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Amending Frozen Documents

The problem​

A signed, frozen contract needs to change. Payment terms, scope, a contact email — something has to be updated. But the contract is sealed. Breaking the seal means voiding all signatures, re-approving, re-signing, re-freezing. The audit trail has a gap.

Without amendment:​

The old way:

  1. Break the seal (delete freeze: and sign: blocks)
  2. Make the edit
  3. Get new approvals
  4. Re-sign
  5. Re-freeze

Result: original signatures are voided. There's no record of what the document looked like before. Counterparties may dispute whether the change was authorized.

With amendment:​

The amendment: keyword (v2.11) adds a formal change record alongside the sealed content. The original seal stays intact.

// ... original content above ...

sign: Ahmed Al-Rashid | role: CEO | at: 2026-03-22T10:00:00Z | hash: sha256:a1b2c3d4
sign: Maria Santos | role: COO | at: 2026-03-22T14:30:00Z | hash: sha256:e5f6a7b8
freeze: | status: locked | at: 2026-03-22T15:00:00Z | hash: sha256:f9a0b1c2

// Amendments live AFTER freeze:, so they don't break the seal
amendment: Payment terms updated | section: Payment | was: Net 15 | now: Net 30 | ref: Amendment #1 | by: Ahmed Al-Rashid | approved-by: Sarah Chen | at: 2026-09-15

The CLI command​

intenttext amend contract.it \
  --section "Payment" \
  --was "Net 15" \
  --now "Net 30" \
  --ref "Amendment #1" \
  --by "Ahmed Al-Rashid"

Required flags: --now and --ref. The document must have a freeze: block.

Error if not frozen:

Error: AMENDMENT_WITHOUT_FREEZE
Cannot amend a document that has not been frozen.
Use `intenttext seal` first.

What intenttext verify reports​

After an amendment:

intenttext verify contract.it
✓ Original seal valid: sha256:f9a0b1c2 (2026-03-22)
✓ 2 signatures intact
⚡ 1 amendment applied:
  Amendment #1: Payment terms updated (2026-09-15)
    Section: Payment
    Was: Net 15
    Now: Net 30
    By: Ahmed Al-Rashid
    Approved by: Sarah Chen

The original seal is verified first. Amendments are listed separately. A reader can see both the original terms and every change that was made.

Multiple amendments​

Amendments are additive. Each gets its own reference number:

freeze: | status: locked | at: 2026-03-22T15:00:00Z | hash: sha256:f9a0b1c2

amendment: Payment terms updated | section: Payment | was: Net 15 | now: Net 30 | ref: Amendment #1 | by: Ahmed Al-Rashid | approved-by: Sarah Chen | at: 2026-09-15

amendment: Scope extended | section: Scope | now: Includes Phase 2 deliverables | ref: Amendment #2 | by: Ahmed Al-Rashid | approved-by: James Miller | at: 2026-11-01

amendment: Contact updated | section: Parties | was: j.miller@old.co | now: j.miller@globaltech.co | ref: Amendment #3 | by: Maria Santos | at: 2026-12-15

Amendment approval chains​

Each amendment can have its own approved-by: — the approval chain for an amendment is independent of the original document's approval chain.

For high-stakes amendments, add separate approve: blocks before the amendment::

freeze: | status: locked | at: 2026-03-22T15:00:00Z | hash: sha256:f9a0b1c2

approve: Amendment #1 legal review | by: Sarah Chen | role: General Counsel | at: 2026-09-14
amendment: Payment terms updated | section: Payment | was: Net 15 | now: Net 30 | ref: Amendment #1 | by: Ahmed Al-Rashid | approved-by: Sarah Chen | at: 2026-09-15

Querying amendments​

# Find all amended contracts
intenttext query ./contracts --type amendment --format table

# Amendments by a specific person
intenttext query ./contracts --type amendment --by "Ahmed Al-Rashid" --format json

# Natural language
intenttext ask ./contracts "Which contracts have been amended since September?" --format text

The complete lifecycle​

# 1. Write and seal the contract
intenttext seal contract.it --signer "Ahmed Al-Rashid" --role "CEO"

# 2. Time passes... terms need to change

# 3. Amend (seal is preserved)
intenttext amend contract.it \
  --section "Payment" \
  --was "Net 15" \
  --now "Net 30" \
  --ref "Amendment #1" \
  --by "Ahmed Al-Rashid"

# 4. Verify (original seal + amendments)
intenttext verify contract.it

# 5. View history
intenttext history contract.it

Next steps​