NetDocuments Legal Context Graph: Three-Tier Architecture Built on SALI, FOLIO, AWS, and Elastic

NetDocuments' legal context graph — in private preview since May 14, with broader rollout planned in coming months — maps relationships among every matter, document, communication, and person across a firm's repository while preserving existing permissions and ethical walls. The architecture has three tiers: document level (classification, extracted entities, version history); matter level (relationships among documents within a matter); and global level (firm-wide expertise, experience, and practice patterns). When a lawyer opens a matter, they see a context view containing a summary, key parties, activity timeline, firm precedent, and the location of expertise for prior similar work. AI agents inside NetDocuments or connected through MCP — including Claude, ChatGPT, and tools through ndConnect — draw on this permission-governed context rather than single-session uploads. The infrastructure was built with AWS and Elastic at law-firm scale and uses SALI and FOLIO legal ontology standards. NetDocuments' argument is that MCP standardises how AI tools connect, but not what they receive after connection — the context graph is the differentiator: a governed, permission-aware map of documents, matters, parties, history, and precedent that travels to AI tools without copying documents out of the system of record.