Skills

Skills & Recommended Settings

DingDuff works on its own, but these skills make it noticeably better. None are required. Each is a one-time download that you upload to Claude; it then stays in your skill picker.

Skill files are named dingduff_<skill>_v1.0.skill. In Claude's skill picker they appear under their dingduff-… name.

The skills

Legal research

• dingduff-legal-research (v2.1) — one skill for legal research generally: it finds, retrieves, reads, and validates the controlling cases, statutes, and regulations, maps the citation network and the statutory landscape, and confirms everything is still good law. Thorough by default, and scales from a quick "what's the law on X" to a full doctrinal map. (Replaces the older separate case-law standard/deep and statute-research skills.) Download: dingduff_legal-research_v2.1.skill

Legal analysis & writing

These two skills pair: analysis builds the citation-anchored reasoning, writing turns it into a finished document. Install both for any task that ends in a memo, brief, motion, or letter — Claude will run them in order.

• dingduff-legal-analysis (v1.2) — the reasoning engine. Frames the legal issues, synthesizes the governing rule from the cases and statutes you've gathered, analyzes the facts against the rule, organizes the proof (CRAC/CREAC), and deploys authority. Use when you want Claude to think through a question rigorously before drafting anything — "what's the law on X," "do we have a claim," "will this argument hold up," "what are the issues here." Pairs with dingduff-legal-research (gets the authority) and dingduff-legal-writing (drafts from the analysis). Download: dingduff_legal-analysis_v1.2.skill

• dingduff-legal-writing (v1.2) — drafts and revises legal documents: office memos, trial-court motion briefs, appellate briefs, demand letters, and client advice letters. Also runs the craft passes — organization, persuasion, and editing for clarity — on any draft you already have. Use for any drafting or revision task: "write a memo on X," "draft this motion," "respond to their brief," "make this more persuasive," "tighten this up." Builds on dingduff-legal-analysis (which produces the analytical skeleton it drafts from). Download: dingduff_legal-writing_v1.2.skill

Citation checking

• dingduff-citation-check (v2.2) — after you draft a memo (Markdown, Word, or Google Docs), verifies every citation against the opinion and statute files you saved plus any other source you supply — a Restatement section, a case missing from CourtListener, the other side's brief, a factual PDF — and opens a review panel showing the memo and each source side by side. Runs entirely in your own session. Download: dingduff_citation-check_v2.2.skill Needs python3 (Cowork and Claude Code provide it). Save case/statute sources first via opinion_store / statute_store; drop any other source (text or a text-layer PDF) into your working folder. How it works — reliability & privacy: see How Citation Checking Works.

Citation formatting

• dingduff-legal-citation-format (v1.4) — formats legal citations in practitioner / brief style (cases, statutes, signals like see / cf., pincites, short forms, block quotes). Its rules follow The Indigo Book (a free, public-domain citation manual). It fixes form only — pair it with the research or cite-check skills to confirm an authority exists and is quoted accurately. Works on its own (no connector needed). It's a large skill, so Claude will usually run it in a subagent — that's expected and keeps your main chat fast. Download: dingduff_legal-citation-format_v1.4.skill

How to install a skill

Download the .skill file(s) above (on GitHub, open the file and use the Download raw file button), then upload to Claude — pick the row that matches how you use Claude:

• Cowork (desktop): Customize (upper right) → Skills → upload the file.
• claude.ai (browser): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → upload the file.
• Claude Code (CLI): install the whole library at once as a plugin instead:

  /plugin marketplace add DingDuff/dingduff-plugins
  /plugin install dingduff@dingduff
  

Once uploaded, the skill appears in the skill picker (the / menu). The research skills trigger automatically when you ask a legal question; to cite-check, draft a memo with DingDuff, then ask Claude to "cite-check this memo."

Recommended Claude settings

Always use DingDuff for legal research

Add a custom instruction so you don't have to ask every time:

1. Open Profile → Instructions for Claude (in your general settings).
2. Add something like:

   When I ask a legal question, always use the DingDuff connector and rely only on the DingDuff database. Tell me the jurisdiction you searched and include citations.

Turn off chat training (privacy)

In your Claude privacy settings, turn off the option that lets Claude train on your chats. Recommended for confidential legal work.

Tips for better results

When you ask a legal question, it helps to tell Claude to:

1. Use only the DingDuff database (so it doesn't pull from the open web) — handled automatically if you set the custom instruction above.
2. Specify the jurisdiction you want cases or statutes from.
3. Ask for citations in the answer.

Complex questions can take several minutes — that's normal while Claude researches.