Legal Diagram Skill for Claude

/legal-diagram

Standalone skill: turn legal material into a context-appropriate Mermaid diagram, with an optional downloadable HTML figure. A structure-preserving Python engine extracts a typed ground truth; directive-driven LLM enrichment fills the gaps; a selector picks the diagram type; the diagram is generated natively.

Routing gate

Every real diagram request runs in this fixed order: first-run check, ingest, build-mode gate, generate, report gate. Non-diagram intents short-circuit at Step 0.

Three human gates = mandatory hard stops: GATE 0 (tutorial offer), GATE A (build mode), GATE B (HTML report). Gate discipline, no exceptions:

• Present each as structured choice (the question tool). No such tool → numbered plain-text list. Either way, STOP, wait for reply.
• Never skip a gate. Never infer its answer from wording. Never generate past an unanswered gate. Detailed, specific, or named-diagram request = still a request, not a gate answer.
• Only a literal typed flag may pre-answer: --direct/--guided (GATE A), --html (GATE B), --tutorial (tutorial). Nothing else counts.

Step 0 — Intent and first-run

Check explicit short-circuits first:

• Tutorial signals: "tutorial", "show me how", "first time", "demo", "walk me through", --tutorial. → Load workflows/tutorial.md. Stop here.
• Setup signals: "check setup", "install deps", "is setup ready". → Load shared/setup-check.md, run check_setup.py, report. Stop here.

Otherwise this is a real diagram request (a file, pasted text, or a matter description). Detect first-run:

Run python scripts/first_run.py. Parse {state}: returning, first_run, or unknown. Script absent, non-zero exit, or no JSON → treat as unknown.

• returning (confirmed) → no offer; user ran skill before. Continue to Step 1.
• first_run, unknown, or anything not a confirmed returning → GATE 0 (hard stop): "First time here. Want a quick tutorial, or go straight to your diagram?" Options: Start tutorial (recommended, list first) / Skip, straight to my diagram. Present as structured choice, or numbered plain-text list if host has no choice tool, then STOP, wait for reply. After answer, run python scripts/first_run.py --mark to record offer (best-effort; on unknown state with no writable disk, mark may not persist, fine). Then: tutorial → load workflows/tutorial.md, stop; skip → continue to Step 1.

unknown defaults to offering, not suppressing: surface the choice, do not decide for user. Suppress only on confirmed returning. Tutorial stays reachable any time by keyword.

Step 1 — Ingest before choosing a lane

Detect input: file path, pasted text, or conversation/matter description. Load shared/setup-check.md (session-cached).

Multi-file scope gate (2+ files) ⛔: mandatory hard stop unless user already stated scope. Present as structured choice, or numbered plain-text list if host has no choice tool, then STOP, wait for reply. Options: One combined diagram / One per document. Never infer scope from wording. Store diagram_scope. Single file, or scope user explicitly stated → skip.

Run Pass 1 only (deterministic manifest, no LLM): workflows/extract.md Steps 0-2. Store the result as manifest_cache and pass it to the chosen lane so Pass 1 never re-runs. Matter-description-only input (no docs) has no Pass 1 counts; proceed without them.

Step 2 — GATE A: build mode (after ingestion) ⛔ BLOCKING

GATE A = mandatory hard stop. ALWAYS fires unless user typed a literal --direct or --guided flag. Do not load a lane and do not generate any diagram until GATE A answered.

Only a literal flag pre-answers. Sole answer-carrier = exact token --direct or --guided in user's message. Present → state resolved mode in one line ("Build mode: direct (flag)") and load the lane. User's own recorded choice, not a model decision.

Everything else → present the gate and STOP. Detailed, specific, or named-diagram request ("comprehensive diagram of this exact case", "make an org chart") = a request, NOT a gate answer. Never infer build mode from wording. Lead with what Pass 1 found, plain language: "Found [N parties, M events, ...]. How should I build it?" (omit counts for no-docs input). Present as structured choice, or numbered plain-text list if host has no choice tool, then wait for reply. Options, fixed order:

• Guided, step by step
• Direct, just make it

Do not reorder options, do not mark one implied from wording. Order fixed; choice is user's.

On choice: load workflows/direct.md or workflows/guided.md, passing manifest_cache, input_source, and diagram_scope. Both lanes share workflows/generation.md for the build; GATE B (HTML report) fires there.

User-facing language (casual-friendly). Never show Mermaid-internal type names to user. Use the plain-language names in shared/diagram-type-map.md § Plain-language names — "timeline", "org chart", "flowchart", "obligation checklist", and so on. Accept plain-word requests too ("make me an org chart") and map them through the same glossary. Legal vocabulary is fine; technical diagram vocabulary stays internal.

Output language (EN/FR). Gates, digest, elicitation, and rationale render in the user's prompt language (EN or FR; FR diagram names per the glossary's FR column). Extracted evidence and diagram labels stay verbatim source language, never translated. HTML export chrome follows via render_html.py --ui-lang en|fr.

Scripts

All script commands run from the skill root (the folder containing this SKILL.md). Resolve the skill root once, then invoke scripts as python scripts/<name>.py.

| Script | Role |

| ----------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

| scripts/check_setup.py | Dependency check → {ok, missing[], installed[], optional{}} |

| scripts/first_run.py | First-run state → {state} (returning/first_run/unknown); --mark consumes flag |

| scripts/extract_entities.py | Orchestrator: normalize → detect → manifest JSON |

| scripts/diagram_selector.py | Enriched extraction + intent → recommended type |

| scripts/patch_gate.py | Pass 2 patch gate: validates and applies LLM JSON Patch → {ok, findings[], enriched_extraction_result} |

| scripts/eval_pass2.py | Pass 2 eval grader: scores LLM patch against label expectations → {ok, results[], score} |

| scripts/render_html.py | Mermaid + FigureDescription → standalone HTML |

scripts/normalize/ (format adapters) and scripts/extraction/ (candidate harvesters, resolver, and materializer) are libraries used by the orchestrator. Install deps once: pip install -r requirements.txt -c constraints.txt for release-verified versions, or omit -c constraints.txt for broad compatibility testing.

Workflow loading map

| Intent/Need | File |

| ------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------- |

| First-run walkthrough + setup gate | workflows/tutorial.md |

| Interactive default lane (digest/elicit → menu) | workflows/guided.md |

| Power-user lane (read all signals, hard cap 1) | workflows/direct.md |

| Shared generation core (select → guard → generate → deliver) | workflows/generation.md |

| Two-pass extraction (called by both lanes) | workflows/extract.md |

| Pass 2 quality eval (execute enrichment, grade against labels) | workflows/eval-pass2.md |

| No-docs intake sets + delivery pattern | shared/elicitation.md |

| Standalone HTML figure export | workflows/html-export.md |

Reference loading map

| Intent/Need | File |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- |

| Dependency-check procedure | shared/setup-check.md |

| Per-type guards, entity normalization, parser bugs | shared/parser-guards.md |

| FigureDescription fields, captions, legends, risk rubric, caveats | shared/figure-description-schema.md |

| 30 legal categories → Mermaid type | shared/diagram-type-map.md |

| Semantic node categories, palette, CSS class naming | shared/node-styles.md |

| Field catalogue + detection tiers + signals | references/extraction-schema.md |

Output

Output is CLI display only: the fenced Mermaid block renders as an artifact in the Claude web app and as syntax-highlighted code in the CLI. No note file is written. After the block, GATE B offers an HTML report as a selectable choice; the export escapes matter text, runs Mermaid in strict mode, uses vendored Mermaid when present, and loads the pinned CDN fallback only when explicitly enabled. Full output rules: workflows/generation.md § Step 5.

Boundaries

Mermaid is for thinking, planning, explaining, and generating structure. It is not legal advice, not a court-ready exhibit, and not a substitute for legal writing. Every diagram carries a caveat line. Confidential material stays in tools approved for that matter.