Create Your First Matter

Before You Start#

You need a running stack, a signed-in workspace user, and at least one active legal workflow definition. You can create a workflow through the UI or import a sample from examples/workflows/. For local development, confirm the API is healthy before creating the matter:

curl -fsS http://localhost:5678/health

Create the matter in the UI#

1. In a local development stack, open http://localhost:3456/matters.
2. Choose Legal Intake / add-matter.
3. Select a practice area, matter type, and legal workflow definition.
4. Enter the matter title, client/participant details, jurisdiction if known, confidentiality if required, and any dynamic schema fields required by the selected workflow.
5. Attach supporting legal documents or evidence if the workflow expects them.
6. Create the matter.

Matters are stored in PostgreSQL through the matters table and are scoped to the authenticated workspace. The backend can auto-generate reference_id, store custom_data, link documents, and launch workflow execution when the matter execution mode is auto.

Matruno is not an autonomous lawyer. Creating a matter and starting a workflow does not file anything with a court or replace attorney review.

Start or Inspect Workflow Execution#

The backend exposes both of these equivalent start routes:

POST /api/v1/matters/{matter_id}/processes/start
POST /api/v1/matters/{matter_id}/workflow/start

The workflow engine validates the matter, validates the active workflow definition, creates MatterWorkflow and MatterTask records, and sets task status from dependencies. Task approval can advance dependent work through:

POST /api/v1/tasks/{task_id}/approve

Human legal-review tasks use:

POST /api/v1/matters/{matter_reference_id}/tasks/{task_id}/submit-feedback

Review the Matter Workspace#

After creation, the matter detail view brings together the durable legal work surface: overview data, documents and evidence, notes, participants, tasks, legal review tasks, timeline, workflow progress, agent logs, and execution records where data exists.