Mastering prompts for Ironclad Jurist: A practical guide

If you’ve ever used ChatGPT or Claude, you know the feeling—you ask for something, get a response that’s almost right, then spend the next few messages trying to guide the AI toward what you actually wanted. Sometimes it feels like training a brilliant but literal-minded intern who needs very specific instructions.

That’s where the benefits of using specialized AI assistants come in.Through pre-programmed agentic workflows that are specific to a particular context, like an industry or a job function, they help make sense of broad inputs to get to the heart of what you’re trying to achieve, step by step. In legal practice, for example, the difference between using a standard AI assistant and a specialized AI assistant can be the difference between a contract analysis that misses critical issues and one that delivers exactly the insights you need.

In this guide, we’ll explore how to communicate effectively with Jurist, Ironclad’s homegrown, specialized AI assistant—not just to get “good enough” results, but how to transform it into a powerful extension of your legal expertise.

The iterative nature of working with Jurist

Working with Jurist is rarely a one-shot process. Like refining a legal brief with your paralegal, your initial instructions might get you 80% there, but often you’ll need a few rounds of revision to reach the perfect outcome, or just to take control and edit the document directly–a perk of using Jurist’s .docx browser. The clearer your initial prompt, the fewer refinements you’ll need!

The typical process looks like this:

1. Collect the contextual materials you’ll need, if any
2. Draft a clear prompt
3. Review Jurist’s output
4. If necessary, refine your prompt
5. Reach your desired outcome

The anatomy of a Jurist-friendly prompt

So what makes a prompt effective? After all, you wouldn’t just walk up to a law clerk and say “make this better,” and expect useful results. The same applies to Jurist.

A well-structured prompt contains three essential elements:

1. Action

What do you want Jurist to do? Draft something new? Summarize an existing document? Redline a contract? Analyze potential risks? Specify the task clearly.

2. Context and detail

Give Jurist the background it needs. Who are the parties? What’s their relationship? What industry or jurisdiction is involved? This context shapes how Jurist–programmed to think, respond, and produce content as an attorney would–approaches the task.

3. Scope

Define your end goal. Are you looking for a comprehensive analysis or just focusing on specific aspects? What outcome are you trying to achieve?

Here’s how these elements work together:

“Redline this MSA (action) with the goal of achieving a more balanced and mutually beneficial agreement for the supplier (scope). Identify provisions that may be overly favorable to the buyer and explore potential modifications to create a more equitable relationship (context/detail).”

That prompt gives Jurist everything it needs to deliver useful results—a clear task, the necessary context, and a defined goal.

Fine-tuning your instructions for better results

Want to take your Jurist prompts to the next level? Consider adding these elements:

Know your audience

Are you drafting something for a CEO who wants the bottom line, or a technical team that needs precise details? Let Jurist know:

“Draft this email to the sales director explaining the contract limitations in non-technical language.”

Set the tone and detail level

Do you need something concise and formal? Detailed and comprehensive? Specify it:

“Make it detailed but concise, with a formal tone appropriate for external counsel, and no more than 2 paragraphs.”

Point out what matters most

Help Jurist focus on what’s most important:

“Focus on the limitation of liability clauses and ignore the standard boilerplate. Assess potential financial impact if these terms were triggered.”

Request a specific format

Need your information presented in a particular way?

“Present your analysis in a three-column table segmented by clause reference, identified risk, and suggested revision.”

These additional specifications help Jurist tailor its response precisely to your needs, saving you time and reducing the need for revisions.

When things go sideways: Troubleshooting your prompts

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, Jurist’s response might miss the mark. Don’t worry—that’s normal and fixable! Try these approaches:

Get more specific

Add specific, relevant legal terms, concepts, or context that will help Jurist better understand what you’re asking for. Instead of “review this contract,” try “review this SaaS agreement for data privacy compliance issues under GDPR.”

Clear up any confusion

Look for ambiguous language in your prompt that could be interpreted in multiple ways. Be direct and precise—avoid vague terms like “good,” “appropriate,” or “standard” without clarification.

Show, don’t just tell

Provide an example of what you want:

“I need an analysis of force majeure clauses. For example, when reviewing the provision, identify: 1) triggering events covered, 2) notice requirements, 3) rights to terminate, and 4) any unusual exclusions.”

Find the sweet spot for length

Too brief, and you might not provide enough context. Too long, and your key instructions might get lost. Aim for concision with all essential details included.

Power user techniques for Jurist

Ready to level up? These advanced techniques will help you get even more from Jurist:

Conditional instructions

Use “if-then” statements to handle different scenarios:

“If the document includes customer data handling provisions, compare them against our standard privacy policy requirements and flag any conflicts.”

Strategic repetition

Reinforce key instructions by stating them in different ways:

“Analyze and summarize the Termination for Convenience clause within this MSA. This analysis should be strictly limited to the Termination for Convenience provision and exclude any clauses pertaining to other termination grounds.”

Visual organization

Use formatting to distinguish between different parts of your prompt:

#Context: Client is expanding operations into the EU

#Request: Identify key regulatory issues in this distribution agreement

#Focus Areas:

– GDPR compliance requirements

– Consumer protection standards

– Product liability exposure

These techniques help Jurist prioritize important information and follow your instructions more precisely.

Peeking behind the curtain: Using Jurist’s “Inspect” feature

One of Jurist’s most valuable features is the “Inspect” button—it’s like getting to see how the sausage is made. This tool shows you:

• How the manager agent interpreted your request
• What information the reading agent focused on
• The approach the drafting or editing agent took to complete the task

These insights are invaluable when troubleshooting. If Jurist missed something important, the Inspect feature might show you that your prompt led it to focus on different aspects than you intended. That knowledge helps you refine your next prompt to get better results.

Building complexity through iterative prompting

One of Jurist’s strengths is its ability to build on previous interactions. Rather than trying to craft one perfect prompt containing everything, you can take an iterative approach and stack your prompts:

1. Start simple: “Summarize the key obligations in this services agreement.”
2. Refine: “Now focus specifically on the delivery timelines and penalty provisions.”
3. Address issues: “The summary missed section 4.3—please include those requirements as well.”
4. Build: “Based on these obligations, draft a compliance checklist for our project managers.”
5. Edit: “Revise the checklist to include monthly reporting requirements.”

This conversational approach often produces better results than trying to get everything perfect in a single prompt.

Pro tips for everyday Jurist users

Front-load your instructions

Put your most important directives at the beginning of your prompt. Information buried in the middle might receive less attention—a phenomenon known as “lost in the middle.”

Start fresh

Open a new Jurist chat when switching to a different project or document. Since Jurist remembers conversation context, starting fresh prevents confusion between unrelated matters.

Build your prompt library

When you craft a particularly effective prompt, save it for future use. Jurist’s built-in Prompt Library lets you:

• Store your successful prompts
• Access prompts shared by colleagues
• Use and iterate on pre-built prompts from Ironclad

This feature is especially helpful for recurring tasks—why reinvent the wheel when you can reuse what works?

Let’s put this into practice

At the end of the day, effective prompting is a practical skill that improves with use, and it’s one that will soon be table stakes as use of AI continues to grow exponentially in the legal field. Next time you’re working with Jurist, try applying these principles:

• Structure your prompt with a clear action, context, and scope
• Add specificity about audience, tone, focus areas, and format
• If needed, refine your prompt using the troubleshooting techniques
• Explore the Inspect feature to understand Jurist’s reasoning
• Save successful prompts in your library

The more you practice effective prompting, the more valuable Jurist becomes as a tool in your legal workflow. Rather than just a fancy AI, it becomes something more powerful—a collaborative extension of your legal expertise.

What prompting challenges have you encountered with Jurist? What techniques worked best for your specific needs? Post your experiences to the Ironclad Community. You never know who you might help, or who might help you!