LexAPI MCP

Model Context Protocol server for LexAPI — EU law for AI assistants: EUR-Lex legislation parsed to article level, CJEU case law, the typed citation graph, and semantic search (including the law as in force on a past date). Works with Claude, Cursor, VS Code and any other MCP client.

Ask your assistant "what does Article 17 GDPR require?", "which acts amended REACH?" or "what were the own-funds requirements for banks in June 2019?" — the model calls LexAPI and answers from the source text, with CELEX citations.

You need a LexAPI account. With the hosted server you just sign in with LexAPI from your MCP client; with the npm package (or if you prefer), use an API key from lex-api.com/dashboard. There is a FREE plan, no card required, with enough credits to try the read tools; current allowances are on lex-api.com/pricing.

Connect to the hosted server (sign in with LexAPI)

The server is hosted at https://mcp.lex-api.com/v1 (Streamable HTTP). Add that URL to your client and sign in with your LexAPI account when it asks — no key to copy. You see a LexAPI consent page listing what the connection can do; calls are billed to your plan exactly like your own API key, and you can disconnect the app at any time under Dashboard → Connected apps (that revokes it immediately).

claude.ai and Claude Desktop

Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, name it LexAPI, URL https://mcp.lex-api.com/v1, then Connect and sign in. Connectors added on claude.ai are also available in Claude Desktop (same account).

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http lexapi https://mcp.lex-api.com/v1

Then run /mcp in Claude Code and choose Authenticate for lexapi; your browser opens the LexAPI sign-in.

Other MCP clients

Any client that implements MCP authorization (OAuth 2.1 with protected-resource discovery) connects the same way: point it at https://mcp.lex-api.com/v1. The server answers an unauthenticated request with 401 and WWW-Authenticate: Bearer … resource_metadata="https://mcp.lex-api.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource/v1"; the client discovers LexAPI (https://lex-api.com) as the authorization server from there.

With an API key instead

Clients without OAuth support — or scripts — send a key from the dashboard as Authorization: Bearer lex_... (or x-api-key: lex_...):

claude mcp add --transport http lexapi https://mcp.lex-api.com/v1 --header "Authorization: Bearer lex_..."

Related MCP server: eurlex-mcp-server

Run it locally (npm, API key)

Claude Desktop (local)

Add to claude_desktop_config.json (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lexapi": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@lexapi/mcp"],
      "env": { "LEXAPI_API_KEY": "lex_..." }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop.

Claude Code (local)

claude mcp add lexapi --env LEXAPI_API_KEY=lex_... -- npx -y @lexapi/mcp

Cursor, VS Code and other stdio clients

Run npx -y @lexapi/mcp with LEXAPI_API_KEY in the environment (Cursor: ~/.cursor/mcp.json; VS Code: .vscode/mcp.json; same command / args / env shape as above).

The npm package needs Node.js 20 or newer. It uses an API key; signing in with LexAPI is a feature of the hosted server.

Tools

Every call is billed from your LexAPI credit pool exactly like the REST endpoint it wraps; each tool's description states its cost so the model can see it.

National law

lex_national_coverage, lex_list_national_documents, lex_get_national_document, lex_national_semantic_case_law and lex_national_semantic_legislation cover member-state legislation and case law alongside the EU_LAW tools above. A country can be registered on LexAPI before it is made available to customers — always call lex_national_coverage first; the other tools answer an error for a country that isn't live yet. The citation-graph tools (lex_cited_by, lex_cites, lex_citation_network, lex_citation_path, lex_related, lex_citation_stats) accept national document ids directly (e.g. "AT-NOR-12345") and an includeNational option to pull in national neighbours — BUSINESS, SCALE and ENTERPRISE only, 403 below that. National results have the same fields in every country (LexAPI API 2.8.0): documentKind (act | decision) everywhere, and on a decision court, chamber, caseNumbers and citedNorms — whatever the source calls them. Every national result carries attribution (the official source and its licence, e.g. RIS, gesetze-im-internet.de, Normattiva, Légifrance/Judilibre, the Rechtspraak open data) — show it to the user alongside anything quoted. On FREE/STARTER/PROFESSIONAL plans, national-law calls also draw from a separate monthly allowance (reported as allowance on each response); BUSINESS and higher have no separate limit. A document its source withdrew (a takedown, a pseudonymisation fix) answers a distinct error — nothing of it is served, not even the title; the model is told not to retry and to drop any cached copy.

How results are shaped for models

• Compact output. Responses drop envelopes and duplicate legacy fields. Documents keep their metadata, textAvailability (why text is missing, which languages exist, a pointer to the latest consolidated version) and language-fallback labels.

• Large documents. lex_get_document returns the whole body when it fits maxChars (default 40,000 characters), otherwise an outline (article ids, section tree, counts). Fetch an article with articleId or parts with include; long parts continue with offset.

• Consolidated texts are not authentic. Consolidated versions carry consolidated: true, consolidatedAsOf, baseCelex and a note: quote them, cite the act as published in the Official Journal.

• asOf. Each legislation hit says whether it carries the version in force on that date (asOfResolved, asOfVersion); unresolved hits keep the current text with an asOfReason, and the response warns about them.

• Errors say what to do. A 402 states the credits needed, the credits left and the reset date; a 429 says how long to wait.

Configuration

The key is sent only as the x-api-key header to LexAPI; it is never logged or included in tool output. A LEXAPI_API_KEY containing whitespace or control characters (e.g. a multi-line paste) is rejected at startup.

Hosting the HTTP server

npm run start:http (or the Dockerfile) runs the Streamable HTTP transport (POST /v1, GET /health). Self-hosted, it accepts LexAPI API keys (Authorization: Bearer lex_… or x-api-key: lex_…); a request without one gets 401. A value that cannot be an API key (it contains a . or is longer than 8192 characters) is answered 401 and never forwarded.

Sign in with LexAPI is a feature of the hosted server at https://mcp.lex-api.com/v1: it needs an OAuth client registered with LexAPI, so a self-hosted copy runs with API keys only. The OAuth-related settings in src/oauth/config.ts (LEXAPI_OAUTH_*, LEXAPI_MCP_*) are for that deployment; the server refuses to start if they are set incompletely.

/health returns status, name, version, tools and oauth (whether sign-in is enabled). It never contains addresses, tokens or configuration values.

Timeouts. MCP clients give up on a tool call after their own timeout (60 s by default in the official SDK; Claude Code: MCP_TOOL_TIMEOUT). A first, live EUR-Lex fetch can take longer. The server gives each tool call one 55 s deadline — retries and rate-limit waits included — and then returns a message the model can act on, instead of the client's generic timeout error. When the client sends a progress token, the server also sends a progress notification every 10 s; whether that keeps the call alive is up to the client (the official SDK only extends its timeout on progress when the caller opts into resetTimeoutOnProgress, and a server cannot detect that), so the deadline stays 55 s. If you raise your client's timeout, raise LEXAPI_TIMEOUT_MS to match. Cancelling a call aborts the request to LexAPI.

Troubleshooting

• LEXAPI_API_KEY is not set — the variable isn't reaching the spawned process; check the env block of your MCP client config.

• LexAPI error 401 — the key is wrong or revoked; create a new one at the dashboard.

• Hosted server: "LexAPI sign-in expired or was revoked" — the connection was disconnected (for example from the dashboard); reconnect LexAPI in your client to sign in again.

• Hosted server: 403 Subscription inactive — the signed-in account's paid plan is not active; the same as with an API key.

• LexAPI error 402 (CREDITS_EXHAUSTED) — the monthly credit pool is used up. The message gives the reset date; top-ups and upgrades are on the dashboard.

• LexAPI error 429 — the per-minute rate limit of your key (FREE: 15 per minute). Short waits are retried once automatically; otherwise the message says how long to wait.

• LexAPI error 403 — the plan doesn't include the feature (e.g. export below BUSINESS, or semantic search on a legacy pre-credits FREE plan).

• LexAPI error 400 creating a webhook — the details name the problem (unsupported criteria, a watch list over the plan limit, or the plan's webhook limit; FREE has none).

Development

git clone https://github.com/Lex-API/lexapi-mcp.git
cd lexapi-mcp
npm install
npm test                       # build + unit and transport tests (mocked API, no network)
npm run typecheck && npm run lint
node scripts/smoke-stdio.mjs   # stdio smoke test against a local mock API
LEXAPI_API_KEY=lex_... node scripts/smoke-stdio.mjs --live   # against the real API (spends roughly 6–25 credits)

npm run start:http runs the hosted Streamable HTTP transport (POST /v1, GET /health, port from PORT, default 3000; see Hosting the HTTP server above); the Dockerfile builds it. The OAuth tests run against a local mock authorization server (tests/oauth-mock.ts), no network.

License

MIT