Eternal Pro uses Claude in two separate places. It helps to understand the difference before you change anything, because they are configured independently and one can be on while the other is off.
| Claude integration | Claude MCP Connector | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Generates intake summaries and draft documents inside Eternal Pro. | Lets you configure Eternal Pro by talking to Claude in the Claude app. |
| Who pays for the AI | Your Anthropic API key, or the shared Eternal API key. | Your own Claude subscription. No API key needed. |
| Where to set it up | Integrations → Claude (this article). | Integrations → Claude, bottom of the page (see the connector article). |
Everything below covers the first one: the AI features that run inside Eternal Pro.
It works out of the box
New accounts are already pointed at the Eternal API key, so intake summaries and document generation work with no setup. That key is shared across all firms and is rate limited, so it is best treated as a way to try the features rather than a way to run on them day to day.
Recommended: add your own Anthropic key
We recommend adding your own key. You get your own capacity, your own usage visibility, and your requests are never queued behind another firm's.
- Create an API key at console.anthropic.com and add some credit to the account.
- In Eternal Pro, go to Integrations → Claude.
- Click the API Key tile and paste your key in.
- Click Save settings.
The tile switches from Eternal API to show that your own key is in use. Your key is stored encrypted and is never readable back out — not through the interface, not through the API, and not by Claude itself. If you need to change it, paste a new one over the top.
Status and the four tiles
At the top of the page, Status tells you whether the AI features are switched on. Use Enable Claude integration / Disable Claude integration to toggle it. With it disabled, no summaries or drafts are generated and no requests leave your account.
Below that are four tiles:
- API Key — the shared Eternal key, or your own.
- Model — which Claude model handles your requests. The default is a good balance of quality and cost; a larger model produces more polished long documents at a higher price per request.
- Summary — the token budget for intake summaries. The default (2,500) comfortably fits a full summary. Raise it only if summaries are being cut off.
- Document — the token budget for generated documents. The default is 8,000. Long trust documents may need more; raise it in steps rather than jumping to the maximum, since the budget affects cost.
Click Save settings after any change.
Example Documents
This is the single highest-value thing on the page. Upload one of your own documents for a type — Will, Trust, Power of Attorney — and Claude follows your structure, headings, clause ordering and legal language when it generates that type, instead of the built-in template.
- Drop a .docx into the type's card, or click to browse. Maximum 5MB.
- A green dot on the card means an example is in place. A grey dot means the built-in template will be used.
- Replace swaps the example; Remove deletes it and reverts that type to the built-in template.
Upload a clean, finished document that represents how your firm actually drafts — not a marked-up draft. The closer the example is to your house style, the less editing you do afterwards.
Custom document types
You are not limited to the three built-in types. Type a name into New document type name, click Add Type, then upload an example into the new card. Custom types generate purely by following your example, so an example upload is effectively required for them to be useful. Click Save when you are done.
AI Prompts
Three prompts control how Claude writes. Each ships with a built-in default that already produces good output, so change these only when you want a specific house style.
- Intake Summary — Attorney View — the at-a-glance summary your attorneys read before a first meeting.
- Intake Summary — Client View — the warmer, plain-English version the client sees.
- Legal Summary — the attorney-ready summary written for opening a new matter.
Under each box you will see either nothing (the default is running) or Custom value active (your wording is running). To restore a default, clear the box completely and save. There is no separate reset button.
If you edit a prompt, keep the section headings the default prompt asks for. The summaries are rendered from those headings, so removing them changes the layout of the output, not just the tone. Safe edits look like: adding a firm-specific instruction, changing the reading level, asking for shorter paragraphs, or telling Claude which details to lead with.
Click the lower Save button after editing prompts.
A note on what the AI sees
Intake summaries and generated documents are produced from that client's own intake data, which is what makes them useful. This is different from the MCP connector, which is deliberately blind to client data. If your firm has a policy on sending client data to third-party AI providers, that policy applies to this page and not to the connector.
You can turn AI summaries off per audience in Settings — separately for firm admins and for clients — without disabling the integration entirely.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| No summaries appear anywhere | Status is Disabled. Click Enable Claude integration. |
| Summaries stop partway through | The Summary token budget is too low for that client's intake. Raise it and regenerate. |
| Requests fail or are throttled | You are on the shared Eternal API key. Add your own Anthropic key. |
| Failures after adding your own key | The key is invalid, revoked, or the Anthropic account has no credit. Check the Anthropic console and paste a fresh key. |
| Generated documents ignore your format | No example document is uploaded for that type, or the uploaded example is not representative. Upload or replace it. |
| Output tone changed unexpectedly | A custom prompt is active. Clear the box and save to return to the default. |
Next article in this series: Connecting Claude to Eternal Pro (MCP Connector)
Stuck? Open a Support Ticket and tell us which document type or summary is affected and roughly when it last worked.
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