--- name: contract-and-proposal-writer description: Draft jurisdiction-aware business documents, freelance contracts, proposals, SOWs, NDAs, and MSAs, as structured Markdown with docx conversion. Covers US (Delaware), EU, UK, and DACH. Use when drafting a client contract, proposal, SOW, NDA, or MSA. Not a substitute for legal counsel, drafts require attorney review. Not for reviewing or negotiating third-party paper. Not for outreach copy: use cold-email. license: MIT metadata: author: TechTide AI (Alex Cinovoj) provenance: rewritten from patterns in alirezarezvani/claude-skills (MIT) category: Sales & RevOps --- # Contract and Proposal Writer Draft complete, jurisdiction-correct documents fast, then hand them to a human. This skill produces strong starting points, not legal advice, and nothing goes to a client without owner review. ## Workflow 1. **Gather requirements.** Ask for: document type (contract / proposal / SOW / NDA / MSA), jurisdiction (US-Delaware / EU / UK / DACH), engagement type (fixed-price / hourly / retainer), parties with legal names and addresses, 1-3 sentence scope, total value or rate, dates or duration, special requirements (IP assignment, white-label, subcontractors). 2. **Select the template.** Templates live in references/templates.md: fixed-price development contract, consulting retainer, SaaS partnership agreement, plus the GDPR Data Processing Addendum block. NDAs derive from the confidentiality clauses with mutual or one-way scope. 3. **Apply jurisdiction rules.** Read references/jurisdictions.md before drafting anything outside plain US-Delaware work. The rules that bite: work-for-hire language alone fails in the EU, DACH requires explicit transfer of Nutzungsrechte and written-form clauses, any personal-data processing in EU/DACH requires a DPA. 4. **Fill and flag.** Replace every `[BRACKETED]` placeholder with real data. Anything the user did not supply gets marked `REQUIRED:` inline, never silently defaulted for party names, money, dates, or governing law. 5. **Check the standard clause set.** Every contract needs: payment terms with late-payment interest, IP ownership matched to jurisdiction, liability cap, termination (for cause with cure period, for convenience with notice), confidentiality with survival term, warranty scope, dispute resolution, written-amendments clause. Options per clause are in references/templates.md. 6. **Convert.** Deliver Markdown plus the pandoc command: `pandoc contract.md -o contract.docx --number-sections -V fontsize=11pt` (add `--reference-doc=` for house styling). 7. **Hand off.** Return the draft path, open legal questions, and the next step (owner review, then signature). Stop before anything is sent to a client. Drafts always get human legal review for high-value or complex engagements. ## Verification Run `grep -nE "\[[A-Z][A-Z _/-]+\]|REQUIRED:" contract.md`. Expect zero `[BRACKETED]` placeholders and only deliberate `REQUIRED:` flags that you list in the handoff note. Any unflagged placeholder: fill it or flag it. Then re-add milestone amounts by hand and compare to the total fee. Mismatch: fix the math before delivering. ## Good vs Bad **Bad:** A fixed-price contract for a German client using Delaware law, work-for-hire IP language, and no DPA, because that was the default template. Unenforceable IP transfer, GDPR exposure, and enforcement headaches. **Good:** Same deal drafted under German law: explicit Nutzungsrechte transfer, Schriftformklausel, DIS arbitration, and an Art. 28 DPA attached because the project touches user data. One `REQUIRED:` flag where the client's registered address is missing. ## Footguns - **Work-for-hire outside the US.** The doctrine does not exist in most EU states. Fix: explicit assignment language, and Nutzungsrechte transfer for DACH. - **Vague acceptance criteria.** "Upon acceptance" without a definition means payment disputes. Fix: written sign-off plus a fixed rejection window (e.g., 10 business days). - **No change-order clause.** Scope creep kills fixed-price work. Fix: out-of-scope work requires a written change order with pricing. - **Missing liability cap.** One bug, unlimited damages. Fix: cap at 1x fees paid (3x for high-risk consulting), exclude consequential damages. - **Oral amendment risk.** Verbal changes are unenforceable chaos. Fix: written-amendments clause in every document. ## Completion checklist - [ ] Document type, jurisdiction, and engagement type confirmed - [ ] Jurisdiction rules from references/jurisdictions.md applied - [ ] grep check clean, all gaps flagged `REQUIRED:` and listed - [ ] Milestone math equals total fee - [ ] Standard clause set present, docx conversion command provided - [ ] Draft held for owner review, not sent Any box unchecked: not done. Fix or say so.