Hire an AI construction variation cost and approval tracker

Everything it can hand back

Your task sets the actual outputs. The specialist picks the methods that cover them.

• A list of what changed since the last version, with the source and date of each change
• The contract's change, notice, approval and pricing clauses, each with its clause reference
• A recomputed cost table that checks quantities and rates against the priced scope and flags excluded charges and unmatched units
• A comparison of signed scope and proposed change
• A decision brief with cost and time evidence, approval status and open questions
• A record of any approval received, with the accepted scope, authority, amount and date
• A MISSING list, CHECKS MISSED and a short record for the next review

How it does the job well

• Turn every request into owned actions: who, what and by when.
• Work from the real calendar, notes and lists. Never invent meetings, people or dates.
• Put the most important decision or deadline first, then the details.
• Prepare drafts and proposals. Sending, booking and changing records waits for approval.

Mistakes it avoids

• Losing commitments buried in long notes.
• Mixing confirmed facts with guesses about other people's plans.
• Adding process when a short checklist would do.

What a good result looks like

An example, not your task: A subcontractor sends a priced variation, and you need it checked against the contract before anyone replies.

• Changed since last version. Each change to scope, quantity, rate or time, with its source and date.
• Contract rules. The change, notice, approval and pricing clauses, quoted with their clause numbers. It does not interpret them.
• Cost check. Each variation line with quantity, rate and recomputed amount against the priced scope, flagging excluded charges and unmatched units.
• Scope comparison. The signed scope beside the proposed change, so you can see what is new.
• Time evidence. Each time claim with the evidence behind it, or marked unproven.
• Decision brief. The baseline against the proposed change, cost and time evidence, approval status and open questions.

How the work is checked

• Contract rules are quoted with clause numbers and not paraphrased into advice.
• The cost table shows quantity, rate, recomputed amount, priced amount and difference for every line.
• Approvals carry the approver, authority, amount and date, from the approval itself.
• Every fact, figure and date traces to a source or is labelled an assumption.
• States which checks passed, failed or could not run, and names missing inputs.

These checks have not been run against a model yet. Your AI uses them to check its own work.

Capabilities

• Compare with the last review. Reads the saved record if it belongs to this contract and variation, or sets a first baseline. Lists what changed in the request, the price or the approval record. If nothing changed, it says so and stops.
• Find the contract rules. Quotes the change procedure, notice, approval and pricing clauses with their clause numbers. It leaves the meaning of each clause to your professional adviser.
• Recompute the cost. Recomputes the variation quantities and rates against the priced scope. It shows excluded charges and units that do not match.
• Draft the decision brief. Shows the signed scope beside the proposed change, with cost and time evidence, approval status and open questions.
• Record an approval, only if one arrived. Reads the approval and records the accepted scope, who approved, the amount and the date, using the Action item tracker. A submission or a reply that is not an approval stays open.

How the role works

1. Checks your task, context and available tools.
2. Picks the methods needed and prepares a work plan.
3. Carries out supported tasks, with each method's limits and review gates.
4. Checks the real deliverables and corrects supported faults.
5. Hands back files, evidence and unresolved gaps.

Your specialist's working setup

Download the base specialist without a task form or account. README.md and SETUP.md explain how to use the folder. SOUL.md defines its scope. INTAKE.md asks missing questions inside your AI. PLAYBOOK.md, SKILLS.md, BEST_PRACTICES.md, CHECKS.md and HANDOFF.md guide the work and its checked deliverables.

Complete associated skills, supporting files and licences are included. Choose only the methods needed for the actual task. Keep context, working files and accepted feedback in your AI project.

Use this specialist through MCP or the API

Call prepare_specialist with role_id construction-variation-review-assistant only. No task is required to load it. Your AI asks what job you need done, what you want back and which relevant context it can use.

For task-led hiring, call find_specialist, explain the suggested specialists and let the user accept or change the team.

Complete ZIP: Download base specialist. API: GET /api/v1/specialists/construction-variation-review-assistant/pack. The host AI supplies its own model, tools and execution; a pack does not connect accounts or run a task.

Inputs and helpful context

The specialist starts from the task brief. Only active methods require their inputs.

For the primary method, when used

• The variation request, with its version and date
• The signed contract, with its change, notice and approval clauses
• The priced scope, such as the bill of quantities or rate schedule, as a PDF or spreadsheet (the cost check needs the priced lines)
• Evidence for any time impact, such as a program or delay notice
• Your delegated approval rules, showing who may approve what amount
• The contract form and the country or state it applies in
• Your last review and any approval received (optional)

Helpful context (optional)

• The signed contract and the priced scope, not drafts.
• The variation's own price breakdown with units.
• A named person who has authority to approve and will check the result.

Tools and access

• A capable chat AI with file support: Reads the contract, the prices and the emails together, and can save the record file. In plain chat it returns the same tables as text.
• A chat AI that reads files: It reads the contract, the request and the price list together. Claude takes the longest contracts.

Functions and deliverables

• Construction variation cost and approval tracker: Check a construction variation request against the signed contract and its prices. Get a cost and time check and a brief. Nothing is approved for you.
  • A list of what changed since the last version, with the source and date of each change
  • The contract's change, notice, approval and pricing clauses, each with its clause reference
  • A recomputed cost table that checks quantities and rates against the priced scope and flags excluded charges and unmatched units
  • A comparison of signed scope and proposed change
  • A decision brief with cost and time evidence, approval status and open questions
  • A record of any approval received, with the accepted scope, authority, amount and date
  • A MISSING list, CHECKS MISSED and a short record for the next review
• Construction change decision brief writer: Share the change request, contract, prices and timing evidence. Get a scope comparison, cost check and brief for the authorized decision-maker.
  • A clause map: where the contract covers changes, notice, approval and pricing, with clause numbers
  • A cost check: each quantity and rate recomputed, with excluded charges and unmatched units listed
  • A decision brief that puts signed scope beside the proposed change
  • Each cost and time claim marked proven or unproven, with its source
  • Gaps, open questions and one next step
• Action item tracker: Share meeting notes or email threads. Get action items with owners, deadlines and unresolved commitments.
  • action-register.csv: id, task, owner, due_at, timezone, status, depends_on, source_id
  • clarifications.md
  • proposed-task-changes.md
• Rules and approvals checker: Check a new feature or plan for rules that may apply, approvals needed and risk areas before launch. A first-pass compliance check, not legal advice.
  • A proceed or review verdict
  • Rules and policies that may apply
  • Risks rated with fixes
  • A list of approvals needed
  Source: Anthropic.
• me.md builder: Answer a few questions, or let your AI use what it remembers. Get one private file that tells any AI who you are.
  • One me.md file with up to ten dated sections
  • A list of facts taken from memory, for you to check
  • A short note of what it removed for privacy
  • The two next steps, to save it and set it up

Tasks you can use it for

• A subcontractor sends a priced variation, and you need it checked against the contract before anyone replies.
• The variation was revised and repriced, and you need to see what moved since the last version.
• An approval email arrives, and you need to record what it really covers.
• You must show an owner or lender why a variation is held, with the evidence behind each figure.

Limits to check before starting

• There is no signed contract or priced scope yet. Take it to the commercial team first, because this review has nothing to compare against.
• The work is a client service engagement and not construction. Use the Client scope change and decision tracker.
• You are checking a delay or time claim only. Use the Project delay test reviewer.
• You want a risk review of the contract wording for a lawyer. Use the Contract clause risk reviewer.
• You want the AI to approve, price or instruct the work. It drafts, and a person with authority decides.

Best way to use this role

Give it one clear outcome, the actual files and a definition of done. Keep the work in one AI project so it can reuse checked context and earlier files.

• Download the agent pack and add it to Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini. Add these five pieces from the pack: Construction change decision brief writer, Contract plain-language summary writer, Invoice totals checker, Stakeholder update writer and Action item tracker. If the decision brief writer or one of its three steps is missing, it stops and asks for it. If only the Action item tracker is missing, it finishes the review and lists any approval as open.
• The agent can only call its pieces once they are installed. With no file access it prints the tables and the record in the chat, and the comparison with the last review then needs you to paste that record.
• It works on any contract text you supply. It has not been tested against a particular standard form or place, and it quotes clauses only from your own contract.
• Say if this is a first run. If not, paste your last review and its record.
• Attach the variation request, the signed contract and the priced scope. Write your approval rules in two or three lines.
• Read "Changed since last version" first. Check each change against the new request.
• Check one line of the cost table against the priced scope by hand. Then read the brief and its open questions.
• When an approval arrives, paste it and run it again. The agent approves and sends nothing.
• Have a qualified quantity surveyor and your contract adviser check the cost table and clauses before anyone approves or pays. The check is arithmetic on your figures, not advice.

Read it as data

Read the complete role setup as JSON. Connect your AI to the AI Blocks MCP library and read aiblocks://roles/construction-variation-review-assistant for its role instructions and pinned sources.

This is a prepared AI role. No task has run. Your AI carries out authorized work using its available tools and reports the actual deliverables and checks.