contract-cli

Beautiful contracts from the CLI — NDA, consulting, MSA, SOW, service. Plain English, 1–3 pages, agent-friendly.

A stateful, single-binary CLI for drafting and rendering business contracts. Built for humans who want a clean terminal workflow and for AI agents that need a deterministic JSON interface to draft and dispatch contracts on their owner's behalf.

Sibling of invoice-cli — same SQLite store, same issuers, same clients. Drop a contract draft for a client you already invoice, in one binary.

Features

• Five contract kinds, plain English. Consulting, NDA (mutual or unilateral), MSA, SOW, service agreement. Embedded clause packs use real-contract conventions: kind as title, project as subtitle, "Dated" line, numbered (1)/(2) parties prose, "AGREED TERMS" section.
• Composable clause packs. Each kind ships with a standard pack. Include or exclude clauses at creation time (--include non_solicit --exclude warranties), or override the body of any clause from a Markdown file (contract clauses edit <num> termination --from-file ./my-version.md). Reset to pack default with contract clauses reset <num>. Add custom clauses entirely (contract clauses add <num> custom_audit --body "…").
• Three Typst templates. helvetica-nera (Swiss monochrome, default), vienna-legal (Bauhaus / terracotta), editorial (centred serif — reads like a deed). Each template owns the masthead aesthetic; shared/contract.typ owns the structure (parties prose, key terms, numbered clauses, signature block).
• Shared with invoice-cli. Issuers + clients live in one accounting SQLite at ~/Library/Application Support/com.paperfoot.accounting/. Anything you invoice clients add ... is immediately usable by contract new ... --client …, and vice versa. contract doctor surfaces the shared list and warns when a client lacks the legal fields needed for a contract party block.
• Signature lifecycle. draft → sent → signed → active / expired / terminated. Drafts render with a faint DRAFT watermark; --final produces a clean signing copy. contract sign <num> --side us|them --name "..." --title "..." records each signature; status auto-promotes to signed when both sides have signed. Sent/signed contracts are immutable — clauses and metadata lock.
• Signature block never splits. If the execution block doesn't fit on the current page, Typst pushes the whole block to the next page — never half on one page, half on another.
• Agent-friendly. Every command emits a {version, status, data | error} envelope when piped or --json. contract agent-info returns a full capability + exit-code manifest with a shared_state block telling the agent which entities are shared with invoice-cli and to list existing before creating duplicates. contract skill install drops a ready-to-use skill into ~/.claude/skills/contract-cli/, ~/.codex/skills/contract-cli/, ~/.gemini/skills/contract-cli/.

Install

Homebrew (macOS / Linux)

brew tap paperfoot/tap
brew install contract

Cargo

cargo install contract-cli

From source

git clone https://github.com/paperfoot/contract-cli
cd contract-cli
cargo install --path .

All install paths produce a single contract binary. Typst is the only runtime dependency (brew install typst on macOS).

Quick start

# Reuse the issuers and clients you already have in invoice-cli, or add new
contract issuer list                                # shared with invoice-cli
contract clients list

# Add legal fields to an existing client (V7 added these, invoice-cli
# doesn't need them but contracts do)
contract clients edit reshape-clinic \
    --legal-name "Reshape Clinic Ltd" \
    --company-no "12345678" \
    --jurisdiction "England and Wales"

# Quick mutual NDA — 3-year term
contract new --kind nda --as boris --client reshape-clinic \
    --purpose "exploring a joint product line" --term-years 3

# Consulting agreement, fixed fee, plain-English clause pack
contract new --kind consulting --as boris --client alberto-pertusa \
    --title "Superlearning Ltd — Company Formation Engagement" \
    --purpose "guide and execute the registration of Superlearning Ltd at Companies House and stand up the company's initial governance, share, and tax setup" \
    --fee fixed:1500:GBP --fee-schedule on-completion \
    --term-months 2 \
    --deliverable "Form IN01 filing at Companies House" \
    --deliverable "Bespoke Articles of Association" \
    --deliverable "Initial share structure + statutory registers" \
    --deliverable "HMRC Corporation Tax registration" \
    --ip-assignment client \
    --governing-law "England and Wales"

# Render — DRAFT watermark by default; --final removes it
contract render CTR-boris-2026-0001 --template editorial --final --open

# Record signatures — status auto-bumps to "signed" when both sides done
contract sign CTR-boris-2026-0001 --side us   --name "B. Djordjevic" --title "Director"
contract sign CTR-boris-2026-0001 --side them --name "A. Pertusa"

Core commands

Command	Purpose
issuer add|edit|list|show|delete	Manage issuers (your side; shared with invoice-cli)
clients add|edit|list|show|delete	Manage counterparties (shared with invoice-cli; V7 adds legal_name, company_no, legal_jurisdiction)
new --kind <k> --as <i> --client <c> [options...]	Create a new contract
list [--kind --status --as]	List contracts
show <number>	Show metadata + clause list
contracts edit <number>	Edit draft metadata (sent/signed are immutable)
render <number> [--template] [--out] [--open] [--final | --draft]	Generate PDF. DRAFT watermark by default; --final for clean copy
mark <number> draft|sent|signed|active|expired|terminated	Update status — auto-stamps timestamps
sign <number> --side us|them --name "..." [--title] [--date]	Record one party's signature
contracts clauses list|add|edit|remove|move|reset <number>	Compose the clause set
contracts duplicate <number>	Clone a contract as a fresh draft
contracts delete <number> [--force]	Delete (--force for non-draft)
pack list | show <kind>	Browse the clause packs
template list | preview <name> [--kind nda|consulting]	Inspect templates
doctor	Verify typst + DB + packs + shared issuers/clients
agent-info	Full JSON capability manifest
skill install	Install embedded Claude / Codex / Gemini skill
update [--check]	Self-update via brew or cargo

Run contract --help for the full reference.

Template resolution

At render time the chain is:

--template flag  >  contract.default_template  >  "helvetica-nera"

Composing clauses

Each contract is built from a clause pack. By default it includes the pack's default_clauses in order. Customise per contract:

contract pack show consulting
contract contracts clauses list CTR-boris-2026-0001
contract contracts clauses add CTR-boris-2026-0001 non_solicit --from-file ./extra.md --position 8
contract contracts clauses edit CTR-boris-2026-0001 termination --from-file ./our-termination.md
contract contracts clauses remove CTR-boris-2026-0001 warranties
contract contracts clauses move CTR-boris-2026-0001 governing_law 12
contract contracts clauses reset CTR-boris-2026-0001    # back to pack default

A clause's body uses simple Markdown — paragraphs, dash bullets, and 1. numbered lists. Pack clauses use {{vars}} like {{our_legal_name}}, {{their_legal_name}}, {{effective_date}}, {{term_text}}, {{governing_law}}, {{jurisdiction_phrase}}, {{fee_text}}, {{deliverables_block}}, {{ip_assignment_text}}, {{confidentiality_years}}, {{termination_notice_days}}, {{purpose}}.

State & privacy

• Config: shared Paperfoot accounting config (~/Library/Application Support/com.paperfoot.accounting/config.toml on macOS).
• Database: shared SQLite at accounting.db in the same dir.
• Templates: extracted on first use to the shared assets dir; refreshed on upgrade.

Nothing ever leaves your machine. No telemetry. No phone-home.

Architecture

• Rust binary via cargo / single-binary distribution.
• SQLite via rusqlite + refinery migrations (finance-core/migrations/V7__contracts.sql).
• Typst for PDF rendering — templates embedded via rust-embed, JSON sidecar pattern (Rust builds ContractRenderData, writes it next to the templates in a temp dir, typst compile loads the JSON).
• Clause packs as TOML, embedded via rust-embed. Five kinds × one standard pack at launch.
• Built on finance-core and follows the agent-cli-framework conventions for agent ergonomics.

Scope

This is a contract drafting tool, not legal advice. In scope:

• Clean, plain-English contract generation across common business kinds
• Composable clauses (include / exclude / override / custom)
• Lifecycle tracking (draft → sent → signed → active → expired / terminated) with signature records
• Multiple Typst templates with three distinct voices
• Shared accounting state with invoice-cli (issuers, clients)

Explicitly out of scope:

• Negotiation workflow / redlines / version diffing
• E-signature platforms (DocuSign, Dropbox Sign) — out for v1
• M&A documents, court filings, regulatory submissions
• Legal advice — these are practical starting points; have a lawyer review for material engagements

License

MIT © 199 Biotechnologies