FAQ

Matterbase is infrastructure for the agentic law firm. It connects matter records, correspondence, documents, and activity into a shared foundation that lawyers, AI agents, and custom tools can work from. Austin Young developed it in his own legal practice to reduce the work of repeatedly assembling context and coordinating disconnected systems.

An agentic law firm uses AI agents to carry out defined work with relevant context and access to supported tools. The lawyer sets priorities, controls permissions, and reviews results. The aim is to change how work moves through the firm while keeping legal judgment and responsibility with the human lawyer.

A firm’s information often lives across email, documents, practice-management software, and individual conversations. The lawyer becomes the integration layer: finding, managing, moving, and maintaining information between tools. Matterbase connects that context so each new workflow can build on the same matter record.

The website demonstrates example workflows developed in Austin’s practice, including intake, conflicts and onboarding, routine automation, project management, and agent-assisted work using matter context. Those demonstrations show the working system in that environment. Availability in another firm depends on its integrations, configuration, and deployment readiness.

The Matterbase architecture is designed to work with the tools a law firm already uses and is comfortable with. The current system supports integrations with the tools Austin uses and the ones he has developed himself. Matterbase provides a shared record and supported actions underneath workflows. Different tools require configuration, but this is an intentional design choice.

Matterbase provides the underlying context and capabilities that agents and purpose-built tools use. It is designed to work with existing practice tools rather than require every part of a firm’s work to move into one interface. A chat interface may use Matterbase, but the foundation extends beyond that interface.

No. The lawyer directs the work, determines what an agent is allowed to do, and reviews work that requires professional judgment. The objective is to improve the systems supporting legal practice and make useful agent collaboration possible.

Not at this time. Matterbase is currently a self-hosted project developed in Austin’s practice. Possible access and support models are being explored. It is not currently being offered as a generally available, centrally hosted service for law firms.

Matterbase is currently meant to be self-hosted. The intended approach is for each firm to retain control of its data and decide which tools and providers it authorizes. Actual data handling depends on the deployment, integrations, permissions, and AI services a firm uses. A firm’s technical setup needs to address those choices; the phrase “firm-owned” does not by itself mean that no third-party service processes information.

Matterbase is not open source at this time. Licensing and access terms are still being developed. Access to a repository or a community library should not be interpreted as an open-source license.

Use the interest form on the homepage to share what would be useful: learning to build your own version, a guided cohort with other lawyers, open-source access, a cloud-hosted instance, a design partnership, or implementation support. These are possibilities being explored, not currently available products or commitments.

No cohort launch, format, or price is being announced. One possibility is a small guided cohort of lawyers learning and building together, with Matterbase as a starting point. Current outreach is focused on understanding interest and practical needs.

A conversation about a specific practice problem and how Matterbase might help address it. Scope, responsibilities, access, and commercial terms would need to be agreed separately.

Get in touch through the homepage. Expressing interest starts a conversation and does not reserve a seat, purchase access, or commit you to a program.