Search Skill
The Search Skill is an AI-powered feature in Conga CLM that lets you find and analyze contracts by asking questions in plain language. Instead of building manual filters or scanning documents one by one, you ask a question and get back a precise, interactive set of results, along with the reasoning behind them.
Search Skill works across your synchronized contract data, so you can locate agreements by business context, status, or contract attributes. It goes beyond simple lookup: it can identify and compare clauses, and trace how a clause changes between a parent contract and its amendments, without your having to open each document. It also understands contract relationships, such as master agreements and their amendments, and presents results in that context. Because each conversation stays open, you can ask follow-up questions and refine your results step by step.
Built for large contract repositories, Search Skill helps legal and business teams research agreements quickly and surface insights across related contracts. Access is managed by your administrator and is available through a dedicated interface on the Advantage Platform.
Keyword-style lookups: Simple term-based queries return related template and clause records that share terminology with the query, presented in a full results experience.
Structured filtering and export: Results appear in an interactive table that can be filtered by attributes such as Name, Type, and Category using the filter builder. You can select rows and export them directly to a CSV file.
Condition-based queries: A query such as "Show me all the contracts expiring by next 180 days" is interpreted as a genuine date condition. The Search Skill returns the matching set, clarifies the status of those records, and presents them in a sortable, paginated table with links directly to each contract record.
Multi-step reasoning: For complex questions, the Search Skill shows its work step by step rather than returning only a table. It lists intermediate results, narrows the set against each condition, performs a sanity check on its own conclusion, and offers next steps such as widening a date window or dropping a filter. When no records match, it reports this honestly rather than fabricating results.
- Long-running background analysis: Some questions require clause-by-clause reading across many contracts and cannot be answered instantly. In these cases, the Search Skill begins a background analysis and streams results into the table as each contract clears analysis. It offers to run the job as a batch process and notify you by email when complete. You can close the conversation and return later; when the analysis finishes, the completed results can be saved using Export.Note: The Notify me via email option only appears when the answer takes a longer time to respond, and asynchronous job gets initiated.
Asking Questions in Search Skill
- The administrator has enabled Contract Search Agent for Agreement objects in your permission group.
- You have access to contract records.
- Contract records have associated contract, supporting, or global documents with clauses.
Results are returned in a tabular format for agreements and clauses, or as descriptive responses for specific content queries.
- In the left navigation pane, select AiMe to open the Search Skill.This opens the AiMe page. The left panel displays the list of prompts previously used. Click the More icon (
) in each chat to either rename or delete the chat.
- Enter your question related to the agreement, clauses, or associated contract documents. Use the plus icon (
) to attach documents.
Examples in NQL for contracts can include:- List all MSA contracts
- How many contracts are in authoring?
- Show all contracts which are terminated.
Examples in NQL for contract clauses can include:- Pull up the force majeure clause for contracts over $15k
- Pull up the limitation of liability clause for contracts over $20k
- is any force majeure clause defined in the contract
Examples in NQL for contract relationships can include:- How many child contracts are there in parent contract <number>?
- End date in child contract <number>
- How many amendments are there in parent contract <number>
- Click the Send icon (
) to receive a response.
- You can further ask questions to AiMe from the results list and click the Send icon (
) to receive a response.
Use Case: Identifying Contracts Approaching Expiration
This use case describes how a contract manager uses the Search Skill to find all contracts approaching expiration within a defined window, so upcoming renewals can be acted on before they lapse.
- The administrator has enabled Contract Search Agent for Agreement objects in your permission group.
- The user has access to contract records with populated end dates.
Business Context
Missing a renewal deadline can result in unwanted auto-renewals, lapsed coverage, or lost renegotiation leverage. Teams managing large contract portfolios need a reliable way to identify what is expiring soon so they can act within the available window. The Search Skill supports this by interpreting the intent of a query rather than matching individual words.
Overview
This use case demonstrates how the Search Skill interprets a date-based natural-language query and returns only the contracts falling within the specified expiration window. Unlike Global Search, which matches the individual words in the query, the Search Skill evaluates the date condition and presents the matching records in an interactive, clickable table.
Actor
A contract manager in a manufacturing company.
Scenario
The contract manager needs to review every contract expiring in the next 180 days so renewals can be prioritized. Instead of applying manual filters, the manager asks the Search Skill directly and expects a precise set of records with their current status.
- The contract manager opens the Search Skill from the Advantage Platform left panel.
- The contract manager enters the query: "Show me all the contracts expiring by next 180 days."
- The Search Skill interprets the phrase as a date condition and evaluates contract end dates against it.
- The Search Skill returns the contracts with an end date between today and 180 days out, indicating the current status of each record (for example, Authoring, Request, or In Effect).
- The contract manager sorts and pages through the interactive results table.
- The contract manager clicks a record to open the contract and act on the upcoming renewal.
Use Case: Running a Multi-Condition Renegotiation Review
This use case describes how a legal counsel uses the Search Skill to evaluate several contract conditions at once to identify renegotiation opportunities.
- The administrator has enabled Contract Search Agent for Agreement objects in your permission group.
- The user has access to the relevant account and contract records.
- Contract value, liability cap, termination, and expiration data are populated on the records to be evaluated.
Business Context
Renegotiation opportunities often depend on several factors at once, account value, clause terms, and timing. Evaluating these manually across a large portfolio is slow and error-prone. The Search Skill addresses this by reasoning through combined conditions step by step and reporting its conclusion honestly, including when nothing qualifies.
Overview
This use case demonstrates a Search Skill behavior that may not be obvious to users: rather than returning only a table, the Search Skill performs multi-step reasoning, shows its intermediate work, performs a sanity check on its own result, and offers to adjust the criteria. This makes the output suitable for decision-making rather than just record retrieval.
Actor
A legal counsel in a technology services company.
Scenario
The legal counsel wants to find the top 10 accounts by contract value that have liability caps below $500K, contain no termination-for-convenience clause, and are expiring within 180 days — a combination that identifies a renegotiation window before auto-renewal.
- The legal counsel opens the Search Skill and starts a new chat.
- The legal counsel enters the combined query describing the account ranking, clause criteria, and date condition.
- The Search Skill pulls the top 10 accounts by total contract value and lists them with their dollar figures.
- The Search Skill narrows the list against each condition in sequence, displaying its intermediate steps.
- The Search Skill performs a sanity check on its own result and states the outcome, including when no contracts qualify.
- The Search Skill explains the likely reason for the result and offers to adjust the criteria.
Use Case: Running a Portfolio-Wide Clause Analysis as a Background Job
This use case describes how a commercial operations analyst uses the Search Skill to run a clause-level analysis across many contracts as a long-running background job with email notification.
- The administrator has enabled Contract Search Agent for Agreement objects in your permission group.
- The user has access to the in-effect contracts to be analyzed.
- The contracts to be evaluated have a positive Total Contract Value (TCV).
Business Context
Some questions require reading specific clauses across dozens of contracts, which cannot be answered by an instant filter. Requiring users to wait for such analysis to complete is impractical for large portfolios. The Search Skill distinguishes a quick lookup from a genuine analysis job and handles the latter as a background process.
Overview
This use case demonstrates a non-obvious behavior: the Search Skill streams results as they are found, recognizes when a job will take a long time, and offers to complete the work in the background and notify the user by email. The finished results can then be downloaded as a report.
Actor
A commercial operations analyst in a telecommunications company.
Scenario
The analyst needs to identify all in-effect contracts whose termination fees exceed 20% of remaining TCV, a clause-by-clause read across many contracts that cannot be resolved instantly.
- The commercial operations analyst opens the Search Skill and enters the query: "Contracts with termination fees above 20% of remaining TCV."
- The Search Skill identifies that the query requires individual analysis across the in-effect contracts with a positive TCV and begins a background analysis.
- The Search Skill streams matching results into the table as each contract finishes being analyzed.
- The analyst selects Notify me via email and receives an in-chat confirmation that they will be notified when the process is complete.
- The analyst closes the conversation; the analysis continues running in the background.
- When the analysis finishes, the analyst receives an email notification that the results are ready.
- The analyst returns to the Search Skill, reviews the completed results, and clicks Download to save the report.
- The analyst receives a fully analyzed list of contracts meeting the clause condition, without waiting at the screen, and a downloadable report of the results.