Using Assist (AI chat)

When you are deep in a contract, the question is rarely “how does the plugin work.” It is “what’s the liability cap here,” “make this mutual,” or “give me our standard governing-law clause.” Assist is the AI chat inside the Pactly Word plugin that answers those in plain language, grounded in the document you have open.

Assist reads the open document, can draft tracked edits and add comments for you to approve, and can pull from your playbooks and clause library, all without leaving Word.

Assist runs inside the Pactly task pane, so you need to be signed in to the plugin first. If you are not, see the Word plugin quick start (Getting Started).

1. Open your contract in Microsoft Word and open the Pactly task pane.
2. Go to Assist.
3. Type your message in the Type your message… box and press Enter, or pick one of the suggestion chips to start: Explain this document, Review against a playbook, or What are the key risks?

You can also reach Assist from a playbook review: open a position and use its chat action to start a conversation that already has the position’s guidance and assessment as context. For the review flow itself, see Running a playbook review.

Ask in natural language. Assist searches the open document and answers from its text.

• “What’s the termination notice period?”
• “Does this contract have an auto-renewal clause?”
• “Explain the indemnification section in plain English.”
• “What risks does this limitation-of-liability clause create for us?”

The conversation is threaded, so you can build on previous answers without repeating yourself. Ask “is that cap mutual?” straight after asking what the cap is.

Describe the change you want and Assist drafts it as a proposed edit rather than changing the document silently.

• “Make the liability cap mutual.”
• “Change the governing law to Singapore.”
• “Add a 30-day cure period to the termination clause.”

Each proposed edit gives you these actions:

• Apply inserts the change into the document as a tracked change.
• At Cursor inserts it at your current cursor position instead.
• Edit lets you adjust the proposed text before applying it.
• Copy copies the text without inserting it.
• Reject discards the suggestion.

Applied edits use Word track changes, so the counterparty sees exactly what you changed.

Assist can browse your playbooks and search your clause library, then insert language for you.

• “Show me our indemnification clauses.”
• “Insert our standard governing-law clause.”

When Assist returns a clause, you can Insert at Cursor to drop in the original text, or Insert via AI to have it adapt the clause to the contract’s defined terms (for example matching “Provider” to “Vendor”) before inserting. For the full library, including browsing and editing clauses, see Using the clause library.

Ask Assist to flag something for discussion and it adds a Word comment on the relevant text.

• “Add a comment asking why liability is uncapped here.”
• “Flag the IP assignment clause for legal review.”

Use the Attach files (PDF, Word, Text, Email) action (the paperclip) to give Assist extra context beyond the open document, such as a prior version or a related email.

Assist keeps the whole conversation, the document, and any attachments in context, and that context has a limit (around 200,000 tokens). The panel shows a Context: XX% meter so you can see how full it is.

As the conversation grows, the meter rises. You will see a warning at around 70% and again at 90%, prompting you to start a new chat. When you are close to the limit, begin a fresh conversation rather than continuing a long one. Answers stay sharper with room to work.

Your chats are saved under Chat Sessions, grouped into This Contract and Other Conversations, so you can return to a thread on the same document later. Conversations started in the plugin are tagged with a Word badge and note that some features are unavailable there compared to chatting in the web app.

• Be specific. “Make the liability cap mutual and change it from $1M to 12 months of fees” beats “fix this clause.”
• Point to a location. “Change the termination-for-convenience clause in section 12” is clearer than “change the termination clause.”
• Iterate. If the first draft is close, refine it: “That’s good, but add an exception for willful misconduct.”
• Verify. Read every proposed edit before you apply it, and confirm any factual answer against the contract itself (see the beta note at the top).

• Pactly Word plugin overview
• Installing the Pactly Word plugin
• Running a playbook review
• Using the clause library
• Word plugin quick start (Getting Started)