Neon Notations

Neon Notations

Neon Notations (formerly Sagebrush Standards) is our comprehensive framework for legal documentation, processes, and computable contracts. By creating standardized, machine-readable legal templates, we make it easier for AI systems to ground themselves on legal workflows while maintaining consistency and reliability.

What Are Neon Notations?

Neon Notations represent a new approach to legal standardization that bridges the gap between traditional legal practice and modern AI capabilities. Our standards provide:

  • Structured Legal Templates - Consistent, reusable formats for common legal documents
  • Computable Contracts - Machine-readable contract structures that AI can parse and understand
  • Workflow Standards - Standardized processes for legal procedures and operations
  • AI Grounding Framework - Clear semantic structures that help AI systems accurately interpret legal content

System Architecture

Three Core Components

The system integrates Documents (dynamic templates), Questionnaires (data collection forms), and Workflows (automated triggered actions) into single-file notations.

File Structure

Notations require YAML frontmatter (delimited by dashes) containing metadata and state machines, followed by Markdown content using Liquid templating for dynamic variables.

Required YAML Fields

Every Neon Notation must include:

  • code: Unique identifier across all notations
  • title: Maximum 255 characters
  • description: Purpose statement
  • respondent_type: Either “org” or “org_and_person”
  • flow: Client questionnaire state machine
  • alignment: Staff review state machine

State Machine Requirements

Both flow and alignment sections must:

  • Begin with a BEGIN state
  • Include at least one path reaching END
  • Reference existing database questions
  • Avoid infinite loops and unreachable states

Document Generation

The system supports two methods:

  1. PDF form population using mappings
  2. Markdown generation with Liquid templating for dynamic content

Variable Interpolation

Documents use Liquid syntax: {{variable_name}} with optional filters for dates, currency, and text formatting.

Validation Rules

The specification enforces:

  • YAML syntax compliance
  • Unique code values
  • Reachable state paths
  • Variable correspondence to available data sources

Key Features

Consistency and Reliability

Our standardized approach ensures that legal documents follow predictable patterns, making them easier to review, validate, and process. This consistency reduces errors and improves efficiency across legal workflows.

AI Compatibility

Neon Notations are designed from the ground up to be AI-friendly. By providing clear semantic structures and standardized formats, we enable AI systems to:

  • Accurately parse legal documents
  • Extract key terms and obligations
  • Identify patterns and relationships
  • Generate compliant legal text
  • Validate document completeness

Accessibility

By streamlining legal workflows and creating standardized templates, Neon Notations make legal processes more accessible to everyone, regardless of their legal expertise or technical background.

Open Standards

All Neon Notations are open source and freely available. We believe that legal standards should be transparent, community-driven, and accessible to all.

Technical Foundation

Neon Notations are built using modern technology standards:

  • Swift Implementation - Our primary implementation is in Swift, providing robust and efficient processing
  • JSON Schema - Machine-readable validation rules for legal documents
  • Semantic Markup - Clear, structured data that both humans and AI can understand
  • Version Control - All standards are versioned and tracked for transparency

Use Cases

Use Neon Notations to generate consistent, compliant legal documents from structured data. Our templates ensure that all required elements are included and properly formatted.

Contract Analysis

AI systems can use Neon Notations to analyze contracts, extract key terms, identify obligations, and flag potential issues or inconsistencies.

Workflow Automation

Standardized legal processes enable automation of routine legal workflows, reducing manual effort and improving efficiency.

Neon Notations provide clear examples and templates that can help legal professionals and students understand legal document structure and best practices.

Standards Categories

Document Templates

Standardized formats for common legal documents including:

  • Contracts and agreements
  • Legal notices
  • Compliance documents
  • Court filings
  • Corporate governance documents

Process Workflows

Standardized procedures for:

  • Document review and approval
  • Contract negotiation
  • Compliance verification
  • Legal research
  • Case management

Data Structures

Standardized data formats for:

  • Party information
  • Terms and conditions
  • Obligations and rights
  • Dates and deadlines
  • Financial terms

Validation Rules

Standardized validation criteria for:

  • Document completeness
  • Legal compliance
  • Formatting requirements
  • Data integrity
  • Signature requirements

Time Savings

Pre-built templates and standardized workflows reduce the time spent on routine legal tasks, allowing legal professionals to focus on higher-value work.

Quality Assurance

Standardized formats and validation rules help ensure document quality and reduce the risk of errors or omissions.

Collaboration

Common standards make it easier for legal teams to collaborate, share work product, and maintain consistency across projects.

Innovation

By providing a solid foundation of standards, Neon Notations enable legal professionals to innovate and develop new legal technology solutions.

Benefits for AI Systems

Semantic Clarity

Clear, structured data makes it easier for AI to understand legal concepts and relationships.

Training Data

Standardized templates provide high-quality training data for legal AI models.

Validation

Built-in validation rules help AI systems verify the correctness and completeness of generated legal content.

Grounding

Neon Notations provide a reliable foundation for AI systems to ground their legal reasoning and outputs.

Getting Started

Neon Notations are open source and freely available. Whether you’re a legal professional looking to streamline your workflows, a developer building legal technology, or an AI researcher working on legal applications, Neon Notations can help.

Resources

  • GitHub Repository - View and contribute on GitHub
  • Documentation - Comprehensive guides and reference materials
  • Templates - Ready-to-use legal document templates
  • Examples - Sample implementations and use cases
  • Community - Join our community of contributors and users

Contributing

We welcome contributions from legal professionals, technologists, and anyone interested in improving access to justice through standardization. Help us develop new templates, refine existing standards, and expand the reach of Neon Notations.

Visit our GitHub repository to get started, view the source code, and submit contributions.

Philosophy

Neon Notations embody our core belief that standardization and openness are key to increasing access to justice. By creating clear, consistent, and machine-readable legal standards, we make legal processes more transparent, efficient, and accessible to all.

Transparency

All our standards are open source and publicly documented. Everyone can see how they work and contribute to their improvement.

Collaboration

We build Neon Notations through community collaboration, bringing together expertise from legal practice, technology, and AI research.

Innovation

We embrace new technologies and approaches while respecting established legal principles and practices.

Access to Justice

Everything we do is guided by our mission to increase access to justice through technology and standardization.

Impact

Since launching our standards initiative in 2021, Neon Notations have:

  • Streamlined legal workflows for organizations and practitioners
  • Enabled new AI-powered legal technology applications
  • Reduced barriers to accessing legal services
  • Improved consistency and quality in legal documentation
  • Created a foundation for legal innovation

Future Development

We continue to expand and refine Neon Notations based on community feedback and emerging needs. Upcoming areas of focus include:

  • Additional document templates for specialized legal areas
  • Enhanced AI grounding capabilities
  • Integration with legal technology platforms
  • Multilingual support
  • Advanced validation and compliance checking

Contact & Support

For questions or support regarding the Sagebrush Standards specification:

Email: [email protected]

Get Involved

Help us build the future of legal standardization. Whether you’re interested in using Neon Notations, contributing to their development, or partnering with us on legal technology initiatives, we’d love to hear from you.

GitHub: github.com/neon-law-foundation/Notations

Contact: [email protected]

“The standards we create today shape the legal technology of tomorrow”

Neon Notations are part of the Neon Law Foundation’s mission to increase access to justice through open source software. All standards are freely available and open for community contribution.