AI Terminal
A full-featured AI chat interface built for legal work — with matter context, citation support, and exportable outputs.
Overview
The AI Terminal is FRITH's primary interface for working with AI on legal tasks. Unlike general-purpose AI tools, it is designed specifically for legal practice: conversations can be linked to a matter so that context from the matter (client name, jurisdiction, facts, documents) is available to the AI without re-entering it every session. Outputs can be exported directly to Word or PDF, citations are tracked and formatted in Bluebook, and conversation history is retained so you can return to a research thread days or weeks later.
The AI Terminal is not a replacement for an attorney's judgment. It is a force multiplier: it handles the drafting, research summarisation, clause extraction, and first-draft work that would otherwise take hours, freeing attorneys to focus on strategy, client relationships, and the judgment calls that only a lawyer can make.
Views and Panels
Chat
The main conversation interface. Ask questions, request drafts, analyse documents, or discuss legal strategy. Full conversation history is retained and searchable.
Workflows
Pre-built multi-step AI workflows for common legal tasks: contract review, due diligence summary, discovery organiser, and brief drafter. Workflows guide the AI through a structured sequence of steps.
Workflow Templates
A library of workflow templates your firm has built and saved. Reuse proven AI sequences without rebuilding them from scratch each time.
History
A searchable archive of every AI conversation linked to your account. Filter by matter, date range, or keyword. Conversations are retained for the lifetime of your subscription.
Vault
A document store integrated directly into the Terminal. Upload documents here and the AI can read, summarise, extract clauses from, or compare them in conversation.
Prompts
Your firm's prompt library — saved prompt templates for common requests. Click a prompt to insert it into the chat input, customise it, and send.
Guidance
Best practice guidance for prompting the AI effectively for legal tasks: how to write prompts that yield precise legal output, common mistakes to avoid, and worked examples.
Citations
All cases, statutes, and authorities cited by the AI in your conversations are tracked here in Bluebook format. Review, edit, and export citations as a reference list.
Starting a Conversation
Open the AI Terminal
Click AI Terminal in the left sidebar under AI Tools. The Terminal opens in Chat view by default. If you have previous conversations, the most recent one loads automatically.
Link a matter (recommended)
Click Link Matter at the top of the chat and search for the matter you are working on. When a matter is linked, the AI has access to the matter description, client name, jurisdiction, opposing parties, and any documents you have added to the Vault for that matter. This dramatically improves the relevance of AI responses.
Select data sources
The Integration Pills beneath the chat input let you activate specific data sources for this conversation: Vault (your uploaded documents), CourtListener (case law), EDGAR (SEC filings), and connected integrations. Toggle the sources relevant to your task.
Type your request
Ask your question or give your instruction in natural language. Be specific: instead of "review this contract", try "Identify all indemnification clauses in the uploaded contract and flag any that are unusually broad or one-sided." The more specific the instruction, the more useful the output.
Review and refine
Read the AI response carefully. Ask follow-up questions, request specific revisions, or ask the AI to expand on a particular point. AI conversations in the Terminal are iterative — the best outputs come from a back-and-forth exchange, not a single prompt.
Export the output
When the conversation has produced a useful document or analysis, click Export. Choose Word (.docx), PDF, or plain text. The export includes the full conversation or a selected portion, formatted cleanly for inclusion in a matter file or delivery to a client.
The Vault
The Vault is the Terminal's built-in document library. Upload contracts, affidavits, discovery documents, transcripts, judgments, or any text-based document and the AI can then read and reason over them in conversation.
Documents in the Vault are scoped to their linked matter — a document uploaded to the Vault while a matter is linked is stored under that matter's workspace and is available in all future conversations linked to the same matter. This means you upload a contract once and can reference it in dozens of conversations without re-uploading. For documents without a linked matter, the Vault acts as a personal workspace for ad hoc analysis.
Typical Vault use cases: uploading a contract for clause extraction, adding a judgment the AI should cite when drafting submissions, uploading a discovery bundle for key-fact extraction, or comparing two versions of an agreement.
Citations Panel
When the AI cites a case, statute, or authority in conversation, FRITH tracks it in the Citations panel. Each citation is formatted in Bluebook and can be edited if the AI's formatting needs correction. At the end of a research session, export the full citation list as a Word or PDF document — a ready-made reference list for a brief or research memo.
The Citation Editor allows you to add citations manually, correct AI-generated citations, or promote a citation to a "key authority" that appears prominently in exports. Always verify AI-generated citations against the source before including them in filed documents — AI can generate plausible-looking but incorrect citations.
Prompt Library
The Prompt Library stores reusable prompt templates for common legal tasks. Instead of typing the same detailed instruction every time you want to review a contract or draft a letter, save it as a named prompt. Your firm's administrators can publish prompts to the shared firm library, making proven prompts available to all attorneys.
To save a prompt: type your instruction in the chat input, click Save as Prompt, give it a name and category, and save. It will appear in your Prompts view and in the prompt picker (the / shortcut in the chat input). To use a saved prompt: type / in the chat input to open the prompt picker, search by name or category, and click to insert.
Using the AI Terminal effectively
- • Always link a matter before starting a conversation about a case — the AI gives far better answers when it has the matter context loaded.
- • Upload documents to the Vault before asking the AI to review them. The AI cannot access files in the matter's Documents tab unless they have been explicitly added to the Vault for the current conversation.
- • Be specific in your prompts. "Draft a letter" produces generic output. "Draft a 2-page letter to Kofi Mensah demanding payment of $12,450 under invoice INV-2024-089, citing the specific payment clause in the attached agreement, governed by NSW law" produces usable output.
- • Verify every case citation before filing. The AI can confabulate citations that look real but do not exist. Check each cited case in a primary legal database before including it in a court document.
- • Save good prompts to the library. A prompt that produces a great first draft of a lease review memo took effort to craft — save it and reuse it every time.
- • Use the History view to find and continue research threads from previous sessions. Legal research is often iterative over days or weeks — you should not have to start fresh each time.
Exporting from the Terminal
The AI Terminal can export its output in three formats:
Exports are saved to the linked matter's Documents library automatically (if a matter is linked) and also offered as a browser download.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the AI have access to my matter documents automatically?
No. The AI can access documents only when they are added to the Vault for the current conversation. This is intentional — the AI accessing all matter documents without explicit permission would create confidentiality risks. Upload only the documents relevant to the current task.
Which AI model does the Terminal use?
The AI Terminal uses the best available model for legal reasoning, selected by FRITH based on your plan. Enterprise plans can select preferred models under Organisation → AI Settings. The model version is displayed at the top of each conversation.
Are my conversations private? Who can see them?
Conversations are visible only to you by default. Administrators can see conversation metadata (matter links, dates) in the firm's AI usage logs for billing and compliance purposes but cannot read conversation content without your explicit consent. FRITH does not use conversation content to train AI models.
How long is conversation history retained?
Conversation history is retained for the duration of your subscription. Conversations are not automatically deleted unless you choose to delete them.
Can I share an AI conversation with a colleague?
Yes. From any conversation, click Share → Share with firm member and select a colleague. They will be able to view the conversation history and continue it from their own account. Shared conversations are clearly marked as shared in both users' History views.