Ironclad Early Access Program: This feature is in Early Access and may change before it is generally available. If you're interested in this feature, please reach out to your Ironclad representative or Support to see if you're eligible for EAP access.

Contract Review Agent's Redlining feature delivers an AI-guided first-pass redline across an entire contract. You can ground the redline in your organization’s approved playbook, relevant precedent agreements, or both. When both are provided, Contract Review Agent uses the most relevant guidance for each clause to recommend edits that reflect your preferred positions and how your organization has negotiated similar language in the past.

Each suggested edit appears as an inline tracked change and includes an explanation of Contract Review Agent’s reasoning, risk level, and supporting source. This helps you make informed decisions as you review, accept, reject, or revise the proposed changes. A human reviewer should always evaluate Contract Review Agent’s recommendations before finalizing the contract.

Use Cases

At Classics Inc., the legal team is reviewing a lengthy software licensing agreement from a new vendor. Instead of manually redlining the document clause by clause, a legal analyst uploads the agreement, applies the company’s approved playbook, and selects relevant previously negotiated agreements as precedents. Contract Review Agent generates a first-pass redline across the full contract, using the playbook to enforce company standards and the precedents to reflect language the team has accepted in similar negotiations.

For each suggested change, Contract Review Agent explains its reasoning and identifies the playbook rule or precedent that informed the recommendation. The analyst can then review the proposed edits, validate them against the organization’s negotiation strategy, and accept, reject, or revise each change. As a result, Classics Inc. accelerates its review process, applies its standards more consistently, and reduces the need to manually search through prior agreements.

Other key use cases:

Third-party paper first-pass redline: Upload third-party agreements such as MSAs, DPAs, NDAs, and licensing agreements, then generate a first pass grounded in your playbook and relevant precedents.
First-party paper counterparty review: Review a counterparty’s edits to your standard template and propose responses based on your approved positions, fallbacks, and prior negotiated outcomes.
Precedent-grounded negotiation: Use previously negotiated agreements to help Contract Review Agent recommend language that reflects how your organization has handled similar clauses in the past.
High-volume, lower-risk agreements: Apply consistent first-pass redlines to repetitive agreements so attorneys can focus their review on exceptions, higher-risk terms, and strategic decisions.
Legal team capacity relief: Enable procurement professionals, contract specialists, or other approved users to prepare a first pass, while keeping a human legal reviewer in the loop for validation and escalation.

Permissions

Features	Permissions and Requirements
Contract Review Agent Redlining Agent	Your organization must have access to Ironclad Contract Review Agent.
Redlining with playbooks	Contact Ironclad Services to create or optimize a Contract Review Agent-ready playbook.
Redlining with precedents	This feature is currently in an invitation-only EAP. Contact your Ironclad representative to learn more.

Enable Contract Review Agent Redlining Agent with Playbooks

Before you can use Contract Review Agent to redline against playbooks, your organization needs to be set up with a Contract Review Agent-ready playbook and the right access.

To prepare a Contract Review Agent-ready playbook for redlining:

Confirm that your organization has access to Ironclad Contract Review Agent.
Contact your Ironclad representative to request a Contract Review Agent Services engagement, or request it in-app via the flow below.
1. In Contract Review Agent, click Redline against your playbook.
2. Click Request Access.
3. A member of the Ironclad team will reach out shortly.
As part of that engagement, the Ironclad Services team will help you:
- Review existing guidance (playbooks, clause banks, etc.)
- Translate those materials into a Contract Review Agent-ready playbook with your preferred positions, fallback language, and risk tolerances. This playbook could either be optimized from an existing playbook, or built from scratch.
- Test and refine the playbook with you.
Once your playbook has been approved by Ironclad Services, they will either:
- Add the Contract Review Agent-ready playbook to your Playbook Library in Contract Review Agent, or
- Provide the playbook so you can upload it manually.

After you’ve completed these steps, you’re ready to upload contracts, apply your playbook, and review Contract Review Agent’s suggested redlines.

Enable Contract Review Agent Redlining Agent with Precedents (Invitation-Only)

Contact your Ironclad representative to learn if you are able to get into the closed, invitation-only EAP.
If enabled, you'll see a Precedent Files option in the redlining flow. You can upload executed agreements from your Ironclad repository as precedent context alongside your contract and, optionally, your playbook. Contract Review Agent will draw on both, surfacing sourced recommendations grounded in language your team has actually accepted before.
1. Note: We recommend using a Contract Review Agent-optimized Playbook rather than your own, as Contract Review Agent is designed to perform best with Playbooks specifically optimized for it. If you don’t have a Contract Review Agent-optimized Playbook yet, contact your Ironclad representative, who can connect you with Ironclad Services.

Upload Files to Contract Review Agent

Upload Playbooks to Contract Review Agent

Once you’ve created your playbook, you can either:

Upload it along with the contract you want Contract Review Agent to redline, or
Add it to the Playbook Library.

To add a playbook to your Playbook Library, follow the instructions in Manage Playbooks in Your Playbook Library. Once you’ve added a playbook to your Playbook Library, it’ll be available to you for reuse.

Note: English-language playbooks will work against contracts in 50+ languages. Redlines will default to the native contract language, but redlining cards default to English. You can prompt Contract Review Agent to output redlining card details in English.

To upload a playbook alongside a contract:

In Contract Review Agent, click Redline with Playbook.
Select File to Edit.
Select Upload from your device.
Attach your contract, and click Open.
Select Playbook Files, and attach your Contract Review Agent-ready playbook using the same method.
Click Continue.

To select a playbook from your Playbook Library:

In Contract Review Agent, click Redline with Playbook.
In Contract Review Agent, click the Add files icon (+) beneath the prompt box.
Click Add from Playbooks.
Select the playbook you want to apply.
Click Add.
Attach your contract using the same steps.

Once you’ve attached a contract, you’ll be ready to start redlining in Contract Review Agent.

Upload precedent files

Precedents are executed agreements from your Ironclad repository that Contract Review Agent uses as context alongside your contract. For best results, choose a precedent that is the same contract type and involve counterparties similar to the one you're currently negotiating with.

To upload a precedent alongside a contract:

In Contract Review Agent, click Redline documents, if shown.
Select File to Edit and attach the contract you want to redline.
Select Precedents and attach an executed agreement from your repository. You can select one precedent file.
Optionally, attach a playbook under Playbook Files to use both sources together. Note: We recommend using a Contract Review Agent-optimized Playbook rather than your own, as Contract Review Agent is designed to perform best with Playbooks specifically optimized for it. If you don’t have a Contract Review Agent-optimized Playbook yet, contact your Ironclad representative, who can connect you with Ironclad Services.
Click Continue.

Using the Contract Review Agent Redlining Agent with Playbooks

Warning: Ironclad is not a law firm, and the information in this article does not constitute or contain legal advice. To evaluate the accuracy, sufficiency, or enforceability of specific contract terms, or the applicability of these materials to your business, you should consult with a licensed attorney. Use of, and access to, any of the resources contained within this site does not create an attorney–client relationship between you and Ironclad.

Once you have your Contract Review Agent-ready playbook, you can start using the Contract Review Agent Redlining Agent with Playbooks:

In Contract Review Agent, click Redline with playbook.
Click File to Edit, and attach the file you want to redline.
Click Playbook Files to attach your Contract Review Agent-ready playbook.
- Note: You can choose to click Add from Playbooks to reuse a playbook from your Playbook Library.
Click Continue.
Fill out the field under My party, and Contract type.
Select your Paper source:
- Third-party: Your counterparty’s paper.
- First-party: Your organization’s standard paper.
Click Continue.
Select your Negotiation Stance:
- Light: Focuses on high-importance issues and makes minimal edits.
- Balanced: Default stance; enforces must-haves and key negotiables with a moderate level of redlining.
- Firm: Hard-line; redlines aggressively, often inserting preferred or fallback language verbatim and catching more deviations.
(Optional) Click the plus icon (+) next to Additional comments to include any other notes you want the AI to know.
(Optional) Select the option to Run Ironclad risk assessment. This will scan for risks that may be missing from your playbook.
(Optional) Select one of two options under Prepare accompanying documents to generate alongside your contract:
- Summary of redlines
- Extracted rules from playbook
Click Redline document.

Once your redlined document has been generated, you can review, accept, reject, or edit the redlines.

Review Redlines

Each redline includes an explanation of Contract Review Agent’s reasoning in a redlining card to help you make informed decisions as you review, accept, or reject the suggested changes.

Each redlining card also includes options to approve (checkmark icon) or reject (X icon) Contract Review Agent’s suggested edit.

Warning: Please be aware that follow-up prompts in Contract Review Agent will re-run the entire redlining pass instead of applying targeted edits.

Contract Review Agent Redlining Legends

Contract Review Agent displays redlines as inline tracked changes, and as redline cards containing relevant details in the right-hand panel.

Inline Action	Description
Deletion	Text Contract Review Agent recommends removing appears inline as colored text with strikethrough in the contract.
Insertion	Text Contract Review Agent recommends adding appears inline as colored text inserted in the contract.
Suggested Edits	Edits that have not been accepted or rejected yet will appear in blue.
Accepted Edits	Once you’ve accepted an edit, its color will change from blue to red.

Each inline tracked change is connected to a redlining card in the Contract Review Agent right-hand panel. The related redlining card includes:

Reasoning for why the change was suggested.
Risk level: Low, Medium, or High.
Sources, so you can see which playbook rule the edit comes from.
Approve/Reject buttons so you can apply or discard the change directly from the side panel.

Risk Level	Description
Low	Minor or low-impact deviation from playbook. Typically acceptable with no adjustment needed.
Medium	Material deviation that may require negotiation or additional review.
High	Significant deviation or non-standard position that could create meaningful legal, commercial, or compliance risk. Usually requires closer legal review or stronger protections.

Known Limitations

Note:

Known issues can often be effectively addressed with proper playbook design. If you're experiencing any of the issues listed in the table below, reach out to your Ironclad representative. From there, you'll be able to work with our Ironclad Services team to redesign your playbook for Contract Review Agent.

Issue	Description
Prompting Contract Review Agent after redlining	Follow-up prompts re-run the entire redlining pass instead of applying targeted edits. This issue is being tracked for post-GA resolution.
Max. number of playbook files per run	Contract Review Agent supports one (1) playbook file per redline run.
Cross-referencing playbooks	References to other playbook documents aren’t followed. All rules must be self-contained in the uploaded file.
Playbook sharing across users	Organization-level playbook sharing is not currently supported. We recommend storing the approved playbook in a shared folder for easy access.
External URLs in playbooks	Contract Review Agent can’t fetch content from URLs referenced in playbooks or contracts.
Non-English contracts	English-language playbooks work against contracts in 50+ languages. Redlines appear in the contract’s native language, while redlining cards will default to English unless otherwise prompted.
Max precedents per review	You can upload or select up to 3 precedents per review.
Recommended precedent sourcing	Recommended precedents are sourced from your contract repository based on the contract type and counterparty of the agreement you’re reviewing.
Repository contract types for precedent	Only executed or archived contracts from your repository can be selected as precedents.
Upload precedent from computer	You can also upload precedent documents from your computer. DOCX is the recommended format for the best redlining quality.

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