If you have a contract written somewhere else - a Google Doc, a Word file, a PDF from your lawyer - you can use Claude to read it and build a matching Common Paper template. Claude pulls out the business terms and fills in the Cover Page fields for the agreement type you choose.
This is a starting point, not a conversion. Common Paper agreements use hosted Standard Terms written by a committee of attorneys. When you move your contract into a Common Paper agreement, your business terms carry over into the Cover Page, but your legal terms are replaced by the Common Paper Standard Terms. The result is a new agreement with similar commercial deal points, not a reproduction of your old contract. Read the whole thing before you send it.
If you need your original document to stay exactly as written, don't convert it. Upload it instead - see Collecting Signatures.
What you need
The Common Paper MCP server or Claude Skill connected to your account. See Common Paper and LLMs for setup.
Your existing contract as text, DOCX, or PDF. For a Google Doc, use File > Download > Microsoft Word (.docx), or just paste the text.
A sense of which Common Paper agreement type fits. If your contract covers ongoing access to a SaaS product, that's a Cloud Service Agreement. If it covers a short paid trial, you can either use a Pilot Agreement or use a CSA with a Pilot Period. See Agreement Types in Common Paper.
Building the template
Give Claude the contract and tell it what you want. A prompt like this works:
Read the attached contract. Build a Common Paper CSA template from it. Map the business terms - product description, fees, term, liability caps, governing law - to the Cover Page fields. Tell me which terms in my contract have no matching field, and don't guess at anything the contract doesn't say.
The last sentence matters. Without it, Claude will fill gaps with reasonable-sounding values you never agreed to.
Claude creates the template in your account and reports what it mapped. Anything in your contract that has no Cover Page field can go into Additional Changes, which is free text that appears in the agreement. Ask Claude to put your success metrics, custom obligations, and other bespoke terms there.
Reviewing the template
Open the new template in Common Paper and read every section before you use it. A generated template is fully populated, not sparse. Every field you didn't specify has a Common Paper default in it, and defaults are real terms once the agreement is signed.
NOTE: Liability and indemnification defaults are the highest-risk part of this workflow, because they are plausible, invisible, and legally significant. If your contract capped liability at a fixed dollar figure, verify that figure appears in the template rather than a multiplier.
Ask Claude to read the created template back to you and compare it against your original contract. That catches most gaps faster than reading the form yourself.
What doesn't carry over
The wording of your original contract. Standard Terms replace your legal language entirely.
Terms with no Cover Page field. These are dropped unless you put them in Additional Changes.
Attachments and exhibits. Add them separately as attachments to the agreement.
Signatures on an already-signed contract. Converting produces a new, unsigned agreement. To change the terms of a contract that is already signed, issue an amendment instead.
Keeping your original document
If your contract has been negotiated and you need the exact language preserved, converting it is the wrong move. You have two options that keep your document intact:
Upload it as a template to reuse the same document across deals. See Uploaded Templates.
Upload it as a one-off agreement and collect signatures on it. See Collecting Signatures.
Neither option lets you edit the document inside Common Paper. See Editing an Uploaded Agreement.