NDAs, MSAs, SOWs, offer letters, leases, refund policies, ToS — market-standard templates you can customize and run through Main AI for instant analysis against best-practice.
Twelve market-standard contract templates, written to mirror what attorneys typically draft for small-to-mid-sized businesses and individuals. Every template here has been built from common-clause patterns rather than from any single firm's house style, so the language is broadly enforceable across U.S. jurisdictions with minor state-specific tweaks. Each template uses bracketed [PLACEHOLDER] fields you fill in directly in Main AI before analyzing or signing.
Templates aren't a substitute for legal counsel on anything high-stakes — but for everyday agreements (vendor NDA, freelance contractor, simple residential lease, refund policy, basic SaaS terms of service), a well-drafted template signed by both parties is genuinely better than the alternatives most people default to: a Google-search-result PDF of unknown provenance, a verbal handshake, or no agreement at all. The market-standard versions below get the major clauses right and leave clear places where your specifics need to go.
Every template can also be run through Main AI's contract analysis — paste your filled version into the analyzer and you'll get a clause-by-clause review against best practice, with specific suggestions for the gaps in our template that you should fill differently than the default.
USE CASE · Business partnerships, M&A discussions, vendor evaluations
A mutual non-disclosure agreement (sometimes called a bilateral NDA) is the right choice when two parties are exploring a business relationship and both expect to share confidential information. This is the most commonly-used NDA format and is what you should reach for by default in B2B exploratory conversations, partnership discussions, and most M&A diligence.
Key clauses included:
Common mistake: Signing a mutual NDA when only one party is actually sharing sensitive information — you've given them confidentiality protection you didn't need to. If only your counterparty is the discloser, use a one-way NDA below to keep the obligation asymmetric.
USE CASE · Vendor evaluation, investor pitches, contractor onboarding
A unilateral or "one-way" NDA imposes confidentiality obligations on a single party — the recipient of confidential information. Use this when only YOU are the discloser: showing your product roadmap to a prospective vendor, sharing investor materials with prospects, or onboarding a contractor who'll see internal data. The receiving party agrees to keep your information confidential; you have no reciprocal obligation.
One-way NDAs are typically faster to negotiate than mutual NDAs because there's less back-and-forth on the disclosing party's information definition. They're also easier for the recipient to sign — the obligations are narrower. Use this format when you're the only one with secrets to protect; counterparties will often sign it without much friction.
USE CASE · Employee onboarding, access to sensitive company information
An employee confidentiality agreement (sometimes part of a broader proprietary information and inventions agreement) binds employees to confidentiality during and after employment. This is distinct from a general NDA in two ways: it typically includes an invention assignment clause (anything you build using company resources belongs to the company) and the survival period after termination is usually longer or perpetual for trade secrets.
Important state-specific note: California, Washington, and Minnesota each have laws that restrict the scope of invention-assignment clauses (specifically: inventions made entirely on the employee's own time, without company resources, are typically excluded). Our template includes the standard carve-outs but you should verify with state-specific counsel for high-stakes hires.
USE CASE · Supplier agreements, SaaS vendor onboarding, outsourcing
A vendor NDA is a one-way agreement focused on the specific case of bringing on a third-party service provider. It typically includes data-handling clauses your operations team cares about — security expectations, data breach notification timelines, subprocessor restrictions, and audit rights — that a generic NDA doesn't cover.
Use this when onboarding any vendor that will touch customer data, employee data, financial information, or product roadmaps. The template can stand alone or get attached as an exhibit to a Master Services Agreement.
USE CASE · Interns, short-term contractors, consultants, freelancers
A short-form NDA designed for people who'll be working with your team for weeks or months rather than years. The clauses are tighter than a vendor NDA (no audit rights, no breach notification SLAs) because the scope is smaller. Includes a basic IP assignment provision for work product created during the engagement.
Sign one of these before sharing any internal documents, code repositories, customer lists, or financial information with a contractor or intern. The friction is low — most professional contractors expect to sign one and the template is short enough that no negotiation is typically needed.
USE CASE · SaaS, consulting, agency engagements, ongoing service relationships
A Master Services Agreement is the top-level contract governing an ongoing service relationship. It establishes the rules of engagement (payment terms, IP ownership, warranties, limitations of liability, indemnification, termination rights, dispute resolution) once, so individual projects under it only need a short Statement of Work covering the specific scope, deliverables, and timeline.
Key clauses included:
Common mistake: Treating the MSA as the project contract. The MSA governs the relationship; the SOW (below) governs the project. Mixing them creates messy negotiations when you want to add a new project under the same relationship.
USE CASE · Project-based work under an MSA, consulting engagements, fixed-fee deliverables
A Statement of Work is the short, project-specific companion to an MSA. It nails down the scope, deliverables, timeline, fees, and acceptance criteria for a single project. Because the MSA already handles the big legal terms, the SOW can be 1-2 pages and signed quickly each time a new project starts.
Our template includes the four sections every SOW needs: (1) Scope & deliverables, (2) Timeline & milestones, (3) Fees & payment schedule, (4) Acceptance criteria. Skipping #4 is the most common source of project disputes — without explicit acceptance criteria, you and your client may disagree on whether the work is "done."
USE CASE · Long-term contractors, freelance arrangements, fractional roles
An independent contractor agreement establishes that the worker is a 1099 contractor, not a W-2 employee. This is critical for tax purposes and for avoiding misclassification claims under U.S. labor law (FLSA, ABC test in California and other states).
Key risk: Misclassifying a worker as a contractor when they're functionally an employee can result in back-tax liability, unpaid wages, and benefits owed. Our template emphasizes the contractor-defining factors (their tools, their schedule, their other clients, project-based deliverables) but contractor status depends on actual working conditions, not just contract language. If the worker behaves like an employee, the contract won't save you.
USE CASE · Full-time hires, executive offers, formalizing verbal job offers
An offer letter formalizes a job offer in writing and is the most common contract format for U.S. employment (full employment contracts are uncommon in at-will-employment states except for executives). Our template covers the essentials: position, start date, base compensation, equity if applicable, benefits summary, at-will employment disclaimer, and contingencies (background check, reference check, work authorization).
If you're being offered a job: run the offer letter through Main AI's analyzer before signing. The analyzer flags common employer-favorable provisions you might not notice — broad invention assignment, generous non-compete, unlimited modification clauses — and lets you understand what you're agreeing to before you sign.
USE CASE · Single-family rentals, apartments, ADUs — informal landlords
A residential lease for the common case of a single-family home, apartment, or accessory dwelling unit rented from an individual landlord (rather than a property management company). Covers: term, rent, security deposit, utilities, pets, maintenance, entry rights, and termination.
State-specific note: Residential leases are heavily regulated and vary significantly by state. New York, California, Washington, Oregon, and Massachusetts each have tenant-protection statutes that override certain lease provisions even if you sign them. Our template uses provisions that hold up in most jurisdictions but you should review state-specific rules for security deposit caps, notice periods, and habitability obligations.
USE CASE · SaaS, digital products, online stores, courses
A clear refund policy reduces chargebacks, support load, and customer disputes. Our template covers the four common patterns: time-bounded refunds (e.g., 30-day money-back), prorated refunds for subscriptions, no-refund-but-credit policies, and digital-product no-refund clauses (with the legal carve-outs that make those enforceable).
Display your refund policy prominently before purchase. Burying it in the terms of service is the single most common cause of FTC complaints and Stripe chargebacks. Our template is written to be linked from the checkout page directly.
USE CASE · SaaS websites, web apps, mobile apps with online accounts
Terms of service for a SaaS product covers: the contract between you and your users, acceptable use, account responsibilities, payment terms (for paid tiers), service-level expectations, intellectual property (yours and theirs), warranty disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, account termination, and dispute resolution.
Our SaaS ToS template uses the modern conventions that hold up in U.S. courts: clear assent at signup (clickwrap, not browsewrap), reasonable limitation-of-liability caps, and explicit acceptable-use rules. The template intentionally omits mandatory arbitration — it's enforceable but reduces user trust, and most early-stage SaaS products do better with court-based dispute resolution that signals confidence rather than risk-aversion.
Yes, with proper customization and signatures from both parties. Each template uses provisions that hold up in standard U.S. contract law. State-specific rules can override certain provisions (especially for residential leases and employment), so for high-stakes agreements you should review with local counsel. For routine business agreements, NDAs, and standard service contracts, properly-completed templates from a reputable source are widely accepted.
For routine, low-stakes agreements between businesses or individuals — generally not. A template signed by both parties is significantly better than no written agreement, which is what most people use as the alternative. For high-stakes situations (acquisitions, executive employment contracts, real-estate purchases, IP licensing, regulated industries), you should engage qualified legal counsel. The template is the starting point, not the finished product.
Yes — the bracketed [PLACEHOLDER] fields are designed to be customized, and you can also add, remove, or modify clauses as needed for your situation. After customization, run the modified version through Main AI's contract analyzer to verify your changes don't introduce problems and to spot any clauses you might want to renegotiate.
A mutual (bilateral) NDA imposes confidentiality obligations on both parties. A one-way (unilateral) NDA imposes obligations on only one party — the recipient of confidential information. Use a mutual NDA when both parties will share sensitive information (partnerships, joint ventures, M&A diligence). Use a one-way NDA when only one party is the discloser (you're sharing your product roadmap with a vendor, an inventor is pitching to investors, etc.).
Use an MSA when you expect an ongoing relationship — multiple projects, recurring services, or a long-term engagement. The MSA establishes the legal framework once; individual projects under it use short Statements of Work. Use a single project contract when the engagement is genuinely one-off — a single deliverable with no expected follow-on work. If you're unsure, default to MSA + SOW; it's easier to extend a relationship than to renegotiate from scratch.
These templates are written for U.S. jurisdictions and U.S. contract law. They can be adapted for international use but each jurisdiction has its own quirks — UK contracts use different boilerplate, EU agreements need GDPR-specific data clauses, and civil-law countries have different baseline assumptions than common-law countries. For international agreements, start with our template as a structural reference and engage counsel familiar with the relevant jurisdiction.
Open a template, fill in the [PLACEHOLDER] fields, and run it through Main AI's analysis to check it against best-practice before you commit. When you're ready to sign, Main AI's built-in signing portal (included on paid plans) lets you sign and send the finished document and tracks it from there. Electronic signatures are legally binding under the ESIGN Act in the U.S. and equivalent legislation in most jurisdictions.
Browsing and customizing the template library is free — no signup required to look around. The templates are a way to introduce people to Main AI; we make money on the AI analysis side of the product (paid plans for power users). You can run a customized template through our free analyzer (2 documents/month free) to see exactly how Main AI reads it, or upgrade to Pro for unlimited analysis and the built-in signing portal.