Uploading contracts
Supported formats, size limits, and uploading via URL.
Updated 2 Jun 2026
Clment accepts most everyday contract formats. This page covers what works, what doesn’t, and the three ways to get a contract into Clment.
Supported formats
- PDF — including scanned PDFs (OCR runs automatically).
- Word —
.docx(modern Word). For older.docfiles, open in Word and save as.docxfirst. - Plain text —
.txtfiles. Useful for amendments or short side letters.
Not supported: images on their own (.png, .jpg), encrypted / password-protected PDFs, files larger than 50 MB.
If your file is bigger than 50 MB it’s usually because of embedded images. Re-export from Word as PDF with Standard quality or use Acrobat’s Reduce file size.
Two ways to upload
1. Drag and drop
The fastest path. From the Contracts page, drag a file anywhere onto the table — or click + New contract to pick from a file dialog. Clment shows the upload progress, ingests the file, and opens the new contract record.
Contracts are uploaded one at a time. For a back-catalogue migration, the practical workflow is to upload in quick succession from the same browser window — each upload starts processing in parallel so the wall-clock time scales reasonably well even for dozens of files. For very large migrations (hundreds of contracts, or anything coming off a system with an API), contact support — we can run a one-time bulk import for you.
2. Upload from URL (via Claude Desktop)
If you have your AI assistant connected (see Connecting Claude Desktop), you can ask it to ingest a public URL:
“Upload the latest version of the GitLab terms from gitlab.com/terms and start a review.”
Clment AI uses the upload_contract_from_url skill — it downloads the URL, ingests it as a new contract, and (if you asked) starts a review immediately. URLs must be publicly resolvable HTTPS; protected SharePoint / Drive links won’t work without an export token.
What happens after upload
- Text extraction — Clment pulls the text layer from the PDF / Word file. Scanned PDFs go through OCR (≈10–20 seconds extra per scanned page).
- CLM number — every contract gets a stable identifier like
CLM-128, allocated atomically so two simultaneous uploads can never collide. - Initial classification — Clment AI suggests a contract type (NDA, MSA, SoW, etc.) and pulls out the parties, signing date, term, and renewal trigger. You can correct any of these inline.
- Indexing — the contract is embedded and added to your portfolio search index so you can ask cross-contract questions like “which of our vendor agreements have unlimited liability?”
If extraction fails (corrupt file, exotic Word features, encrypted PDF), you’ll see a clear error on the contract page with a Re-upload button.