Extract information from contracts

New to extractions?

Start with the tutorial Your first extraction. In about ten minutes it takes you from a blank schema to a first result with its sources, and this guide will then read as a set of steps you have already taken once.

Build an extraction schema, run it against a document, read the results, and act on the agent's suggestions. What a schema is, and how to interpret a result, is covered in About extractions; the parts, statuses, and limits are listed in Extraction schemas and results.

Build a schema

Open the Workflows page and select the Extractions sub-tab.
Select + beside the Extraction schemas heading and choose Blank schema from the menu. (The menu's other option, Draft with AI, is covered in Draft a schema with AI.)
Give it a name and, optionally, a description, then select Create schema. The schema is created and opened for editing. To change either later, open the schema's ⋮ menu in the list and choose Edit title and description.
A new schema starts with one empty item. Fill it in, then select the + button on the line between any two items to add another there — an item can go anywhere in the list, not only at the end. For every item, fill in:
- Label — a short name for the item, e.g. "Termination notice period". It names the row in your results, so keep it brief.
- What to extract — what the agent should look for, in full, including the shape the answer should take and any rule every run must follow, e.g. "The notice period required to terminate for convenience, not for breach, as a duration like 60 days". This is the only instruction the agent gets for the item, so write it to stand on its own.
- Extraction format — optionally, fix the answer's shape: Custom set, Date, Number, or Currency. Leave it on Free text for a free-form answer. A line beneath the selector says what each format is for; choose Currency for any sum of money and Number for a count, a percentage, or a duration. For a Custom set, type each allowed value in the Allowed values box and press Enter; paste a comma-separated list to add several at once; select a value to edit it, or its × to remove it.
Optionally, tell the agent what to make of the results. Open the schema's ⋮ menu in the list, choose Customise reports, then New report, and give it a name and instructions, e.g. "Use three short headings for a commercial property lawyer". Every schema already has a built-in Standard summary, so you can skip this and add reports later.

On a small screen the schema list and the schema you are editing do not sit side by side. A switcher above them moves between Schemas and Editor, one at a time; opening a schema takes you to the editor, and closing it brings you back to the list.

Your changes save automatically as you type, including on an item you have only half filled in. The more precise the What to extract, the better the answer: "the initial annual rent, excluding VAT" beats "the rent". An empty Label or What to extract is outlined in amber, because a schema cannot run until every item has both.

To have an agent write the item list for you instead, see Draft a schema with AI.

Run it

Select the run control on the schema's row in the list. It stays disabled until the schema has at least one item and every item has both a label and a what to extract.
Pick the document or documents to extract from.
Optionally tick any reports under Also produce. Nothing is ticked to begin with, and you can produce any report later from the run itself.
Dispatch the run. The window closes at once and a message confirms the run has started; it works in the background — you can move on to other work — and results typically arrive within a few minutes.

Or start from your documents

You can also start from the Documents page. Select the documents you want to extract from, choose Send to workflow on the bar that appears, and pick your schema under Extraction schemas. With two or more documents selected you choose between Send all documents to the same agent and Send each document to a separate agent; an extraction starts on the second, which gives one results table per document. A message confirms the dispatch with a View link that takes you straight to the results — see Work with the documents table.

Or ask in Discussions

In Discussions, ask the agent to find and run a saved extraction schema. Attached subjects are the default, but you can name a subset or other documents in your team's library without changing those subjects. For several documents the agent proposes a separate run per document; ask for one combined extraction if that suits the task better. It can also offer the schema's live report definitions for you to produce with the results.

The agent confirms the schema, documents, mode, and reports before it starts. The extraction runs in the background, is visible to the team, and appears in Activity; the agent gives you a link to follow it there. Extraction schemas are still created and edited from Workflows, not from a discussion.

Read the results

Results live in Activity, your team's one list of agent runs. Three ways in:

the dispatch message's View link takes you straight to the run;
the View runs control in the schema's row in the left-hand list opens Activity showing just that schema's runs (a "Scoped to" chip in the toolbar says so; dismiss it to see everything);
or open Activity from the action bar on any page.

Select the run and its results open in their own window: the documents the run read, listed beneath the title, then one row per item, with the Status, the extracted Value, the Sources, and the agent's Notes, plus an Export control at the top offering CSV or JSON. Where the agent had something to say about the documents that no item asked for, it appears beneath the table under Notes from the extracting agent, with the clause named; most runs have none.

Select a row to open its details beside the table: the full value and notes, every source, and what the item asks for. The arrow keys move between rows.
Drag the edge of a column heading to change its width; double-click the edge to put it back. The widths you set are kept for your next visit.
Use the row beneath the headings to narrow the table. Type into Item, Value, Sources, or Notes to keep only the rows that contain that text; typing a clause number under Sources keeps the rows that cite it. Under Status, untick Not found to hide the items the document does not answer. The line above the table says how many rows are shown, with Clear filters to show them all again. Filters change only what you see: an export or a report still includes every row.
Select the information icon beside an item, or tick Show extraction schema definitions, to see what each item asks for as the schema currently defines it. If the schema has been edited since the run, the window says so.
Select Side by side to place the document beside the results. Selecting a source then scrolls the document to the passage, and selecting a document beneath the title switches the one shown. Opening a report with Preview while the document is beside the results places the report on the left, so you can read it against the document. The close control at the top of the window closes the document too.
Select a source to read the quoted passage; Open document in that popover opens the document it cites. The sources shown first are the clauses that state the value; a +1 or +2 beside them reveals supporting passages the value depends on, such as a defined term or a schedule.
Items marked Not found are definite answers — the document does not contain the information. Items marked Unaccounted were not answered at all; re-run the schema or check the item's wording.
An item marked Feedback drew a suggestion from the agent about the item's wording rather than the document; select the marker to jump to it under Schema feedback beneath the notes. See Act on suggestions about your schema.
To keep the results as a document in your library — searchable, shareable, and linked to the contracts it came from — select Save to documents at the top of the window. See Track agent runs.

To repeat the extraction on another document, select the run control on the schema's row again.

Produce a report from the results

A Reports section sits above the results table. Anything you ticked under Also produce starts as soon as the run completes; to produce one now, select Produce and pick a report from the list.

Each report shows with a spinning icon while it is being written, then as a row with Preview, which opens the report for reading: a written report formatted as text, a Word report as its pages. Producing usually takes a minute or two; after ten minutes the row offers Retry.
Each report has its own Save to documents, which keeps that report as a document in your library. The window that opens proposes a title and ticks the collections the run's documents belong to, so the report is filed with its contracts unless you choose otherwise.
A report that could not be produced says Failed; open it to read why.
Producing the same report again adds another, so you can keep both. The list shows one row per report with its newest version; select N earlier on the row to see the older ones, including any that failed.

Define a Word report

If you own the schema, you can use an existing library document as the report form:

Open the schema's ⋮ menu and choose Customise reports.
Select New report, enter a name, and set Define using to Word document.
Select Select document, pick a document with an available .docx version, and confirm it.
Add Additional instructions if needed, then select Save.

Use Replace document or Clear when editing the definition. To produce it, tick it under Also produce when starting an extraction, or choose it from Produce above a completed run's results. Select Preview to check the completed form. Save to documents keeps a separate document in your library, from which you can download it; the original form remains unchanged.

Act on suggestions about your schema

When the agent finds that an item's wording, list of choices, or extraction format got in the way of a good answer, it leaves a short suggestion for whoever maintains the schema. Back on the Extractions page, select the schema. Each item with open suggestions shows an amber ! marker and a count; suggestions about the schema as a whole use the marker beside Items to extract. Select one to open the history, newest first. The modal shows the current item, what went wrong, the suggested change, and a link to the run it came from.

An entry marked Earlier version concerns wording that the item no longer uses, so you cannot apply it automatically. You can still dismiss it. Version unknown marks older feedback for which there is no saved item version. Two suggestions about unchanged wording both remain open: a newer date alone does not make the earlier suggestion obsolete.

If you own the schema:

Edit the item as you see fit — its wording, list of choices, or extraction format.
Or select Apply in the suggestion modal. The agent drafts the change and the proposal appears in the same modal. It may replace the item or split it into several focused items. Select Accept to save it, or Discard to remove that proposal while leaving the original suggestion open.
Select Dismiss on a suggestion you have handled yourself or do not want. Dismissing does not change your schema, and you can select Reopen on it later if you change your mind.

You can draft amendments for different items at the same time. For one item, finish or discard its current amendment before starting another. A point about the schema as a whole cannot be applied automatically because there is no single item to change.

If you edit an item yourself while its amendment is being drafted, Accept refuses rather than overwriting what you wrote. Pending and completed amendments return after a reload, and Activity labels them as AI amendment runs with a Review amendment link while they still need a decision.

Colleagues can read the same suggestion history but cannot act on it. Nothing changes your schema without you accepting it. Applied, dismissed, and superseded suggestions remain visible as grey history.

The markers show only while a suggestion is open. To read the history once they have gone, open the schema's Other actions menu and select Suggestion history: it lists every suggestion the schema has drawn, open ones first, with the item each concerns. The entry appears only for a schema that has drawn a suggestion.