Open Legal Compliance MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides legal compliance analysis using free/open government APIs. This server enables AI assistants to search and analyze legal documents from multiple jurisdictions including US federal law, state law, case law, EU regulations, and more.

📖 Quick Links:

• Installation Guide - Get started in 3 steps

• MCP Setup Guide - Configure with Cursor IDE or Claude Desktop

• API Key Setup - Get your free API keys

• Available Tools - See what this server can do

Features

• US Federal Law: Search United States Code (USC) and Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) via GovInfo API

• US Case Law: Search federal and state court decisions via CourtListener API

• EU Regulations: Search EU regulations (GDPR, AI Act, etc.) via EUR-Lex scraping

• State Law: Scrape state codes for CA, NY, and IL

• Congress Bills: Search US Congress bills and legislation via Congress.gov API

• Federal Register: Search daily federal government publications

• SEC Filings: Access corporate financial filings via SEC EDGAR

• Open States: Search legislation across all 50 US states

• UK Legislation: Search United Kingdom Acts and Statutory Instruments

• Canadian Law: Search Canadian case law via CanLII

• FDA Data: Search drug/device adverse events and food enforcement reports

• Data.gov: Discover US government open datasets

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v16 or higher) - Download here

• npm (comes with Node.js)

• API Keys (see detailed setup instructions below)

Installation

Step 1: Clone the Repository

Step 2: Install Dependencies

This will install all required packages including:

• @modelcontextprotocol/sdk - MCP SDK

• axios - HTTP client

• cheerio - HTML parsing

• playwright - Web scraping

• pdf-parse - PDF parsing

• And other dependencies

Step 3: Build the Project

This compiles TypeScript to JavaScript in the dist/ directory.

API Key Setup

The following API keys are required or optional depending on which features you want to use:

Required API Keys

1. GovInfo API Key (REQUIRED)

Why: Required for US Code and CFR searches. The server will not start without this key.

Steps to obtain:

1. Visit https://api.govinfo.gov/

2. Click "Sign Up" or "Get API Key"

3. Fill out the registration form (free registration)

4. Verify your email address

5. Log in and navigate to your API key dashboard

6. Copy your API key

Registration Link: https://api.govinfo.gov/

Optional API Keys

2. CourtListener API Key (Optional)

Why: Enables US case law searches. Without this key, case law features will be unavailable.

Steps to obtain:

1. Visit https://www.courtlistener.com/api/

2. Click "Register for an API Key" or "Sign Up"

3. Create a free account (Free Law Project)

4. After registration, go to your account settings

5. Navigate to "API" section

6. Generate or copy your API token

Registration Link: https://www.courtlistener.com/api/

3. Congress.gov API Key (Optional)

Why: Enables searching US Congress bills and legislation.

Steps to obtain:

1. Visit https://api.congress.gov/

2. Click "Get API Key" or "Sign Up"

3. Fill out the registration form

4. Verify your email

5. Log in and access your API key from the dashboard

Registration Link: https://api.congress.gov/

4. Open States API Key (Optional)

Why: Enables searching legislation across all 50 US states.

Steps to obtain:

1. Visit https://openstates.org/

2. Click "Get API Key" or navigate to API documentation

3. Sign up for a free account

4. Access your API key from your account dashboard

Registration Link: https://openstates.org/

5. CanLII API Key (Optional)

Why: Enables searching Canadian case law.

Steps to obtain:

1. Visit https://www.canlii.org/en/api/

2. Review the API documentation

3. Register for API access (if required)

4. Obtain your API key from your account

Registration Link: https://www.canlii.org/en/api/

Note: Some services like EUR-Lex, SEC EDGAR, and UK Legislation do not require API keys and work without registration.

Configuration

Option 1: Environment Variables (Recommended)

Create a .env file in the project root directory:

Add your API keys to the .env file:

Important: The .env file is already in .gitignore and will not be committed to version control.

Option 2: MCP Client Configuration (Cursor IDE / Claude Desktop)

If you're using this as an MCP server with a client like Cursor IDE or Claude Desktop, you need to configure your MCP client to point to this server.

📖 See the complete MCP setup guide: MCP_SETUP.md

Quick Start for Cursor IDE:

1. Find your absolute path:

   cd /path/to/open-legal-compliance-mcp pwd

2. Edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json and add:

   { "mcpServers": { "open-legal-compliance-mcp": { "command": "node", "args": [ "/absolute/path/from/step1/dist/index.js" ], "env": { "GOVINFO_API_KEY": "your_actual_key_here", "COURTLISTENER_API_KEY": "your_actual_key_here", "CONGRESS_GOV_API_KEY": "your_actual_key_here", "OPEN_STATES_API_KEY": "your_actual_key_here", "CANLII_API_KEY": "your_actual_key_here" } } } }

3. Restart Cursor IDE

For Claude Desktop and detailed troubleshooting, see MCP_SETUP.md.

Running the Server

Development Mode

For development with auto-rebuild on file changes:

Production Mode

1. Build the project (if not already built):

   npm run build

2. Start the server:

   npm start

The server will start and listen for MCP protocol messages via stdio.

Usage

As an MCP Server

This server is designed to work with MCP-compatible clients such as:

• Claude Desktop

• Cursor IDE

• Other MCP-compatible applications

Configure your MCP client to use this server by pointing to the compiled dist/index.js file and providing the necessary environment variables or configuration.

Available Tools

Once connected, the following tools are available:

Federal Law

• search_us_code: Search US Code by query and optional title

• search_cfr: Search Code of Federal Regulations

• search_federal_register: Search Federal Register documents

• search_congress_bills: Search US Congress bills

Case Law

• search_case_law: Search US case law via CourtListener

• search_canlii_cases: Search Canadian case law via CanLII

State Law

• search_state_law: Scrape specific state codes (CA, NY, IL)

• search_open_states: Search legislation across all 50 states

International Law

• search_eu_regulations: Search EU regulations (EUR-Lex)

• search_uk_legislation: Search UK legislation

Regulatory & Corporate

• get_sec_filings: Get SEC filings for a company

• search_fda_events: Search FDA adverse events and enforcement reports

• search_data_gov: Search Data.gov catalog

Project Structure

Troubleshooting

Server won't start

• Error: "GOVINFO_API_KEY environment variable is required"

  • Solution: Ensure you've set GOVINFO_API_KEY in your .env file or MCP config

API requests failing

• Check: Verify your API keys are correct and not expired

• Check: Some APIs have rate limits - wait a moment and try again

• Check: Ensure you have internet connectivity

Build errors

• Error: TypeScript compilation errors

  • Solution: Run npm install to ensure all dependencies are installed

  • Solution: Check that you're using Node.js v16 or higher

MCP client connection issues

• Check: Verify the path to dist/index.js in your MCP config is correct

• Check: Ensure the project has been built (npm run build)

• Check: Verify all required environment variables are set in your MCP config

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Author

TCoder920

Support

For issues, questions, or contributions, please open an issue on the GitHub repository.