Upgrade Codex Legal AI from 2020 to 2025 Capabilities

[chitcommit]

This commit introduces detailed planning documentation for upgrading ChittyChronicle from basic document management (v1.0) to state-of-the-art legal document intelligence (October 2025 capabilities).

Documentation includes:

1. SOTA_UPGRADE_IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md (45+ pages)

   • Detailed Phase 1 technical specification (Semantic Search)
   • Vector embedding architecture (pgvector + Legal-BERT)
   • Hybrid search implementation (RRF algorithm)
   • RAG Q&A system with Claude Sonnet 4
   • Complete API specifications and code examples
   • Testing, validation, and rollout strategies
   • Cost estimates: $22.5-45.5K dev + $250-500/mo ongoing

2. EXECUTIVE_SUMMARY_SOTA_UPGRADE.md

   • High-level overview for decision-makers
   • Current state vs. future state comparison
   • Business impact analysis (50-70% time savings)
   • ROI projections (3-7 month payback, 78-251% Year 1 ROI)
   • Go/No-Go decision framework
   • Competitive landscape analysis

3. ROADMAP_SOTA_UPGRADE.md

   • 5-phase rollout plan (Nov 2025 - Mar 2027)
   • Phase-by-phase objectives and deliverables
   • Cumulative investment tracking
   • Risk management strategies
   • Success metrics and decision gates
   • Technology stack evolution

4. CLAUDE.md (updated)

   • Added SOTA upgrade initiative section
   • Links to detailed planning documentation
   • Phase 1 highlights and investment summary

Key Features of Phase 1 (8 weeks, Jan 2026 target):

• PostgreSQL + pgvector for vector embeddings (zero infrastructure change)
• Legal-BERT embeddings specialized for legal text
• Hybrid search: 60% semantic + 40% keyword (RRF fusion)
• RAG-powered document Q&A using LangChain + Claude Sonnet 4
• 50-70% improvement in search relevance vs. keyword-only baseline

Current Gaps Identified:

• No semantic understanding (basic SQL LIKE queries only)
• No vector search infrastructure
• 30-50% document misclassification rate
• No relationship modeling beyond UUID arrays
• Missing advanced analytics (timeline extraction, citation validation)

Expected Impact:

• Paralegals: 10 hrs/week time savings ($2,000/month value)
• Attorneys: 6 hrs/week time savings ($4,800/month value)
• Total: $6,800/month value creation from Phase 1 alone

Next Steps:

• Decision gate: November 15, 2025
• Engineering kickoff: November 18, 2025 (if approved)
• Beta launch: January 6, 2026
• Production launch: January 20, 2026

This planning work establishes the foundation for transforming ChittyChronicle into an intelligent legal reasoning platform competitive with vLex, Definely, and other 2025-era legal tech systems.