VA Decision Letter Interpreter
Our Letter Interpreter is built from the VA's own adjudication manual M21-1, 38 CFR Part 4, and patterns we have identified across 800,000+ Board of Veterans' Appeals decisions. Our unique letter interpreter tells the AI exactly what to look for, cross-checks the VA's reasoning against the regulations the letter cites, and flags the procedural mistakes the VA most commonly makes. Citations are pulled live from a current 38 CFR + M21-1 snapshot, every claim is validated before you see it, if there is any AI hallucinated regulations cited we will catch them and also mention them in the footnotes and not silently pass them through. You can feel secure 🔒 that your privacy is protected. Your letter is sent to AI for interpretation and immediately discarded, nothing is stored, saved, or logged. Sensitive info (SSN, date of birth, file numbers, full name, address) is automatically stripped before processing by AI.
Download a refined prompt to use with any AI tool
New to rating decisions? Read the anatomy guide first to learn the difference between the narrative and the codesheet, and which one actually drives your payment.
If you still want a portable copy, download the prompt below and paste it into Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Microsoft Copilot, then paste the section of your VA letter below the prompt. The AI will follow the same structure our hosted Interpreter uses, but its citations come from its training data, not our live corpus, and it will not be able to flag hallucinated regulations.
The full instruction set our Interpreter is built on: M21-1 procedural rules, 38 CFR Part 4 framework, and condition-specific guidance for the 12 most-claimed disabilities.
- Procedural rules: rating reductions, effective dates, Duty to Assist, benefit of the doubt, CUE, TDIU, SMC
- Condition-specific M21-1 rules for PTSD, TBI, diabetes, sleep apnea, hearing loss, tinnitus, hypertension, migraines, arthritis, shoulder, scars, MST
- Error-detection instructions
- No account required
Pasting a VA letter into a raw AI gets you a generic summary. Our prompt was built from M21-1 (the VA's own adjudication manual), 38 CFR Part 4, and patterns we found across 800,000+ Board of Veterans' Appeals decisions. It tells the AI exactly what to look for and what mistakes the VA commonly makes.
Raw ChatGPT (no prompt)
- May hallucinate or invent data
- May lack important framing context
- Summarizes what the letter says
- May miss procedural errors
- Can't spot wrong effective dates
- Doesn't know reduction protections
- Treats the VA's word as final
Our prompt
- Provides AI with context and regulations to cite
- Includes specific common DC codes
- Flags rule violations by citation
- Checks effective dates against 38 CFR §3.400
- Catches missed Duty to Assist & benefit-of-the-doubt
- Knows 5-year and 20-year reduction rules
- Points you to your appeal options
How to use this with a scanned or photographed VA letter
- Easiest: upload the image directly. Claude.ai, ChatGPT, and Google Gemini all read images. Paste the prompt in first, then drag or attach your letter photo or scan. No text extraction needed.
- iPhone / iPad: open the photo in the Photos app, tap the text-recognition icon in the bottom-right corner, tap "Select All," then "Copy."
- Android: open the photo in Google Photos, tap "Lens" at the bottom, tap the text on screen, tap "Select All," then "Copy."
- Mac: open the image in Preview, right-click (or Control-click), choose "Copy Text" from the menu.
- Windows 11: open Snipping Tool, capture the image, click the "Text Actions" button in the toolbar, then "Copy All Text."
Other VA questions not about this letter?
Use our general VA claims prompt. It covers rating criteria, appeals, SMC, TDIU, effective dates, rating protections, and more. Copy it into any free AI tool (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot) and ask your question. Same “explain the regulations, don’t give advice” framing as our letter prompts.