Live Analysis

Live analysis uses a supported model provider to analyse your document in real time. You provide your own API key (you only pay for what you use), and the AI reads your document, identifies risks, and produces a scored report -- all in about 60 seconds.

How Much Does It Cost?

You pay your selected provider directly for API usage. A typical contract review costs a small amount of API credit depending on provider and document length. There are no fees from AI Legal UK -- it's free and open source.

Technical Details

Live analysis uses your provider API key to run provider-backed legal analysis on your documents. Results are streamed in real time via Server-Sent Events (SSE) where the selected adapter supports it.

Setup

1. Open Settings (/settings)
2. Enter your provider API key
3. Click Test Connection to verify the key works
4. Switch to Live mode using the header toggle

Get an API Key

Create an API key with a supported provider. Anthropic and OpenAI are supported for review analysis; your provider account needs available credits.

How It Works

Step-by-Step Flow

1. Navigate to Upload & Review (/review)
2. Upload a document (PDF, DOCX, TXT, MD) or paste text
3. Select an analysis skill from the dropdown
4. Click Analyse
5. The progress bar streams real-time stages:

Stage	Approx. Progress
Connecting to AI provider...	5%
Analysing clauses...	15-25%
Reviewing provisions...	25-40%
Scoring risks...	40-60%
Finalising recommendations...	60-85%
Building results...	90%
Complete	100%

6. Results are saved to localStorage
7. You are redirected to the review detail page

SSE Streaming Protocol

The dashboard uses Server-Sent Events for real-time progress:

POST /api/review
Accept: text/event-stream
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "text": "...document content...",
  "skill": "legal-review",
  "apiKey": "sk-...",
  "provider": "anthropic"
}

The server responds with an SSE stream:

event: progress
data: {"stage":"Connecting to AI provider...","percent":5}

event: progress
data: {"stage":"Analysing clauses...","percent":15}

event: progress
data: {"stage":"Scoring risks...","percent":55}

event: progress
data: {"stage":"Complete","percent":100}

event: result
data: { ...full review JSON... }

Fallback

If SSE streaming fails (e.g., network proxy issues), the system falls back to a standard buffered JSON response. The same /api/review endpoint handles both -- the Accept: text/event-stream header determines the mode.

API Key Security

Key Handling

Your API key is handled with the following safeguards:

• Stored only in browser localStorage under the key ai-legal-uk-api-key
• Sent in each request body to the dashboard's own API route (running on localhost)
• Passed directly to the Anthropic SDK -- the server is a thin proxy
• Never persisted or logged on the server side
• Never sent to any third party -- only to api.anthropic.com via the SDK
• Validated via /api/anthropic/validate without making an analysis call

Supported Skills

All 26 analysis skills work with live mode. Document generation skills (NDA, Terms, Privacy, Agreement, Board Pack) use a different flow.

Contract Analysis

Skill	ID
Contract Review	legal-review
Risk Analysis	legal-risks
Missing Protections	legal-missing
Plain English	legal-plain
Negotiate	legal-negotiate
Freelancer Review	legal-freelancer

Employment & Corporate

Skill	ID
Employment Review	legal-employment
IR35 Assessment	legal-ir35
Corporate Review	legal-corporate
AML Compliance	legal-aml

Property & Specialist

Skill	ID
Property Law	legal-property
GDPR Deep-Dive	legal-gdpr
Tenancy Review	legal-tenancy
IP Review	legal-ip
Debt Recovery	legal-debt
Immigration Compliance	legal-immigration
Wills & Probate	legal-wills

Compliance & Reporting

Skill	ID
Compliance Audit	legal-compliance
Legislation Tracker	legal-legislation-tracker
Regulatory Calendar	legal-regulatory-calendar

Consumer & ESG

Skill	ID
Consumer Compliance	legal-consumer
ESG Compliance	legal-esg
Dispute Resolution	legal-dispute

Business Intelligence

Skill	ID
Benchmark	legal-benchmark
Due Diligence	legal-due-diligence

Platform Tools

Skill	ID
AI Compliance	legal-ai-compliance

Model

Live analysis is provider-pluggable through dashboard/lib/model-providers/. The dashboard picks Anthropic, OpenAI, or OpenAI Codex CLI based on the prefix of the API key the user pastes in the browser. The model ID for each provider is configurable via env var (ANALYSIS_MODEL for Anthropic, OPENAI_ANALYSIS_MODEL for OpenAI), so the in-source default does not have to be touched to upgrade.

Provider	Default model ID (configurable)	Override env var
Anthropic	claude-sonnet-4-20250514	ANALYSIS_MODEL
OpenAI	see lib/model-providers/openai.ts	OPENAI_ANALYSIS_MODEL
Codex CLI	resolved by the local Codex install	(Codex-managed)

The system prompt is skill-specific, and the model returns results via a submit_review tool call that maps directly to the dashboard's typed review structure:

model: ANALYSIS_MODEL    // env-configurable; default in dashboard/lib/model-providers/anthropic.ts
max_tokens: 8192
tool_choice: { type: "tool", name: "submit_review" }