Start and Guide Conversations in Clio Work

Every interaction with Vincent begins as a conversation. Whether you select a structured workflow task, describe an outcome in your own words, ask Vincent about a specific matter or questions that span across your firm’s matters, understanding how to start, guide, and manage a conversation helps you get the most actionable results from your research, analyses, and matter work.

When you select a matter, Vincent can read the full matter context from Clio Manage, including documents, communications, tasks, calendar events and deadlines, notes, and time entries. Vincent can also take actions in Clio Manage on your behalf, such as updating tasks, creating new matters, logging activities, and adding notes. Each action requires your approval before Vincent makes the change.

Understand Agentic Mode

Agentic Mode changes how Vincent processes your requests and is on by default.

• Agentic Mode on (default): Describe the outcome you want and Vincent plans and executes the steps autonomously. For example: Build a defense strategy for this breach of contract matter.
• Agentic Mode off (Classic Mode): Select individual workflow tasks and guide each step manually

Start a new conversation

You can start a conversation from the Vincent home page or directly from a matter or document in Clio Manage. For access points from Clio Manage, see Use Clio Work With Clio Manage.

1. In Clio Work, click Vincent in the left navigation.
2. Optional: Select a matter using the Select Matter dropdown to ensure Vincent focuses on the matter's full context from Clio Manage, including documents, communications, tasks, calendar events, deadlines, notes, and time entries. Selecting a matter also ensures the conversation is logged to the correct file.
3. Optional: Select the jurisdiction below the text box to change it from the default.
4. Optional: Select the + icon to add documents from Clio Manage, your computer, or a connected document management system.
5. Choose how to begin:
   • Workflow task: select a task from the Research, Analyze, or More Workflows menus to start a structured conversation.
   • Custom prompt: type a question or instruction directly in the text box.
   • Agentic Mode: describe the result you want, and Vincent plans and executes the steps autonomously. To toggle Agentic Mode, select the + icon in the text box and use the Agentic Mode toggle. 
6. Select the arrow to start the conversation.
   • Review the tasks Vincent has generated. Select the tasks relevant to your immediate work. Selected tasks are highlighted in blue. You can select multiple tasks and run them together.
7. Optional: Select the edit icon on a selected jurisdiction-specific task to modify the research question before submitting.
8. Select the arrow to submit your selected tasks.

Guide an active conversation

During an active conversation, you can direct Vincent by adding prompts, accepting suggestions, or providing clarification.

Add more prompts

Select Add More Tasks to submit multiple prompts at once, or type additional questions in the text box at the bottom of the conversation.

Accept suggested phrasing

Vincent may suggest a rephrased version of your prompt to improve clarity or research efficiency. Select the suggestion to submit it, or continue with your original prompt.

Respond to clarification requests

Vincent may ask you to confirm a jurisdiction, select a document, or narrow the scope of your question before providing a final response.

Redirect mid-conversation

With Agentic Mode on, you can interrupt Vincent's plan at any point to adjust the direction, add context, or refine the outcome.

Ask Vincent about matter data in Clio Manage

Vincent operates with full Matter Intelligence, meaning that you can ask Vincent questions about your firm’s matter data in Clio Manage from within a Vincent conversation. This keeps you in Clio Work for understanding a matter, without switching between products.

When you select a matter, Vincent can read communications, tasks, calendar events, deadlines, notes, and time entries on that matter, in addition to documents. Vincent can also reference data across multiple matters in your firm to surface relevant prior work.

Examples of questions you can ask:

• Provide a breakdown of previous personal injury matters at my firm so I can determine if there is anything reusable for a new case.
• Are there any open tasks on this matter?
• Do we have any billing activity on this matter?
• Do I have any meetings scheduled with this client?

Ask Vincent to take actions in Clio Manage

You can ask Vincent to perform actions in Clio Manage on your behalf from within a Vincent conversation. This keeps you in Clio Work for progressing a matter, without switching between products.

You can ask Vincent to:

• Update task status, such as marking a task as complete
• Create a new matter, including client, description, responsible attorney, and practice area
• Log time and activity entries
• Add notes to a matter
• Surface upcoming events and deadlines

Vincent will ask for any required information it does not already have, and will infer optional fields from the conversation where possible. Changes Vincent makes in Clio Manage appear in Clio Manage immediately and behave the same as changes made directly in Clio Manage.

Before Vincent makes any change in Clio Manage, you are prompted to approve the action. The approval prompt offers three options:

• Approve once: Approves the single proposed action.
• Approve for this conversation: Approves similar actions for the remainder of the current conversation without re-prompting.
• Reject: Cancels the proposed action. Vincent will not make the change.

Understand conversation components

When you open a conversation, the workspace displays several components depending on the type of inquiry.

Prompts and responses

Your prompt and Vincent's answer appear in chronological order. If you submitted more than one question at the same time, Vincent responds to each separately with an introductory title to clarify which answers belong to which prompt.

Files and documents

Files uploaded during the conversation are displayed within the conversation. Select the page icon in the top right to view files previously added or to add more files.

Legal Authorities

When you submit a research question, the Legal Authorities panel appears on the right side of the conversation. This panel lists the verified sources Vincent used to answer your question.

1. Select Legal Authorities below Vincent's response if the panel is not immediately visible.
2. Review each source. Document title, source summary, and a relevant excerpt are displayed for each entry.
3. Optional: Select a document title to open it in Clio Library for full review.
4. Optional: Select the copy icon in the top right corner of a listed source to copy its title, summary, and excerpt.
5. Use the quick filter tabs to organize results: All, Cases, Stat. & Reg., Rules and Procedures, Administrative Decisions, and Secondary.
6. Select Most Relevant to sort results or Modify List to adjust the sources included in the analysis.

Legal Pad

Legal Pad is a built-in document editor in Clio Work. Select Edit in Legal Pad under Vincent's response to open the content in an editable panel alongside your conversation. For full guidance, see Use Legal Pad in Clio Work.

Up Next

• Preserve your research: see Save and Manage Conversation Results to save responses, download documents, and share conversation links with your firm
• Improve response quality: see Improve Vincent's Response Quality for guidance on getting consistent, precise outputs from longer sessions