---
title: "Using Astra"
canonical: "https://help.agiloft.com/space/Astra/543621131/Using%20Astra"
format: markdown
---
Get started using Astra for your contract analytics. Think beyond reviewing and redlining individual contracts; with Astra, you can analyze whole sets of documents, extract useful data from them, and gain insight into patterns and risks.

If you use Astra alongside Agiloft CLM, you can find even more ways to leverage your analysis in [Using Astra with Agiloft CLM](https://agiloft-public.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/HELP/pages/570327053).

> 📝 If you use Astra alongside Agiloft CLM, there are additional steps to complete in [Setting Up Astra for Agiloft CLM](https://agiloft-public.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/HELP/pages/570261517).

# Using the Assistant

Make the Assistant tab your first stop in Astra. The assistant is an AI chat agent designed to help answer your questions and perform the tasks you need done.

To use the assistant:

1. On the Assistant tab, enter a question you have or a task you want performed.
2. Hit Enter or click the arrow button. The assistant responds based on what you entered.
3. Continue asking the assistant follow-up questions or requesting tasks in the same chat as needed.
4. When you finish working on your current question or task, it’s best to create a new chat for your next topic. Simply click New Chat to open a new one.

You can view your previous chats by clicking Chat History. 

The video below shows you some strategic ways to interact with the assistant.

# Running Screens on Documents

Use Astra to run screens on individual documents or sets of documents. These screens are typically designed to assess how closely documents comply with your organization’s requirements and standards, and answer questions you might have about a certain type of document. You can use existing screens from the community, or build your own by following [Building Screens in Astra](https://agiloft-public.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/Astra/pages/545194000).

Running screens is easy in Astra, and you can also run screens directly in Microsoft Word with the Astra app.

## Running Screens in Astra

To run a screen in Astra:

1. From the Astra homepage, go to the Documents tab.
2. Click Upload. If you already have a document uploaded, skip to step 5.
3. When adding a document, you can use any of these methods:
  - Upload a file.
  - Share the URL where the contract is publicly hosted. Make sure there are not multiple contracts hosted at the URL.
  - Paste the text yourself.
4. Add any labels and click Upload. You may have to wait several seconds for the document to upload. When the document is finished uploading, all of the columns populate automatically.
5. Click New Project. Optionally, you can expand the fields listed here to select documents based on metadata, labels, document types, etc. Click Continue.
6. Choose your project type:
  1. Use a Screen: allows you to run a selected screen on all the chosen documents
  2. Start from scratch: allows you to analyze with your own custom AI columns, without having to run a screen
7. Click Next.
8. Choose a screen and click Next.
9. Review the details and click Run Analysis.
10. Wait for the analysis. The process might take a bit longer if you’re screening lots of documents, if the documents are longer or more complex, or if the screen you’re running has a lot of elements. When the analysis is finished, you can see failed standards and answered questions in the results of your Screen.

### Reviewing Astra Results in the web app

Screen results are shown alongside the document, so you can easily reference the source material as you review the results.

On the Review tab to the right of your document, you can see which standards failed, which passed, and the answers to your questions. 

- Each standard is marked Fail, Pass Preferred (indicating the primary, preferred standard was used), or Pass Fallback (indicating the primary standard failed, and a fallback standard was used).
- Click each entry to get additional details, such as risk level, accuracy, redlining suggestions if applicable, and reviewer guidelines. You can also see if any fallback clauses were triggered under the Pass Fallback section.

On the Scorecard tab, you can see the standards score of the overall contract. A higher score means more standards were passed, indicating a stronger document.

The Info and History tabs show general information about the contract.

The video below shows you how to create a project, select documents, run screens, and view your results.

## Running Screens in Microsoft Word

To run a screen from Word:

1. Open the document you want to review. If you use Astra alongside Agiloft CLM, it’s best to open the document directly from the Attachments table in your KB and check it out for editing.
2. In Microsoft Word, click the Astra icon in the top right corner. If you haven’t installed the app yet, open the Microsoft App Store, search for it, and add it.
3. Log in to the app. If you are [Using Astra with Agiloft CLM](https://agiloft-public.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/HELP/pages/570327053), make sure to log in using your Agiloft KB credentials.
4. Search for or choose a screen from either My Screens or Community.
5. Select a screen and click Run Screen. When the process is complete, your results appear in the Recent tab of the app in Word. If you use Astra alongside Agiloft CLM, the results are also saved to the Screen Result and Screen Run tables in your KB.

### Reviewing Astra App Results in Word 

On the Findings tab, you can see which standards failed, which passed, and the answers to your questions. Click each entry to get additional details, such as risk level, accuracy, redlining suggestions if applicable, and reviewer guidelines.

On the Scorecard tab, you can see the standard score of the overall contract. A higher score means more standards were passed, indicating a stronger document.

You can use the Assistant tab to ask questions about your results, such as "What are the customer obligations? Please provide a bullet point list." This is useful in cases where you want additional info, but building a new screen wouldn’t be necessary

The video below shows you how to run screens and review their results, all in Microsoft Word.

# Creating custom fields

Screen results are shown in a table view, with multiple columns of data. 

To create your own custom AI columns:

1. Navigate to the Projects tab and select a Project.
2. Click the Add Column button.
3. Add a Title for the field. This appears in the column header.
4. In the Data Output Type field, select a format for the data:
  - Free Text
  - Number
  - True/False
  - Date
5. In the Question Text field, enter a prompt detailing what you want to find in your contract data. The more detailed, the better. Optionally, you can provide your AI with more guidance or other information in the AI Guidance field.
6. When you’re done, click Add Column. If you already had documents in the Projects tab, the system automatically runs the new column against the documents and provides an answer.
7. If you need to edit your custom column later, click the three-dot menu next to the column title and then click Edit.

Users with the Admin and Editor role can edit custom field values for any Document, whereas Reviewers can only edit custom fields for Documents where they are the Owner.

The video below shows you how to create custom columns.

## Core data fields

While you can add your own data columns that can be ran manually, the core data fields that are extracted automatically upon upload are not customizable. These fields are:

- Status
- Effective Date
- Expiration Date
- Type
- Currency
- Total Value
- Signed Status

If a core data field determines that an extracted value has a low confidence score, it will display a Low Confidence icon next to the value. Click the icon to see information about the source language, as well as AI Reasoning for the low score.

![image-20260731-080815.png](media://17c492a1-92c1-4b39-a175-8bc3cbb5c910)