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Clerk AI

Clerk is Recall's built-in AI assistant. It lives in the right pane of Write mode and has two sub-panels: Edit (rewrite a passage) and Assist (chat).

Clerk runs on the selected generator model. By default that's the bundled Llama 3.1 8B; you can switch to Phi-3.5 Mini or a custom GGUF model in Settings → Generation. In server deployments an administrator can point Clerk at a remote OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

If you set Generation to Disabled in Settings, Clerk's actions are all unavailable until you pick a model.

Opening Clerk

  1. Switch to Write mode (top-bar Write/Research toggle).
  2. In the right pane, toggle to Clerk.
  3. Use the Edit/Assist segmented control at the top of the pane to switch sub-panels.

Edit

Edit rewrites a selected passage.

Workflow

  1. In the PDF or Notes, select the passage you want rewritten.
  2. Send the selection to Clerk (the selection populates the Edit panel's Context area).

  3. Pick a Style from the dropdown at the top-right of the Clerk pane. The six options:

    • Lengthen — expand into more detail
    • Shorten — compress while keeping meaning
    • Formalize — more persuasive/formal register
    • Simplify — clearer, plainer language
    • Fix Grammar — grammar and punctuation cleanup
    • Summarize — one-paragraph summary

  4. Click Generate (the ✨ icon). Clerk returns 2–3 alternative rewrites.

  5. Click one alternative to select it. The selected version is highlighted.
  6. Click Replace (the swap icon) to send the selected alternative back into Word at the original selection.
  7. Click Clear to drop context and alternatives and start over.

Why it produces alternatives

Clerk returns multiple versions so you can pick the one that fits your voice and argument. Treat them as raw drafts — if none is quite right, regenerate with more explicit context or a different style, or hand-edit afterward.

Context matters

Clerk Edit works better when the surrounding sentence or paragraph is visible, not just the exact selection. The backend accepts optional "sentence before" and "document text" context for this reason. Keep your selection tight (a phrase or a sentence), and Clerk will see the surrounding text to match tone and continuity.

Assist

Assist is a chat interface to Clerk. You ask questions or give drafting instructions; Clerk answers using the matter's documents as context.

Tasks

Pick a Task from the dropdown at the top-right:

  • Chat — general Q&A
  • Summarize — ask Clerk to summarize something
  • Explain — ask for an explanation of a concept or passage
  • Research — ask for relevant authorities and arguments inside your matter
  • Draft — ask for a draft passage

The task choice biases Clerk's prompt; the same question often produces a different tone under Chat vs. Research.

Chat history

Messages accumulate in the panel. History persists through the Clerk session but is trimmed to the last 50 messages. The clear-all icon (top-right of the message list) resets history.

Each assistant message has a copy button to copy the response to the clipboard.

Grounding

Assist runs against the selected matter's documents. Ask "What is the standard for summary judgment?" and Clerk answers using cases in the current matter — not from general web knowledge. If no matter is selected, Assist falls back to what the model knows on its own, which is far less useful.

Parenthetical generation

Clerk also powers parenthetical generation for pins. This isn't shown as a panel; it runs from the pin insertion flow. Pick Parenthetical when inserting a pin, and Clerk produces an 8–20-word explanatory phrase from the pin's excerpt in lower-case present participle form (e.g. holding that the contract is enforceable only when...). Recall wraps it in parentheses when inserting.

See Pins — Parenthetical generation.

Changing the Clerk model

Settings → Generation:

Option Notes
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct Default. Bundled with the full install.
Phi-3.5 Mini Instruct Optional download. Smaller/faster, sometimes tighter.
Custom GGUF Whatever you've placed in <data root>/custom_models/generators/.
Disabled Turns Clerk off.

Changes take effect on the next generation; no restart required.

Usage tips

  • Clerk Edit is a drafting tool, not a proofreader. Run it on a passage, evaluate its output, and hand-edit from there.
  • Clerk Assist is most useful after you've pinned excerpts. The more focused the matter's document set, the sharper the answers.
  • Cite-check yourself. Clerk will confidently reference a case that doesn't exist in the matter. Treat every attribution as a hypothesis to verify.
  • Experiment with Task choice. Drafting a paragraph under "Draft" vs. "Research" produces different results; sometimes one is better for the situation.