In Clio, skills are saved instructions that describe how your firm wants a task done, such as a payment reminder at 60 days or a pre-bill review. A skill applies whenever its task comes up in a conversation or a workflow step, so your firm's tone, policies, and formats stay consistent across every request. What a skill can do depends on the Clio products your firm uses.
Understand skills
Skills are available to every firm with Ask Clio, whether or not they have Clio Work. Each skill uses only the capabilities included in your firm's Clio products, and your firm's administrator controls who can share skills with the firm.
- Description
A summary of what the skill does. A clear description helps the right skill apply to a request.
- Conditions
The situations where the skill applies, such as a request for a collections email.
- Instructions
The steps, standards, and format for the task.
- Assets
Reference files attached to the skill, such as a firm precedent or an exemplar document.
- Sub-skills
-
Related instructions grouped under a main skill.
Skills by Clio product
| Product | What skills work with |
|---|---|
| Clio Manage | Matters, contacts, calendar entries, tasks, documents, communications, time entries, billing, and trust, plus client emails and letters. |
| Clio Grow | Leads, intake, and follow-up for users with a Clio Grow license. |
| Clio Work | Word documents and formal drafting, legal research, citation checks, court rules, court forms, e-filing, Clio Docket, and review playbooks. |
Note: When a request needs a product your firm does not have, a message names the product that includes it.
Create skills
Write a skill in the skills editor, or save one from a conversation. A new skill is private until you share it.
Write a skill
- Go to Automations > Skills.
- Click New skill.
- Replace Untitled skill with a name for the task.
- Under Description, enter what the skill does.
- Under Conditions, click Add condition and enter when the skill applies.
- Under Instructions, enter the steps, standards, and format for the task.
- Optional: Click Add Asset or Upload File to attach a reference document.
- Click Save.
Tip: Name the skill after the task it performs, such as Overdue invoice reminder. A specific name and description help colleagues find the skill and help the right skill apply to a request.
Save a skill from a conversation
After a conversation produces work in the format your firm wants, ask to keep it for next time, for example Save this as a skill. The conversation turns the request into a draft skill for you to review and save.
Test or refine a skill
- Go to Automations > Skills.
- Select the skill.
- Click the more icon.
- Click Try in conversation to run the skill in a new conversation, or click Edit in Vincent to refine the instructions with AI.
Manage skills
Edit and share the skills you create, add pre-built skills from the Skill Library, and remove skills your firm has retired. The Skill Library is available to firms with Clio Work.
Edit or share a skill
- Go to Automations > Skills.
- Select the skill.
- Update the Description, Conditions, Instructions, or assets.
- Optional: To change who uses the skill, select an option from the dropdown next to the skill name: Inactive, Published · Just me, or Published · Organization.
- Click Save.
Add skills from the Skill Library
- Go to Work.
- Click Customize.
- Select the Skill Library tab.
- Locate a skill and click Install.
- Installed skills are read-only. To adapt an installed skill to your firm, duplicate it and edit the copy.
Remove a skill
Removing a skill you created deletes it permanently. Removing a skill installed from the Skill Library uninstalls it, and you can install it again at any time. To pause a skill without removing it, set it to Inactive.
- Go to Automations > Skills.
- Select the skill.
- Click the more icon, then click Remove.
Tip: Firms with Clio Work also manage skills from Work > Customize > Skills.
Use skills
A skill applies on its own when a request matches its description and conditions. Select a skill to apply it to a conversation, or use it in a workflow step.
Use a skill in a conversation
- In the text box, click Skills, or enter /.
- Select the skill.
- Enter the request.
Note: When a request runs without the skill you expect, refine the skill's Description and Conditions to match the way you phrase that request.
Use a skill in a workflow
A workflow decides when a task happens, and a skill describes how to do it. For example, a workflow sends a payment reminder 30 days after an invoice is due, and a collections skill sets the tone, the payment policy, and the point where a partner takes over. Workflow steps use skills shared with the firm. Learn more in Create Workflows.
Tip: Skills shared with the firm keep client communications and work product consistent across every lawyer and staff member. A qualified professional reviews AI output before it reaches a client.
Example skills
A skill saves a pattern you would otherwise rebuild every time: the inputs you provide, the structure you expect back, and the firm preferences to apply. Practice management and intake examples work with Clio Manage and Clio Grow. Litigation and transactional examples use Clio Work. To build any example, follow the steps in Write a skill, or describe the pattern in a conversation.
Practice management and intake
| Skill | What it saves | Products |
|---|---|---|
| Collections | The tone at 30, 60, and 90 days, when to offer a payment plan, and when to pass the account to a partner. | Clio Manage |
| Pre-bill cleanup | Your billing guidelines and each client's billing rules, such as task-based descriptions and approved phrasing, plus the entries to flag for partner review. | Clio Manage |
| Retainer top-up request | The minimum trust balance, how much recent work to itemize, and calm, factual wording for clients in a family law matter. | Clio Manage |
| Court date reminder | What clients need before court: when to arrive, what to bring, and who to call when running late. | Clio Manage |
| Missing documents request | Your checklist for each application type, a plain-language explanation of each document, and reminder wording for anxious clients. | Clio Manage |
| New lead screening | The facts to pull from an intake form, the red flags your firm watches for, and the tone of the follow-up email. | Clio Grow |
Litigation
| Workflow + skill | What it saves | Example build prompt |
|---|---|---|
Build an Argument |
Your jurisdiction, your standard argument shape, the authority you trust, and the format your partners expect. | Help me build a skill for building arguments in [employment discrimination / personal injury / commercial litigation] cases under [your state] law. |
Analyze a complaint, deposition, or pleading |
The reading pattern you apply to every filing: the same elements flagged, the same questions asked, the same intake-memo structure. | Help me build a skill for reviewing complaints in [your practice area] the way I already do, flagging claims, defenses, and the questions I ask at intake. |
Draft a motion |
Your standard motion format, your preferred citation style, and the signature block your firm uses in that court. | Help me build a skill for drafting motions to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) in [your court], following [your firm's] format. |
Review a discovery production (Vincent Tables) |
The column structure for a recurring production type, with your standing rules for flagging. | Help me build a skill for reviewing medical records in PI matters, extracting date of treatment, provider, diagnosis, treatment, and billed amount. |
Draft a client update |
The audience type, level of legal detail, standard sections, and your firm's voice for a recurring update. | Help me build a skill for drafting a client update after a motion ruling, in plain language, covering what happened, what it means, and what comes next. |
Transactional
| Workflow + skill | What it saves | Example build prompt |
|---|---|---|
|
Summarize Documents Agreement review |
The clauses you always check and your standard positions on each, so missing or non-standard terms surface in the first pass. | Help me build a skill for reviewing [commercial lease / vendor / SaaS] agreements against our standard clause checklist. |
|
Vincent Tables Diligence extraction |
The column structure for a diligence review, applied across every contract in the data room. | Help me build a skill for diligence review that pulls parties, effective date, term, renewal, assignment and change-of-control, and governing law from each agreement. |
|
Compare Documents Version review |
The points you check between drafts, so changed terms surface without re-reading the full document. | Help me build a skill for comparing two versions of a purchase agreement, flagging changes to price, indemnities, and closing conditions. |
|
Drafting in Legal Pad Standard agreement |
Your firm's template, preferred language, and formatting for a recurring document type. | Help me build a skill for drafting NDAs following our firm's standard form and signature block. |
|
Drafting in Legal Pad Deal update |
The audience, detail level, and sections for a milestone update to the client. | Help me build a skill for a client update at each deal milestone. letter of intent (LOI) signed, diligence complete, closing, in plain language. |
Tip: To grade contracts against your firm's preferred, acceptable, and unacceptable positions and apply proposed redlines in Microsoft Word, use review playbooks.
Up next
- Create Workflows: Turn a firm process into a workflow that uses your skills in its steps.
- Create and Run Review Playbooks: Grade contracts against your firm's positions and apply proposed redlines in Microsoft Word.