# Matterbase

> Matterbase is infrastructure for the agentic law firm: a shared foundation of live matter context and supported actions for lawyers, AI agents, and custom tools.

Austin Young, Managing Attorney at Current Counsel, built Matterbase around his own solo corporate/M&A practice in Texas after leaving a large firm. It is a self-hosted project developed to support an AI-native legal practice.

## Live matter context

Matterbase maintains live matter context from ongoing work in Austin’s practice, including emails, calls, documents, and lawyer notes. Connected ingestion and enrichment workflows bring new activity into the shared matter foundation, making updated context available to automations, custom tools, and AI agents.

The foundation connects matter identity, correspondence, documents, activity, and recorded actions. Context develops as work happens, reducing the need to repeatedly assemble background information for each task or agent conversation.

“Live” means the context is updated through connected workflows as work arrives and is processed. It does not mean every source updates instantaneously or every communication is automatically captured and correctly assigned. Coverage and timing depend on the source, integration, configuration, and enabled pipeline.

## Shared context and supported actions

Matterbase provides a reusable foundation for practical operations, reliable automations, and agentic workflows that a lawyer can shape around their own practice. Workflows, custom tools, and agents can draw on shared matter context and perform supported actions through configured interfaces, including agent-facing MCP tools.

The current system integrates tools Austin uses and tools he has developed. Its architecture is designed to accommodate a firm’s existing tools, but each integration requires appropriate configuration and permissions.

Lawyers direct work, set permissions, and review results, retaining human legal judgment and responsibility.

## Demonstrated workflows

The website includes working demo videos showing workflows from Austin’s practice, including intake, conflicts and onboarding, routine automation, project management, and agent-assisted work using matter context.

These demonstrations reflect Austin’s configured system. Availability in another firm depends on its integrations, configuration, and deployment readiness.

## In development: changing and conflicting information

Austin is developing a more explicit layer for tracking source-attributed claims, distinguishing proposed changes from reviewed information, flagging inconsistencies, and preserving the history of superseded claims.

This layer is not yet live. Development code or descriptions of this work should not be interpreted as evidence that these capabilities are currently operating in the live system.

The live matter-context foundation and this developing claim-management layer are distinct: ongoing context updates are live today; the richer treatment of conflicting and evolving claims remains in development.

## Current status and possible next steps

Austin is sharing what he is building, connecting with people interested in this work, and learning what other lawyers and firms would find useful.

Potential directions include helping lawyers build their own systems, a small guided teaching and building community, design partnerships, and implementation support. Open-source access or a hosted offering may also be considered. These are possibilities being explored, not available products or promised releases.

There is no committed course or cohort launch, format, pricing, open-source release, or generally available hosted offering. The interest form is a way to share interests and practice needs.

## Hosting, access, and data handling

Matterbase is currently self-hosted and is not offered as a generally available, centrally hosted service for law firms. Deployment in another firm would require configuration and readiness work.

Matterbase is not open source at this time. Licensing and access terms are still being developed; access to a repository or shared materials does not itself grant an open-source license.

Each firm is intended to retain control of its data and authorized providers. Actual data handling depends on deployment, integrations, permissions, and AI services. Third-party services may process information.

## Official information

- [Matterbase](https://www.matterbase.ai/): Overview and the builder’s perspective.
- [Foundation](https://www.matterbase.ai/#foundation): Architecture, connected context, and supported actions.
- [Demonstrations](https://www.matterbase.ai/#examples): Workflows demonstrated in Austin’s practice.
- [Express interest](https://www.matterbase.ai/#interest): Share interests, practice needs, and possible ways to participate.
- [Frequently asked questions](https://www.matterbase.ai/faq/): Answers about Matterbase, hosting, data handling, licensing, and possible next steps.