Mahender22/legal-mcp

The first comprehensive US legal MCP server for AI assistants.
Connect Claude, GPT, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible AI to 4M+ US court opinions, Clio practice management, and PACER federal filings. Research in seconds, not hours.
## 30-Second Demo
You: Find Supreme Court cases about Fourth Amendment and cell phone location data
LegalMCP: Found 52 results. Top case:
Carpenter v. United States, 585 U.S. 296 (2018)
The Court held that accessing historical cell-site location
information constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment,
requiring a warrant supported by probable cause.
→ 127 cases cite this opinion
→ Full text: courtlistener.com/opinion/4578834
## Why LegalMCP?
| | Traditional Research | AI + LegalMCP |
| Find relevant cases | 45-90 min | Note: Use the full path to legal-mcp inside your virtual environment. Remove the LEGAL_MCP_DEMO line and add your API keys for real data (see SETUP.md).
### Connect to Claude Code
Run this command to add LegalMCP globally (available in every session):
Mac/Linux:
bash
claude mcp add legal-mcp /path/to/legal-mcp-env/bin/legal-mcp
Windows:
bash
claude mcp add legal-mcp C:\path\to\legal-mcp-env\Scripts\legal-mcp.exe
To enable demo mode, add the env flag:
Mac/Linux:
bash
claude mcp add legal-mcp -e LEGAL_MCP_DEMO=true -- /path/to/legal-mcp-env/bin/legal-mcp
Windows:
bash
claude mcp add legal-mcp -e LEGAL_MCP_DEMO=true -- C:\path\to\legal-mcp-env\Scripts\legal-mcp.exe
> Tip: To add it to a specific project only, add -s project flag or create a .mcp.json file in your project root.
### Connect to Cursor / Windsurf
LegalMCP works with any MCP-compatible client. Add the legal-mcp command to your AI tool's MCP server configuration.
## Configuration
Set environment variables for API access. See SETUP.md for step-by-step instructions.
| Variable | Required | Description |
| COURTLISTENER_TOKEN | Optional | Higher rate limits for case law search |
| CLIO_TOKEN | For Clio tools | OAuth token for practice management |
| PACER_USERNAME | For PACER tools | PACER account username |
| PACER_PASSWORD | For PACER tools | PACER account password |
| LEGAL_MCP_DEMO | Optional | Set true for demo mode (no API keys) |
## All 18 Tools
### Case Law
| Tool | What It Does |
| search_case_law | Search 4M+ US court opinions by topic, court, date range |
| get_case_details | Get full opinion text for a specific case |
| get_case_record | Get docket — parties, judges, procedural history |
| find_citing_cases | Find cases that cite a specific opinion |
| find_cited_cases | Find cases that an opinion relies on |
| parse_legal_citations | Parse Bluebook citations from any text |
| list_available_courts | List all 400+ courts and their codes |
| list_reporter_abbreviations | Decode reporter abbreviations (U.S., F.3d, etc.) |
### Practice Management — Clio
| Tool | What It Does |
| search_clients | Search contacts by name, email, phone |
| search_matters | Search matters by number, description, status |
| get_matter_details | Full matter info — client, billing, deadlines |