Ask Vern

It reads the clause before it answers.

A chat scoped to one contract, which fetches the actual clause text and your actual playbook position with tools before it says anything. Not a summary of your contract stuffed into a prompt and hoped over, and you can see every fetch it made.

GOING TO LOOK IT UP CLIENT TOB · v2
Can we live with 8.1 as drafted?
get_clause 8.1 192 chars · offset 24118
get_playbook_position L-04 cap ≤ 2× annual fees
get_findings 8.1 12 Escalate · Weak
ONLY THEN, AN ANSWER
Not comfortably. It breaches L-04, and as drafted it wouldn't hold up anyway.
THREE FETCHES · NOTHING FROM MEMORY
Scope
One contract at a time
Method
Tools, not context-stuffing
Trace
Every fetch shown
Threads
Kept with the matter
A real thread · pick a follow-up

“Can we live with 8.1 as drafted?”

Choose one of the three quick actions and the thread carries on. Everything here is the real interface.

+ New thread
THIS CONTRACT
Liability cap exposure
5 messages · just now
Rebate schedule query
6 messages · Tue
Counter-email for round 1
4 messages · 30 Jun
Threads are scoped to this contract and kept with the matter.
Liability cap exposure Client Terms of Business · v2 answers grounded in this contract + your playbook
Can we live with 8.1 as drafted if Meridian won't move at all?
get_clause 8.1 get_playbook_position L-04

Short answer: not comfortably. 8.1 leaves indirect losses uncapped, which breaches L-04 (escalate condition: "liability uncapped in any form") and sits outside your £2m insurance aggregate.

If they genuinely won't move, two live routes:

1. Offer W3 (3× super-cap), a concession that still caps exposure. Meridian accepted a 3× cap with Halcyon-style carve-outs in your last two negotiations.

2. Trade against 5.2, accept their 60-day payment terms in exchange for the cap. Their commercial priority in round 1 was payment terms, not liability.

Signing as-is means unlimited exposure on a £48k engagement, that's an escalate-to-counsel decision, not an ops sign-off.

Draft the counter-email using route 2.
get_clause 5.2get_playbook_position L-02
DRAFT · TO MERIDIAN TALENT

“Thanks for the revised draft. We can work with your payment terms at 60 days as they stand.

In return we do need clause 8.1 to carry a cap. Our position is twice the fees paid or payable in the twelve months preceding a claim, mutual on both sides, we’re not asking you to accept anything we aren’t accepting ourselves.

On that basis we’re ready to sign this week.”

CopyOpen in OutlookMake it firmer
Context: clause 8.1
Ask about this contract… Send
Why the answers hold up

It fetches. It doesn't recall.

The usual approach is to paste the whole contract into the prompt and let the model find its way. That works until the contract is long, at which point the model starts remembering things approximately. Ask Vern is given tools instead, and has to go and look.

get_clause
The exact text

Returns a clause verbatim with its character offsets, so a quotation in an answer is the contract’s words and not a paraphrase.

search_contract
Everywhere it appears

Finds every mention of a concept across the document, which is how it notices that liability is dealt with in three places, not one.

get_playbook_position
Your actual line

Pulls the position from the published version, including its fallback tiers, so the advice argues your case, not a general one.

get_findings
What the review said

Reads the run’s own findings, so the chat and the report never contradict each other in front of a client.

THE PRACTICAL EFFECT Every tool call is shown to you as a chip in the thread. If an answer looks wrong, you can see exactly what it read before it said it, and every call is re-checked against your organisation's scope on the way in.
Where it opens

Four places.
One conversation.

Threads are stored against the matter, so a question asked in Word is still there in the dashboard tomorrow.

01 As a tray

The default way it opens, a panel docked over whatever you were looking at, with the clause you had selected already attached as context. Expand it to the full tab when the answer turns into a piece of work.

02 As a full tab

The version above, room for a thread list, longer answers, drafted emails and comparison tables. Sits alongside Findings and Versions on the contract.

03 In Word

Highlight a paragraph in the document and ask about it. The selection becomes the context chip, so “is this normal?” has an unambiguous subject.

04 From ChatGPT or Claude

Connect Vern to the assistant your team already uses and ask it there. It calls the same tools against the same contract, so the answer is the one Vern would have given.

What people actually ask

Mostly not “what does this mean”.

The review already explains the clauses. What people want next is help doing something about them, which is why the quick actions are drafting actions rather than explaining ones.

And because threads live on the matter, the answer you got in round one is still there when the same clause comes back in round three.

“What should I push back on first?”
“Write the reply, firm but not rude.”
“Have we accepted this before?”
“What do I give up to get the cap?”
“Explain 8.1 to a non-lawyer in two lines.”
“Is this actually worth a solicitor?”

Ask it something you'd normally ask a lawyer.

Put your own question to an anonymised contract from your sector on the call. You'll see every clause it reads before it answers.