> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.aperium.apps.hillspire.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Contracts that need a nudge

> Malbek: surface recently changed contracts, flag the unfinished ones, and see who's holding each one up.

Contracts stall partway through all the time — stuck in drafting, sitting with legal, waiting on a signature — and nothing pushes them forward on its own. Someone has to remember to go check, and finding which ones are actually stuck today usually means opening records one at a time. The question is simple; the chasing is manual.

This walkthrough uses Aperium's live connection to **Malbek**, our contract lifecycle system, to answer it in a few plain-English asks: find what changed recently, flag what isn't finished, and name who's holding each one up. A generic chatbot can't do any of this — it has never seen Malbek, so there is nothing for it to check, filter, or flag. For the why behind that, see [Connected AI vs. a generic chatbot](/using/connected-ai).

<Info>
  As Aperium works, look for a step that shows it searching Malbek — a tool or action indicator, distinct from the text of its answer. That's the "do" half of talk-and-do. The exact visual cue depends on your Aperium build; if you're not sure what it looks like, ask Aperium what it just did.
</Info>

## The walkthrough

<Steps>
  <Step title="Ask for recently changed contracts">
    Type the request the way you'd ask a colleague to check for you — no field names, no filters spelled out:

    > Show me contracts created or updated in the last day.

    Aperium searches Malbek, filters to contracts touched in that window, and returns the list newest-first.

    <Tip>
      Keep the window narrow — "the last day," a specific team, a single queue. Malbek filters this kind of request over a full fetch of the matching contracts, so a wide ask ("all contracts ever") is slow. A tight, recent scope returns a handful of records quickly.
    </Tip>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Read the status and stage that come back">
    The results aren't just names and dates. Each contract comes back with its **status** and its workflow **stage** — the raw material the next question needs. Skim two or three and note where they sit.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Flag the ones that aren't finished">
    Stay in the same conversation and narrow it down:

    > Flag the ones that aren't finished yet.

    Aperium drops the contracts that are already done (Executed, Terminated, Rejected) and keeps the ones still in flight — Draft, Legal Review, pending Signature, and the like. This turns a scan-every-record chore into one sentence.

    <Note>
      Malbek's exact status and stage names vary by how our tenant is configured. Aperium uses the real vocabulary in the system, not a fixed list — so "unfinished" means whatever your tenant actually calls its in-flight stages.
    </Note>
  </Step>

  <Step title="See who's holding each one up">
    One more follow-up turns the flagged list into an actual chase list:

    > For the unfinished ones, who's the requester and what stage are they stuck at?

    Now each line has a name and a stage — enough to act on, without opening a single record.
  </Step>

  <Step title="(Optional) Draft a reminder — then review it before sending">
    If you want to follow through, ask Aperium to draft the nudge:

    > Draft a reminder to the requester on \[contract].

    This is a **write**, so treat it like one. Aperium proposes the text; **nothing sends until you read it and send it yourself** — exactly like reviewing an email a colleague drafted for you.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Before you act on the result

<Warning>
  A status list is a starting point for a chase, not proof of where a contract stands this second. Do a quick sanity check before you escalate anything — it costs little and saves you from acting on stale data.
</Warning>

* **It acts as you.** Every contract Aperium can see, and every draft it can write, is bounded by your own Malbek permissions — exactly like logging into Malbek yourself. A "couldn't find it" may be an access boundary, not a failure.
* **It's a starting point, not a legal judgment.** Flagging a contract as stuck, or drafting a reminder, doesn't replace legal review or a human decision about what to do next.

For the habits that apply across every connector, see [Responsible use](/using/responsible-use).

## Try it yourself

Bring your own recurring "which of these are still stuck" moment — it doesn't have to be contracts — and ask Aperium the same way: find what changed, narrow to what's unfinished, name the blocker.