Agent Operating Guide

This guide is for AI agents working with the casedev CLI. It covers CLI discovery, vault workflows, matter analysis, and common pitfalls — distilled from real agent failures in production.

This document is designed to be embedded directly into agent system prompts or instruction files.

CLI Discovery

The casedev CLI does not follow a single naming convention. Commands, subcommands, and flags vary across command families. Always inspect help before running a command you haven’t used before.

Shell

# Discovery order
casedev --help                          # top-level commands
casedev <group> --help                  # subcommands in a group
casedev <group> <subcommand> --help     # flags for a specific command

Rules:

Do not assume flag names transfer between command families (e.g. --id vs --object-id vs --vault-id)
Do not assume REST endpoint names map to CLI subcommands
If two attempts fail because the command shape is wrong, stop guessing — re-read --help and try a different approach

Vault Workflows

List vaults

Shell

casedev vault list --format json

List objects in a vault

Shell

casedev vault:objects list --id <vault_id> --format json

Upload a file

Three-step process: create upload session → PUT the file → confirm.

Shell

# 1. Create upload session
casedev vault upload --id <vault_id> \
  --filename "brief.pdf" \
  --content-type "application/pdf" \
  --size-bytes 42000 \
  --auto-index \
  --format json

# 2. PUT the file to the returned uploadUrl (use curl or equivalent)

# 3. Confirm
casedev vault confirm-upload --id <vault_id> \
  --object-id <object_id> \
  --success \
  --size-bytes 42000 \
  --error-code "" \
  --error-message ""

The confirm step requires --error-code "" and --error-message "" even on success. Do not assume a vault:objects upload shortcut exists — use the three-step flow above.

Get extracted text

Shell

casedev vault:objects get-text --id <vault_id> --object-id <object_id> --format json

Only call this after you’ve identified the specific document you need.

GraphRAG

Do not assume GraphRAG supports free-form querying. Always inspect the available subcommands first:

Shell

casedev vault:graphrag --help

Known subcommands include get-stats, init, and process-object — but the surface may change.

Matter Analysis Workflow

When analyzing a matter (a legal case with uploaded documents), work in this order:

1. Build a filing map

List the vault objects and identify anchor documents first:

Complaint / amended complaint
Answer
Motion to dismiss + opposition + reply
Court orders
Key declarations

Ignore peripheral filings until you’ve covered the core.

2. Extract parties

Start with the civil cover sheet, complaint caption, or answer caption — these are the most reliable sources.

3. Read the complaint

Focus on:

Opening factual overview
Causes of action
Prayer for relief

Do not start from an arbitrary middle section.

4. Read defense arguments

Prioritize the latest operative defense briefs:

Motion to dismiss
Answer / affirmative defenses
Brief headings and issue statements

5. Compile evidence

Tie evidence to actual filings — emails, contracts, declarations, exhibits cited in briefs.

6. Write the summary

Structure:

Parties
Claims
Key evidence
Plaintiff arguments
Defense arguments
Procedural posture
Open uncertainties

Document Prioritization

Priority	Document types
High	Complaint, amended complaint, answer, motion to dismiss, opposition/reply, court orders
Medium	Declarations supporting core motions, key exhibits cited in briefs, case management orders
Low	Stray exhibits, side motions by non-core parties, intervention attempts, uncited appendices

Reading Best Practices

Use filenames as hints — 001-Complaint.pdf tells you more than a text search
Read small, targeted sections first — issue statements, prayer for relief, conclusion sections
Don’t dump entire documents hoping to find the answer
Watch for OCR noise — corroborate with other filings if text quality is poor, rely on headings over garbled body text
Never claim full understanding from partial text — if content is truncated or starts mid-document, say so and keep collecting

Anti-Patterns

Category	What to avoid
CLI	Guessing subcommands from API names, repeating wrong flags, skipping `--help`, treating help output as a success response
Analysis	Starting with peripheral filings, summarizing from truncated excerpts, conflating allegations with proven facts, overstating confidence

Prompt Snippet

Embed this in agent instructions for reliable casedev usage:

Never guess casedev commands — inspect --help first. For matter analysis,
identify anchor filings before reading text. Prefer targeted retrieval over
raw document dumps. Do not claim comprehensive understanding from truncated
or mid-document excerpts. After two command-shape failures, stop and remap
the CLI surface.

Get Started

Platform

Resources

Agent Operating Guide

Agent Operating Guide

CLI Discovery

Vault Workflows

List vaults

List objects in a vault

Upload a file

Get extracted text

GraphRAG

Matter Analysis Workflow

1. Build a filing map

2. Extract parties

3. Read the complaint

4. Read defense arguments

5. Compile evidence

6. Write the summary

Document Prioritization

Reading Best Practices

Anti-Patterns

Prompt Snippet

​Agent Operating Guide

​CLI Discovery

​Vault Workflows

​List vaults

​List objects in a vault

​Upload a file

​Get extracted text

​GraphRAG

​Matter Analysis Workflow

​1. Build a filing map

​2. Extract parties

​3. Read the complaint

​4. Read defense arguments

​5. Compile evidence

​6. Write the summary

​Document Prioritization

​Reading Best Practices

​Anti-Patterns

​Prompt Snippet

Agent Operating Guide

CLI Discovery

Vault Workflows

List vaults

List objects in a vault

Upload a file

Get extracted text

GraphRAG

Matter Analysis Workflow

1. Build a filing map

2. Extract parties

3. Read the complaint

4. Read defense arguments

5. Compile evidence

6. Write the summary

Document Prioritization

Reading Best Practices

Anti-Patterns

Prompt Snippet