and a CLM is connected, the agent can offer to scan it for active agreements with renewal dates and bulk-load them
- Store the initial term end for the record, but the cancel-by calculation uses the current term end, which moves forward after each auto-renewal
Ask for renewals in natural language or with options
You do not need special syntax. The skill triggers on requests such as what's renewing soon, what renewals are due, did we miss a cancellation window, or add this to the renewal tracker. It can also run on a schedule.
The slash command takes two optional flags. --days N changes the lookback window from the default 90 days. --missed switches to the list of lapsed cancellation windows.
- Default: deadlines in the next 90 days, grouped by urgency
- Longer window: use --days with a number of days
- Lapsed windows: use --missed
/commercial-legal:renewal-tracker --days 180Read the urgency bands and detail columns
In the default report, each deadline falls into exactly one band. Red covers 0 to 13 days, orange covers 14 to 44 days, and yellow covers 45 to 89 days. Days 14, 45 and 90 are boundaries and belong to a single band each.
The urgency is based on the date you must send notice. The detail columns show the cancel-by date, the notice method and the transit buffer, so you can see the difference and challenge the buffer if it looks wrong. Where a weekend or holiday moved the date earlier, the report shows the original calendar date and the reason for the change.
- Red: 0 to 13 days
- Orange: 14 to 44 days
- Yellow: 45 to 89 days
Check missed cancellation windows and renewals
Use the --missed flag to list cancel-by deadlines that passed without a recorded cancellation. When a renewal has happened, the skill asks you to confirm an update: the new current term end, and the recalculated cancel-by dates. Confirm only after you have checked the contract.
Because the cancel-by date is calculated from the current term end, a register that is not updated after each renewal will produce wrong dates after the first year.
- Run the missed check at least as often as your renewal reviews
- Update the entry after every auto-renewal, not only the first one
- Record the status as renewed, cancelled or lapsed once you know the outcome
/commercial-legal:renewal-tracker --missedWhat people use it for
- An in-house legal team keeps a running list of auto-renewing vendor and SaaS contracts and reviews the red and orange bands each week
- A finance operations lead checks which subscriptions have notice deadlines in the next 180 days using the --days flag
- A contract manager runs the missed check after a renewal period to find cancellation windows that closed without a notice on record
- A team that already uses the Claude for Legal commercial-legal plugin adds renewals from contract reviews so reminders stay in one register
Frequently asked questions
How do I install the renewal-tracker skill?
Download the ZIP from the skill's page, then unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder. In the Claude apps, you can upload the ZIP under Settings, then Capabilities, then Skills.
Is the renewal-tracker skill free to use?
The listing states the licence is Apache-2.0. Check the licence file included with the download for the full terms.
What does the renewal-tracker skill need to run?
It needs a renewal-register.yaml file in the Claude plugin config directory and the Claude for Legal commercial-legal plugin context. A connected CLM system and DocuSign are optional, used for bulk import and envelope references.
Does the renewal-tracker skill send cancellation notices automatically?
No. The skill calculates and reports deadlines. The files do not show it sending any cancellation, so you must send notice yourself using the method the contract requires.
Why is my cancel-by date shown on a different day than the contract date?
The skill moves a calculated date to the last business day when the raw date falls on a weekend or holiday. For non-US governing law it may use US federal holidays as a placeholder, so check the local holiday calendar and the contract's own business-day definition.
Can the skill find renewals in my contracts on its own?
Not by default. It only tracks what is recorded in the register file, unless a legal case-management system is connected, in which case it can scan for active agreements with renewal dates.
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Our verdict
This skill suits in-house legal, contract managers and operations staff who want a running register of auto-renewing contracts with deadline reminders, especially if they already use the Claude for Legal commercial-legal plugin. It is not a substitute for legal advice on notice clauses, and it does not discover or send anything on its own, so pick a different approach if you need automatic renewal detection or automated notice delivery.
Download the skill