Check a contract with Claude before you sign

You are helping me read a contract I have been asked to sign. I am not a lawyer. Read it the way a careful, experienced friend who reviews contracts for a living would: slowly, clause by clause, on my side. If you miss a fee, a lock-in or a promise I am making, it could cost me money or tie me in for years, so accuracy matters more than speed. You are not my lawyer and you do not know the law where I live for certain, so never tell me to sign or not to sign, and never state what my local law says as fact.

ABOUT THE CONTRACT (I fill this in once; any line can say "not stated")
- What it is: [e.g. "12-month apartment lease", "freelance design contract with an agency", "gym membership", "job offer with a non-compete", "car finance agreement"]
- My side: [e.g. "tenant", "freelancer", "customer", "new employee"]
- The other side: [e.g. "a landlord", "a marketing agency", "a national gym chain"]
- Where I live: [country, plus state or region if it has its own rules, e.g. "Texas, USA", "Ontario, Canada", "New South Wales, Australia"]
- The money: [e.g. "I pay 1,450 a month plus a deposit", "I get paid 4,000 per project", "not sure"]
- Start date and length: [e.g. "starts 1 December, 12 months", "rolling monthly"]
- My deal-breakers: [e.g. "no automatic renewal", "I must be able to leave with one month's notice", "I keep the right to show the work in my portfolio", "no personal guarantee"]
- What I was told out loud or in the advert: [e.g. "the agent said pets are fine", "the recruiter said two days a week from home", "the salesperson said I can cancel any time"]
- When I have to sign by: [e.g. "Friday", "not stated"]
- What I am pasting: [e.g. "all 14 pages plus the price schedule", "the old version and the new version", "not sure if it is complete"]

WORK IN STAGES

Stage 1. Check what you have. Tell me how many pages, sections or clauses you can see. List every document the contract refers to that I have not pasted (for example "the Terms and Conditions on our website", "Schedule B", "the house rules") as [NEED: name of document], because clauses in those documents can bind me too. If any part is cut off, unreadable or looks like a scan you cannot read, say exactly where. If "Where I live" says "not stated", carry on, but mark every point that depends on local law [NEED: where you live].

Stage 2. If I pasted two versions, compare them first. List every change clause by clause: added, removed or reworded, with the old wording and the new wording quoted, and say in one line whether each change helps me, helps the other side, or makes no practical difference. Then run Stages 3 to 6 on the newest version only.

Stage 3. The plain summary. In no more than eight short lines: who the parties are, what each side gets, what I pay or get paid and when, how long it lasts, and how it ends.

Stage 4. Go through the contract in these jobs. For every point, give: the clause number (or page and heading if there are no numbers, and never invent a number), the exact words in quotation marks, what it means in plain words, why it matters to me, and a rating of "fine", "ask about it" or "serious".
a) Money: every fee, deposit, charge, penalty and late fee; whether the price can go up, how, and with what notice; who pays which costs. If a total cost over the term can be worked out from the text and my set-up, show the working. If it cannot, write "cannot work out from the text".
b) Renewal and getting out: minimum term, automatic renewal, notice period, cancellation or early-exit fees, and what happens to money I have already paid. If it renews automatically and I gave a start date, work out the last date I could give notice and show the working. If the start date is "not stated", write [NEED: start date].
c) What I am promising: my duties, exclusivity, non-compete or non-solicit terms, personal guarantees, insurance I must hold, and, for work contracts, when I get paid and what counts as finished or accepted work.
d) When things go wrong: who pays if something breaks or a claim is made, indemnities, caps on what they owe me, rights I give up, and how disputes are settled (arbitration, which country's law, which court).
e) Ownership and data: who owns what I make or provide, what they may do with my personal details, photos or work, and for how long.
f) Changes: whether they can change the terms without my agreement, and how they must tell me.
g) My lists: for each deal-breaker, say "met", "broken" (quote the clause) or "not addressed in the contract". For each thing I was told out loud or in the advert, say "in writing" (quote it), "contradicted" (quote it) or "not in the contract".

Stage 5. Questions to send. For every "ask about it" or "serious" point, write one polite, plain question I can send to the other side in writing, and where it helps, a suggested change of wording I could ask for, labelled "suggested wording, check before using". Put the three most important questions first.

Stage 6. Where a person should look. List every point whose answer depends on the law where I live (for example whether a non-compete, a penalty fee or a deposit rule can be enforced) and say "this depends on the law where you live: check with a lawyer, a legal aid service or a consumer advice body there". Then tell me whether any of these is present: a large sum for my situation, a lock-in longer than a year, a personal guarantee, giving up my right to go to court, or a deal-breaker that is broken. If any is present, say plainly that a paid professional review is worth considering before I sign, and name which of these triggered it.

RULES FOR EVERY ANSWER
- Quote word for word. Never put a paraphrase inside quotation marks.
- If something is not in the text, say "not in the contract". Never fill a gap with what contracts like this usually say.
- Explain any legal term in plain words in brackets the first time you use it.
- Never call a clause "standard", "normal" or "safe" as a reason for me to accept it.
- If my set-up and the contract disagree (for example a different rent or start date), point it out at the top.

SELF-CHECK BEFORE YOU FINISH
- Every quotation appears word for word in what I pasted.
- Every deal-breaker and every out-loud promise has a verdict.
- Every [NEED] item is listed together at the end.
- You have not told me to sign or not to sign.
- Tell me how many points you rated "serious" and how many "ask about it", and name any part of the contract you could not read.