STIVA contract playbook for AI review lists, for each clause type you care about, your standard position, the fallbacks you'll accept, and the points where a lawyer must step in. Written that way, an AI can compare an incoming agreement against it, flag what deviates, and propose redlines — and a lawyer can check the result in minutes instead of reading the whole contract cold.
Most legal teams already have a playbook. It's usually in someone's head, a few old emails, and a template that drifted. Writing it down properly is the real work of AI contract review.
What each clause rule needs
- Clause type: limitation of liability, indemnity, termination, governing law, payment terms, confidentiality, and so on.
- Standard position: the wording you send out and prefer to sign.
- Acceptable fallbacks: the alternatives you'll accept without escalation, in order.
- Walk-away or escalate: what always goes to a lawyer, regardless of deal size.
- Context: deal types or counterparties where the rule changes.
Write rules a reviewer can check
'Liability should be reasonable' can't be checked. 'Liability capped at fees paid in the prior 12 months; uncapped only for confidentiality breaches; anything else escalates' can. The more precise the rule, the more the AI's output becomes a quick yes or no for the reviewer rather than a fresh legal analysis.
Start narrow
Begin with the agreement your team sees most — usually NDAs or a standard services agreement — and the five to ten clauses that cause most of the negotiation. Run real agreements through it with a lawyer approving every redline. The clauses where reviewers keep editing the AI's suggestion are the ones where the playbook needs another sentence.
What stays with lawyers
- Anything outside the playbook, or with no precedent.
- Strategic concessions tied to the wider relationship.
- Final approval of every redline and every executed document.
STIV Legal works this way: it reviews against your playbook, redlines only the parts that deviate, and routes every redline and executed document through an approval gate before anything is sent. This walkthrough shows what happens between upload and redline. But the playbook is the asset — it's worth writing even before you choose any tool.