ChatGPT or Claude got your French paperwork wrong? Here is why, and how to get the right answer
Wrong notice period, outdated amount, a rule from the wrong situation: why ChatGPT and Claude make mistakes on French administrative procedures, and how to make them answer from the official Service-Public.fr sheets.
Add French Administrative Procedures to your AI assistant
You asked ChatGPT or Claude how much notice to give on your flat, or when to renew your titre de séjour, and the answer turned out to be wrong. You are not alone, and it is not random. French administrative rules are precise, they depend on your situation, and they change. A model answering from memory fails on exactly those three points. Here is what goes wrong, and how to get answers you can rely on.
The four usual mistakes
- Mixing situations. The furnished flat rule is given for an unfurnished one, or the general case is given to an Algerian national who falls under a bilateral agreement. The official sheet separates these cases; the model blends them.
- Old figures. Amounts, ceilings and fees are revised. A model trained a year ago repeats last year's figure with full confidence.
- Invented precision. When the model does not know a delay, it produces a plausible one: 15 working days instead of 15 calendar days, 2 months instead of 1.
- Answers about the wrong country. Asked in English, the model may slip into UK or US habits (a "security deposit" of several months, "at-will" employment) that do not exist in French law.
Why a better prompt does not fix it
Telling the model to "be precise" or "only use official sources" does not give it the official source. It can only be as accurate as what it has read. The reliable fix is retrieval: let the assistant look up the current official sheet before it answers, and require it to cite that sheet. That is what the KBrain French Administrative Procedures brain does over MCP.
What changes with the official sheets connected
| Model alone | With the French Administrative Procedures brain | |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Training data, unknown date | The current Service-Public.fr sheet, refreshed weekly |
| Your situation | Often blended | Each passage carries its situation; the assistant asks when it matters |
| Amounts and delays | From memory | Quoted from the passage, never invented |
| Proof | None | Link to the sheet and the date of its last change |
| Personal file, local office | May guess | Says the sheets cannot answer and gives the office to contact |
Measured, not claimed: on 144 questions from an independent public test set (fr-admin-assistant, 163 questions in French, English, Arabic, SMS French and with typos), the right official sheet was in the brain's top 5 results for 91% of questions when the assistant wrote the search itself. The full method and its limits are published.
How to get the right answer today
- Add the free French Administrative Procedures brain on KBrain and connect it to Claude or ChatGPT.
- Ask your question with your situation: furnished or unfurnished, student or employee, your nationality if it is relevant.
- Check the link the assistant gives you. It goes to the exact service-public.gouv.fr page and shows its date.
The brain indexes the full "vosdroits" export of Service-Public.fr, published by DILA (Direction de l'information légale et administrative) under the Licence Ouverte 2.0: about 3,000 official sheets for individuals, split into some 49,000 passages that keep their situation and heading. KBrain refreshes it every week. Answers are general information from the official sheets, not legal advice.
Add French Administrative Procedures to your AI assistant
A free, curated KBrain built from the official Service-Public.fr sheets. Ask from Claude, ChatGPT, or any MCP compatible assistant and get answers for your situation, with a link to the official page and its date.
Questions people ask.
Why did ChatGPT give me the wrong notice period for my flat?
Usually because it used the rule for another type of lease, or an old rule. The notice period differs between furnished and unfurnished flats, with exceptions. With the official sheets connected, the assistant gives the rule for your lease and links to it.
Is Claude more accurate than ChatGPT on French administration?
Both answer from training data unless they are given a source, so both can be wrong or out of date. The difference comes from what you connect: with the same official sheets, both answer from the same source.
Can I just ask the model to check service-public.fr?
Web search helps, but it returns pages, not the passage for your situation, and may surface forums or outdated articles. The brain searches only the official sheets and returns the passage with its situation and date.
Is it free?
Yes. The French Administrative Procedures brain is a free curated brain on KBrain. You need a KBrain account and an assistant that supports MCP, such as Claude or ChatGPT.