JetRedline

Appellate judicial opinion and bench memo editor and proofreader. Produces a Word document (.docx) with tracked changes showing proposed edits, plus a separate analysis document with explanations. Applies Garner's Redbook, Bluebook citation format, and style preferences drawn from opinions issued by the North Dakota Supreme Court within the last ten years. Good practice to have standing instructions in your profile preferences that help ensure you get needed stress testing of arguments. One approach: "When I argue against a position that knowledgeable experts would defend, answer as a smart expert who would still argue back. Lead with the counterarguments rather than with the agreement. Give a detailed response/steelman of the strongest arguments against my position and don't needlessly soften or backtrack."

Not an Official Court Product

JetRedline is an independent, open-source project published by an individual in a personal capacity as legal-educational software, consistent with Rule 3.1 of the North Dakota Code of Judicial Conduct. It is not authorized, endorsed, or maintained by the North Dakota Supreme Court or the state court system, and is being developed without court staff, equipment, or resources. The embedded style preferences are personal preferences, not official court style. The tool edits documents you supply and runs locally; you are responsible for handling any confidential or draft material appropriately and for independently reviewing every proposed edit — especially citation and quotation checks — before adopting it. Its suggestions are machine-generated, are not authoritative, and are not legal advice.

Caution: Privacy Settings Before Use

The editing pipeline runs seven passes:

1. Jurisdictional check — verifies timeliness of appeal, procedural posture, and standard of review against the ND Rules of Appellate Procedure
2. Style and grammar — applies Redbook rules and plain-language preferences; produces structured edit list
3. Citation check — Bluebook format review (3A) and substantive verification of ND, federal, and state citations against local reference files and official sources (3B)
4. Fact check — verifies factual claims against party briefs and record materials, with claim-to-record mapping
5. Analytical rigor — internal consistency, standard-of-review consistency, readability metrics, and (for opinions) structural completeness
6. Brief matching — confirms the opinion or memo addresses every argument raised by the parties
7. Dissent/concurrence cross-check — checks fair characterization and responsiveness between majority and separate writings

Passes 1–7 run as parallel subagents where possible. After all passes complete, the pipeline collects results and produces up to two outputs: a tracked-changes .docx (Pass 2 edits become tracked insertions/deletions; other pass findings become document comments; apply_edits.py operates directly on the .docx ZIP archive with no unpack/pack pipeline) and a companion analysis document summarizing all findings. The analysis document is also saved as a markdown file in the working directory.

Analysis Document

The analysis document includes the following sections (some vary by document type):

• Case Highlight (opinions only) — case name, citation, disposition, and core holdings
• Jurisdictional Notes — timeliness, procedural posture, and standard of review issues
• Summary of Edits — overview of types and volume of changes
• Fact Check — table of factual claims verified against record materials
• Brief Matching — table showing whether each party argument is addressed
• Internal Consistency — name, date, and terminology discrepancies across the document
• Standard of Review Consistency — whether deference language matches stated standards
• Readability Metrics — Flesch-Kincaid grade, sentence length, passive voice, and nominalization density by section
• Substantive Concerns (opinions) — potential dicta, alternative rationales, ambiguity/vulnerability, logical issues, and dissent/concurrence cross-check
• Memo Analysis (memos) — issue completeness, balance of presentation, recommendation assessment, analytical gaps, and standard of review application
• Citation Verification — table with quote checks, substantive support assessments, and source links
• Citation Format Issues — Bluebook corrections
• Style Notes — significant style changes by category

Prerequisites

• Claude Code (CLI) or Claude Desktop with Cowork
• Python 3.10+
• Node.js 18+ (for creating new .docx from scratch; not needed for tracked-changes editing)
• uv (recommended) or pip

Windows additional requirements:

• PowerShell 5.1+ (included with Windows 10/11)
• Git Bash (recommended, included with Git for Windows)

Installation

JetRedline installs as a skill to ~/.claude/skills/jetredline/. Both Claude Code (CLI) and Claude Desktop with Cowork use the same skill directory, so any of the options below work for either.

Option A: From .zip

1. Download and extract jetredline-skill.zip
2. Run the installer:
   • macOS/Linux:

     bash install.sh

   • Windows (PowerShell):

     powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File install.ps1

   The installer will:
   • Copy skill files to ~/.claude/skills/jetredline/
   • Create a Python virtual environment with required packages
   • Run npm install for the docx Node.js package

Option B: From source

git clone https://github.com/jet52/jetredline.git
cd jetredline
make install

Option C: Manual

macOS/Linux:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/jetredline
cp -a skills/jetredline/* ~/.claude/skills/jetredline/

cd ~/.claude/skills/jetredline
uv venv .venv
uv pip install -r requirements.txt --python .venv/bin/python
npm install

Windows (PowerShell):

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path "$HOME\.claude\skills\jetredline"
Copy-Item -Path "skills\jetredline\*" -Destination "$HOME\.claude\skills\jetredline" -Recurse -Force

Set-Location "$HOME\.claude\skills\jetredline"
uv venv .venv
uv pip install -r requirements.txt --python .venv\Scripts\python.exe
npm install

Claude Projects (web)

1. Download jetredline-skill.zip from GitHub
2. Open your Claude Project → Project Knowledge
3. Upload jetredline-skill.zip
4. Paste opinion text or upload .docx/.pdf files in conversation
5. Use the same trigger phrases ("edit this opinion", "edit this bench memo", etc.)

Web mode limitations:

• Produces markdown analysis only (no tracked-changes .docx)
• All passes run inline — no subagent delegation (may hit context limits on very long opinions)
• Citation verification uses web search instead of local opinion corpus (less reliable)
• No PDF splitting for large record packets (upload individual documents)

Usage

Trigger phrases:

• "Edit this opinion"
• "Proofread this opinion"
• "Review this draft opinion"
• "Redline this opinion"
• "Redline this draft"
• "Redline this memo"
• "Edit this draft order"

Provide a .docx draft opinion in the working directory. Optionally include .pdf briefs or record materials for fact-checking.

File Structure

jetredline/
├── skills/
│   └── jetredline/
│       ├── SKILL.md
│       ├── VERSION
│       ├── package.json
│       ├── requirements.txt
│       ├── apply_edits.py          # Tracked-changes batch editor (direct ZIP)
│       ├── cite_check.py           # Citation checker (uses bundled jetcite)
│       ├── cite_review.py          # Interactive citation review HTML generator
│       ├── lib/
│       │   └── jetcite/            # Vendored jetcite (run `make vendor-jetcite` to update)
│       ├── check_update.py         # Version check on session start
│       ├── readability_metrics.py  # FK grade, passive voice, etc.
│       ├── splitmarks.py           # PDF bookmark splitter (bundled)
│       ├── ooxml_fixup.py          # OOXML debugging tool (not in main pipeline)
│       ├── ooxml_validate.py       # OOXML debugging tool (not in main pipeline)
│       └── references/
│           ├── nd-appellate-rules.md
│           └── style-guide.md
├── install.sh
├── install.ps1
├── LICENSE
├── Makefile
├── README.md
└── .gitignore

External Dependencies

Dependency	Purpose	Required?
Python 3.10+	PDF/XML processing	Yes
Node.js 18+	New .docx creation from scratch	Only if not editing existing
defusedxml	Safe XML parsing	Yes (installed by installer)
pypdf	PDF manipulation	Yes (installed by installer)
splitmarks	PDF bookmark splitting	Bundled script (no install)
textstat	Readability metrics	Yes (installed by installer)
jetcite	Citation parsing and linking	Bundled (vendored source)
docx (npm)	New .docx creation from scratch	Only if not editing existing

Network access in sandboxed environments

jetcite resolves and verifies citations against official-source domains (ndcourts.gov, courtlistener.com, etc.). Sandboxed Claude environments (Cowork, Claude Code) block outbound traffic to non-allowlisted hosts, which silently degrades ND opinion links to a search URL rather than the direct PDF. Add the domains listed in skills/jetredline/lib/jetcite/NETWORK.md to the egress allowlist (Cowork: sandbox settings → Allow network egress → Additional allowed domains; Claude Code: sandbox.network.allowedDomains), then start a new session.

Contributing

On a fresh clone, activate the local pre-push sensitive-content check:

git config --local core.hooksPath .githooks

It scans commits being pushed for likely ND court dockets, confidential-case captions, and committed binaries. Bypass once with git push --no-verify.