PermitPilot

AI-assisted contract and permit review checklist for project managers. Built for the GenAI Hackathon for Project Managers (PMI Philippines).

A PM loads a project contract and its permits. PermitPilot shows a review checklist of what passed, what is flagged and what is missing, with every finding linked to the exact source text. The PM verifies each item and exports an action list to CSV.

Decision support, not legal advice. The PM always has the final say. All sample companies, people, sites and permits are fictional.

Run it (one command)

Requires Node.js 18 or later. Nothing to install.

npm start

Open http://localhost:5173 and click Load sample project.

No Node? Open web/index.html directly in a browser. It falls back to the embedded copy of the sample data in web/sample-bundle.js.

5-step demo script (about 3 minutes)

#	Step	Say / do	Time
1	Upload	"A PM has a fit-out contract and five permits, the documents they already have." Click Upload contract & permits and select the files in sample-data/ (or click Load sample project).	0:00
2	Analysis	Five steps run: read, extract, apply 30 playbook rules, cross-check, verify quotes. Point at the header: 18 passed, 9 flagged, 2 missing, 1 needs review, and the impact panel: about 4 h becomes about 25 min (an estimate).	0:20
3	Checklist	Filter Flagged and open Liquidated damages capped: "0.5% a day, no cap." Click Open in document; the exact clause is highlighted in the contract. Click Verify. Note the confidence bar and the one Needs review item: the AI says when it isn't sure.	0:45
4	The date-conflict moment	Open Timeline. Click the first red card: Electrical rough-in starts 16 Nov, but the Electrical Permit is only valid from 1 Dec. The milestone and the permit light up together. "Neither document shows this on its own." Then show Cross-document: the quotes from both documents sit side by side.	1:40
5	Export	Open Action list: 10 tasks with owner, due date and priority, each linked to its findings. Click Export to CSV and open it in Excel. Close: "Every finding has evidence, and the PM decides."	2:30

Backup if anything fails: Reset review clears session state. Opening web/index.html directly also works offline.

What the AI does (and how it's kept honest)

analyze.js sends the contract, the permits and playbook.md to Claude in one structured request. In that one call, Claude:

1. Extracts parties, site, dates, milestones, permits, bonds and insurance.
2. Applies every playbook rule and returns one checklist item per rule with a status, severity, plain-language finding, suggested action and confidence.
3. Reasons across documents: milestones vs. permit validity, holder name and address vs. the contract, permit responsibility, permit conditions vs. schedule, bond and insurance expiry vs. completion.
4. Cites evidence: a short, exact quote plus the document and clause for every finding.

After Claude replies, analyze.js runs an evidence guard: every quote is matched word for word against its source. Any item whose quote isn't found is downgraded to needs review with confidence capped at 0.4. The dashboard's Open in document button repeats the same check live.

The demo never calls the API. It always loads the saved analysis.json, so it runs offline and gives the same result every time.

Re-run the analysis on your own documents (optional)

npm install                       # installs @anthropic-ai/sdk (only needed for analyze.js)
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
node analyze.js --contract path/to/contract.md --permits path/to/permits/ --out analysis.generated.json
node scripts/validate.js analysis.generated.json   # check every quote and rule ID
cp analysis.generated.json analysis.json && npm run bundle   # show it in the dashboard

Text and Markdown input are supported. Convert PDFs or Word files to text first. node analyze.js --dry-run builds the prompt without calling the API.

Customise the playbook

playbook.md holds 30 rules aligned with PMBOK good practice across scope, schedule, cost, risk, procurement, stakeholder and compliance management. It is meant to be edited for each organisation's own systems, policies and standards:

• change the limits in Organisation parameters (e.g. maximum payment days, delay-penalty cap, permit buffer);
• add, remove or reword rules (one table row each, unique ID);
• adjust severities and suggested actions.

Tests

npm test     # quote validator + answer-key coverage

• scripts/validate.js checks that every evidence quote exists verbatim in its source document, every playbook rule has exactly one checklist item, and every ID, date, status and link is valid.
• scripts/check-answer-key.js checks that all 8 planted issues in sample-data/ANSWER_KEY.md are caught. Current result: 8/8.

#	Planted issue	Caught by
1	Expired permit (Barangay Construction Clearance)	P-VAL-01, permit tracker, timeline, cross-check
2	Required permit missing (Fire Safety Evaluation Clearance)	P-CMP-01, permit tracker, timeline, cross-check
3	Uncapped liquidated damages	C-LD-01 (+ C-LIA-01 carve-out)
4	Payment terms of 90 days	C-PAY-02
5	Permit holder name and street-number mismatch	P-NAM-01, P-SIT-01, permit tracker, cross-check
6	Milestone starts before its permit is valid	P-VAL-02, timeline conflict, cross-check
7	Signage Permit required but nobody responsible	C-PRM-01, cross-check
8	Performance bond expires before completion	C-BND-01, timeline, cross-check

Deploy to Vercel

The repo is ready to deploy as a static site with no install step. vercel.json runs node scripts/build-static.js, which writes dist/ and leaves out the hidden answer key.

1. Go to https://vercel.com/new and import this GitHub repository.
2. Keep the detected settings (they come from vercel.json) and click Deploy.
3. Open the URL. / redirects to the dashboard.

Or deploy from your own terminal with the CLI: npx vercel (preview) or npx vercel --prod.

Project structure

web/                 dashboard (index.html, styles.css, app.js, sample-bundle.js)
analysis.json        saved analysis the dashboard loads
playbook.md          editable review rules
analyze.js           optional Claude analyzer with evidence guard
server.js            zero-dependency local server (npm start)
scripts/             validate, answer-key check, bundle, static build
sample-data/         fictional contract, 5 permits, permit register, ANSWER_KEY.md
CLAUDE.md            design rules and data schema

Privacy and feasibility

• Runs locally; no accounts, integrations, CDNs or tracking.
• Review state (verify, dismiss, notes, done) stays in the browser session only.
• Works on documents PMs already have; output is a CSV for any tracker or spreadsheet.

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AI-assisted review. Verify with qualified professionals. Not legal advice.