Explain a contract clause in plain language

Explain this clause from a contract in plain language, then tell me what it actually permits.

Clause:
[PASTE THE CLAUSE, AND ANY CLAUSE IT REFERS TO]

Contract type: [E.G. SAAS SUBSCRIPTION, LEASE, CONTRACTOR AGREEMENT]
Which side am I: [E.G. THE CUSTOMER]
What I assumed this clause meant: [YOUR READING, IN ONE LINE]

Produce four sections.

1. PLAIN READING — what the clause says, in short sentences, with no legal vocabulary that is not defined in the clause itself.

2. WHAT IT LETS THE OTHER SIDE DO — concrete actions, each phrased as something they could actually do next week. Include the ones a reasonable person would not expect on a first read.

3. WHERE MY READING DIFFERS — compare my stated assumption against the plain reading, and say specifically where they part ways.

4. UNDEFINED OR LOAD-BEARING TERMS — any word doing heavy lifting that the clause does not define ("reasonable", "material", "promptly", "at its discretion"), and what each one leaves open.

If the clause depends on a definition or a section I have not pasted, say which one and stop rather than assuming what it says.

Contract language is not hard because the words are long. It is hard because it is written to describe every future state at once, so the sentence that matters reads exactly like the four sentences around it that do not. The specific failure is predictable: you read a clause, form a reasonable understanding of it, and never discover that the clause also permits something you would have objected to, because nothing in the text draws attention to it.

This prompt is built around that gap. The plain-language rewrite is the part everyone asks for. The second section — the list of concrete things the other party is now allowed to do — is the part that changes decisions, and section three forces a direct comparison against what you thought it said, which is where the surprise usually is. Section four flags the words that will be argued about later, because "reasonable" and "material" are where disputes actually live.

This is not legal advice and cannot be. It is a way to arrive at your lawyer's office already knowing which clause to ask about.

1. Paste the definitions the clause depends on

   Most clauses lean on defined terms from elsewhere in the document. Without them the reading is a guess, and the prompt is instructed to say so rather than fill the gap — if it stops and asks, go get the definition.

2. Write down your own reading first

   Section three only works if you commit to an interpretation before you see the answer. Reading it afterwards and thinking 'yes, that is roughly what I thought' is the exact failure this is meant to catch.

3. Treat section two as questions, not conclusions

   Each permitted action is something to confirm, either against the rest of the contract or with a lawyer. Some will turn out to be constrained by a clause you did not paste.

4. Run it on the boring clauses too

   Termination, assignment, and unilateral-amendment clauses are the ones that get skimmed and the ones that later matter. The dramatic-sounding clauses are usually the ones already negotiated.

• This is not legal advice, and the distinction is not a formalityEnforceability turns on jurisdiction, on how courts there have read similar wording, and on the rest of the document. A plain reading of the words is genuinely useful and genuinely not the same thing.
• When the clause is governed by law you have not namedThe same sentence can be routine in one jurisdiction and unenforceable in another. Tell it the governing law, and treat anything it says about enforceability as a question for someone qualified.
• When you are about to sign todayTime pressure is the condition under which people accept a plain-language summary as sufficient. If the amount at stake would make a lawyer's fee look small, that is the answer.

• BusinessApolloExtract decisions and owners from a meetingPulls the decisions and their owners out of a raw transcript, and separately lists what was discussed at length but never actually decided.
• WritingApolloRemove AI tells from a draftRewrites text that reads as machine-written, then lists the specific phrases and structures that gave it away so you stop producing them.
• LearningApolloLearn a topic and get quizzed on itExplains something at three levels of detail, then questions you on it and reports which specific part you did not actually have.
• ResearchRagnarökCompare options and see where they differCompares the options on the things that would actually change your decision, and says separately which differences do not apply to you.