Open Legal Compliance MCP Server

# Legal Compliance App: Scope Analysis & Free Expansion Opportunities ## Executive Summary This report analyzes the current scope of the Legal Compliance MCP Server and identifies free expansion opportunities using open government data sources and APIs. --- ## Current Scope ### 1. **US Federal Law Coverage** - **Service**: `GovInfoService` - **Data Source**: GovInfo API (https://api.govinfo.gov/) - **Coverage**: - United States Code (USC) - All 54 titles - Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) - **Features**: - Full-text search across USC and CFR - Title-specific searches - Granule-level text retrieval - Intelligent keyword-based title selection - HTML content extraction with Cheerio - **Limitations**: - Requires free API key registration - Search endpoint has known limitations (USCODE collection indexing issues) - Falls back to keyword-based title matching - Limited to 20 results per query type ### 2. **Case Law Coverage** - **Service**: `CourtListenerService` - **Data Source**: CourtListener V4 API (Free Law Project) - **Coverage**: - Federal and state court decisions - Supreme Court cases - Circuit court opinions - **Features**: - Full-text case search - Court filtering (e.g., "scotus", "ca9", "ny") - Citation extraction - Precedential status tracking - Date-based ordering - **Limitations**: - Requires free API token registration - Rate limits enforced (10 results per query) - V3 API deprecated (must use V4) ### 3. **EU Regulations Coverage** - **Service**: `EURexService` - **Data Source**: EUR-Lex Web Service (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/) - **Coverage**: - GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) - AI Act (Artificial Intelligence Act) - MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) - Other EU regulations - **Features**: - Direct CELEX number lookup - Regulation ID shortcuts ("gdpr", "ai-act", "mica") - HTML scraping with Cheerio - HTML to Markdown conversion (Turndown) - **Limitations**: - No official API (web scraping required) - HTML structure dependency (may break if structure changes) - Limited to 10 results per search - Text extraction limited to 10,000 characters ### 4. **State Law Coverage** - **Service**: `StateScraperService` - **Data Sources**: Direct scraping of state legislature websites - **Coverage**: - **California**: CCPA/CPRA (Civil Code 1798.100-1798.120) - **New York**: Financial regulations - **Illinois**: BIPA (Biometric Information Privacy Act, 740 ILCS 14) - **Features**: - Keyword-based search - Hardcoded CCPA section links for reliability - HTML parsing with Cheerio - **Limitations**: - Only 3 states covered (CA, NY, IL) - California uses JSF (JavaServer Faces) - difficult to scrape - Website structure changes break scrapers - Manual verification warnings when scraping fails - No unified 50-state API exists --- ## Architecture & Technical Stack ### Current Implementation - **Protocol**: Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server - **Transport**: stdio (designed for MCP clients like Cursor IDE) - **Language**: TypeScript (ES2022 modules) - **HTTP Client**: Axios with exponential backoff retry logic - **HTML Parsing**: Cheerio - **HTML to Markdown**: Turndown - **Error Handling**: Graceful degradation with clear warnings ### Service Layer Pattern - Each data source has a dedicated service class - Centralized HTTP client with retry logic (1s, 2s, 4s delays) - Consistent error handling across services - Rate limit respect built-in --- ## Free Expansion Opportunities ### 1. **Additional US Federal Data Sources** #### A. Congress.gov API (Free) - **URL**: https://api.congress.gov/ - **Coverage**: - Bills and resolutions - Congressional records - Committee reports - Member information - **Use Case**: Track pending legislation, monitor regulatory changes - **Implementation**: New service `CongressGovService` - **API Key**: Free registration required - **Endpoints**: - `/bill/{congress}/{billType}/{billNumber}` - `/bill/{congress}/{billType}/{billNumber}/text` - `/bill/{congress}/{billType}/{billNumber}/summaries` #### B. Federal Register API (Free) - **URL**: https://www.federalregister.gov/api/v1/ - **Coverage**: - Proposed and final rules - Presidential documents - Notices - Daily publication tracking - **Use Case**: Monitor regulatory changes, track rulemaking - **Implementation**: New service `FederalRegisterService` - **API Key**: Free (no key required for basic access) - **Endpoints**: - `/documents.json` - Search documents - `/documents/{document_number}.json` - Get full document #### C. PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) - **Note**: Not free, but has free tier for certain queries - **Alternative**: Use CourtListener (already integrated) which aggregates PACER data #### D. SEC EDGAR API (Free) - **URL**: https://www.sec.gov/edgar/sec-api-documentation - **Coverage**: - Corporate filings - Financial disclosures - Regulatory compliance filings - **Use Case**: Corporate compliance monitoring - **Implementation**: New service `SECEdgarService` - **API Key**: Free (no key required) - **Endpoints**: RESTful API for company filings ### 2. **Additional State Law Sources** #### A. Open States API (Free, but requires API key) - **URL**: https://openstates.org/ - **Coverage**: All 50 states + DC - **Features**: - Bills, votes, legislators - Committee information - Bill tracking - **Use Case**: Expand beyond CA/NY/IL to all states - **Implementation**: New service `OpenStatesService` - **API Key**: Free registration required - **Limitation**: Rate limits apply #### B. State Legislature RSS Feeds (Free, no API key) - **Coverage**: Many states provide RSS feeds for new legislation - **Use Case**: Monitor new bills and regulations - **Implementation**: RSS parser service - **Examples**: - California: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/rssFeeds.xhtml - New York: Various RSS feeds available - Texas: https://capitol.texas.gov/RSS.aspx #### C. State Code Direct Scraping (Free, no API key) - **Additional States to Add**: - **Texas**: https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/ - **Florida**: https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes - **Pennsylvania**: https://www.legis.state.pa.us/ - **Massachusetts**: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws - **Implementation**: Extend `StateScraperService` with new methods - **Challenge**: Each state has different website structure ### 3. **International Law Sources** #### A. UK Legislation API (Free) - **URL**: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/api - **Coverage**: UK Acts, Statutory Instruments, EU-derived legislation - **Use Case**: UK compliance for international businesses - **Implementation**: New service `UKLegislationService` - **API Key**: Free (no key required) - **Endpoints**: RESTful API with JSON responses #### B. Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) API (Free) - **URL**: https://www.canlii.org/en/api/ - **Coverage**: Canadian case law, legislation, regulations - **Use Case**: Canadian compliance - **Implementation**: New service `CanLIIService` - **API Key**: Free registration required - **Endpoints**: RESTful API #### C. Australian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) (Free, web scraping) - **URL**: https://www.austlii.edu.au/ - **Coverage**: Australian case law, legislation - **Use Case**: Australian compliance - **Implementation**: New service `AustLIIService` - **Note**: No official API, requires web scraping ### 4. **Regulatory Agency APIs** #### A. FDA API (Free) - **URL**: https://open.fda.gov/ - **Coverage**: Drug approvals, medical devices, food recalls - **Use Case**: Healthcare/pharma compliance - **Implementation**: New service `FDAService` - **API Key**: Free (no key required) #### B. EPA API (Free) - **URL**: https://www.epa.gov/developers/data-data-products - **Coverage**: Environmental regulations, enforcement actions - **Use Case**: Environmental compliance - **Implementation**: New service `EPAService` - **API Key**: Varies by endpoint #### C. OSHA API (Free) - **URL**: https://www.osha.gov/data - **Coverage**: Workplace safety regulations, enforcement data - **Use Case**: Workplace safety compliance - **Implementation**: New service `OSHAService` - **Note**: Limited API, may require web scraping ### 5. **Data.gov Catalog Integration (Free)** - **URL**: https://www.data.gov/ - **Coverage**: Centralized catalog of all US government open data - **Use Case**: Discover new legal/compliance datasets - **Implementation**: Metadata service to discover available datasets - **API Key**: Free (no key required) - **Endpoints**: CKAN API for dataset discovery ### 6. **Enhanced Features (No New APIs Required)** #### A. Legal Citation Parser - **Use Case**: Extract and validate legal citations from text - **Implementation**: Regex-based parser for common citation formats - **Examples**: "15 U.S.C. § 45", "740 ILCS 14", "GDPR Art. 25" #### B. Regulation Change Tracking - **Use Case**: Monitor changes to regulations over time - **Implementation**: - Cache regulation versions - Compare versions using diff algorithms - Track modification dates from GovInfo/EUR-Lex #### C. Compliance Checklist Generator - **Use Case**: Generate compliance checklists based on regulations - **Implementation**: - Parse regulation text - Extract requirements using NLP (simple keyword matching) - Generate structured checklist format #### D. Cross-Reference Mapper - **Use Case**: Map relationships between regulations - **Implementation**: - Extract citation references from regulation text - Build graph of regulation relationships - Visualize connections #### E. Multi-Jurisdiction Search - **Use Case**: Search across all jurisdictions simultaneously - **Implementation**: - Parallel API calls to all services - Aggregate results - Deduplicate and rank --- ## Implementation Priority Recommendations ### High Priority (Easy Wins) 1. **Federal Register API** - Free, no key required, high-value regulatory data 2. **Congress.gov API** - Free, tracks pending legislation 3. **UK Legislation API** - Free, no key required, international coverage 4. **Legal Citation Parser** - No API needed, enhances existing functionality ### Medium Priority (Moderate Effort) 1. **Open States API** - Expands state coverage to all 50 states 2. **SEC EDGAR API** - Corporate compliance use case 3. **State RSS Feed Parser** - Monitor new legislation 4. **Regulation Change Tracking** - Uses existing APIs, adds value ### Low Priority (Higher Effort) 1. **Additional State Scrapers** - Each state requires custom implementation 2. **CanLII/AustLII** - International coverage, may require scraping 3. **FDA/EPA/OSHA APIs** - Industry-specific, lower general demand 4. **Compliance Checklist Generator** - Requires NLP capabilities --- ## Technical Considerations ### Rate Limiting - All free APIs have rate limits - Current retry logic should handle transient failures - Consider implementing request queuing for bulk operations ### Data Caching - Consider caching frequently accessed regulations - Implement TTL-based cache invalidation - Use cache to reduce API calls and improve performance ### Error Handling - Maintain current graceful degradation approach - Add specific error messages for each new service - Continue manual verification warnings for scrapers ### Service Architecture - Follow existing service pattern for new services - Use centralized HTTP client - Maintain consistent response formats ### Testing - Add integration tests for new services - Mock API responses for unit tests - Test rate limit handling --- ## Cost Analysis ### Current Costs - **GovInfo API**: Free (requires registration) - **CourtListener API**: Free (requires registration) - **EUR-Lex**: Free (public website) - **State Scrapers**: Free (public websites) - **Infrastructure**: None (runs as MCP server) ### Expansion Costs - **All recommended expansions**: $0 (all use free APIs or public data) - **Infrastructure**: No additional cost (same MCP server model) - **Development Time**: Only cost is development effort --- ## Conclusion The Legal Compliance MCP Server has a solid foundation covering: - US Federal law (USC/CFR) - Case law (CourtListener) - EU regulations (EUR-Lex) - 3 high-risk US states (CA, NY, IL) **Free expansion opportunities are abundant**, with the highest-value additions being: 1. Federal Register API (regulatory change tracking) 2. Congress.gov API (pending legislation) 3. Open States API (50-state coverage) 4. UK Legislation API (international coverage) All recommended expansions use **free government APIs** or **public data sources**, maintaining the app's commitment to free/open data sources. The modular service architecture makes adding new data sources straightforward, following the existing pattern of dedicated service classes with centralized HTTP client and error handling.