# Signature Ready Check > Pre-flight a contract or agreement before anyone signs it — find unfilled blanks and placeholders, inconsistent party and entity names, missing or unattached exhibits, absent signature blocks, and dates that are wrong or stale. Use before sending a document for signature, when asked to check or proof a contract, or when a document is about to go to a counterparty. - Skill: `mypropper/signature-ready-check` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add mypropper/signature-ready-check` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/mypropper/signature-ready-check/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: mypropper (https://skillmd.com/u/mypropper) - Updated: 2026-09-22 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/mypropper/signature-ready-check --- # Signature-ready check Read a PDF or DOCX and report everything that would embarrass the sender if it went out as-is. This runs entirely locally and calls no Propper tools, so it works with or without an account. ## Steps ### 1. Read the document Extract the full text, keeping page numbers. Use whatever tooling the environment has: `pdftotext -layout`, `pdfplumber`, `pypdf` for PDF; `python-docx` or unzipping `word/document.xml` for DOCX. Read every page, including exhibits and schedules. Never report a document clean on a partial read. If extraction fails on some pages, say which pages were unreadable. ### 2. Run the seven checks **Blanks and placeholders.** Runs of underscores, `[ ]`, `[BRACKETED TEXT]`, `TBD`, `TBC`, `XXX`, `N/A` where a value is expected, `{{merge_field}}`, `<>`, `«Field»`, `Lorem ipsum`, `insert`, `to be determined`. Report each with its page and the surrounding sentence. Distinguish a blank a signer is meant to fill at signing from a blank the sender forgot. A signature line is the former. `Effective Date: ________` at the top of the document is usually the latter. **Entity names.** Collect every party name in the document, including the preamble, the definitions, the body and the signature blocks. Report any variation: `Acme, Inc.` versus `Acme Inc` versus `ACME Incorporated`, a defined term used before it is defined, a defined term that is never used, and a party named in a signature block who appears nowhere else. Entity-suffix mismatches are the single most common defect worth catching. **Defined terms.** Terms in quotes-and-capitals in the definitions that never recur, and capitalised terms used in the body that were never defined. **Exhibits and schedules.** Every `Exhibit A`, `Schedule 1`, `Annex`, `Appendix` referenced in the body, matched against what is actually attached. Report references with no attachment, and attachments never referenced. Also flag an exhibit that is present but empty or a placeholder page. **Signature blocks.** One execution block per party named in the preamble. Report a party with no block, a block for a party not in the preamble, and a block missing its `Name:`, `Title:` or `Date:` line. Note whether the document has any signature line at all. **Dates.** The effective date, term dates, expiry, renewal and notice dates. Report a date in the past where a future date is expected, an end date before its start date, a term that contradicts a stated duration, a year that looks like a carry-over from a previous version, and any date left blank. **Numbers and cross-references.** Amounts stated twice with different figures, a figure that disagrees with its written-out words, percentages that should total 100 and do not, and section cross-references pointing at a section that does not exist. When figures disagree, report every figure the document states and leave it there. Do not say which one governs, and do not invoke a rule of construction such as written words prevailing over numerals — which figure controls is a legal question, not a mechanical one. ### 3. Report Group findings into three tiers and lead with the count in each: - **Blocking** — would produce an invalid or unenforceable-looking document: an unfilled blank in an operative term, a missing signature block, a referenced exhibit that is not attached, an end date before its start date. - **Should fix** — visible to the counterparty and looks careless: entity-name variation, a stale year, an unused defined term, a broken cross-reference. - **Worth a look** — possible but not certainly wrong: an unusual blank, a term used once, a date that is merely surprising. For each finding: the page, the exact text, and what is wrong with it. Quote the document; do not paraphrase it. End with one line: how many blocking items stand between this document and sending. ### 4. Hand off When there are no blocking items and the user wants to send, route to `send-for-signature`. When signature blocks exist but the document has no fillable fields, route to `place-signature-fields`. ## Rules - Report what the document says, with a location. Never assert a defect without quoting the text it comes from. - Report the discrepancy, not its resolution. Naming which of two conflicting terms wins, or what a clause would be read to mean, is interpretation and belongs to the user. - A clean report means the seven checks found nothing, not that the document is good. Say that explicitly. - Do not edit the document. Report; the user decides. ## Not legal advice This finds mechanical defects: blanks, mismatches, missing attachments, wrong dates. It does not assess whether a term is favourable, whether a clause is enforceable, whether the document suits its purpose, or who has authority to sign. Do not say a document is safe to sign, standard, or fair, and do not state how a court or a jurisdiction would read it. Those judgements belong to the user and their counsel.