Clearon Legislation Monitor MCP

MCP server for review-gated U.S. legislation discovery and watchlist monitoring.

It separates discovery leads from verified watchlist entries, records append-only observations and exceptions, and keeps official-source review in the loop before a measure becomes authoritative.

What it does

• Records discovery candidates without silently promoting them into the watchlist

• Requires explicit human review before watchlist acceptance

• Tracks official-source observations, due reviews, and retrieval exceptions

• Replays an append-only event log into a rebuildable snapshot

• Optionally uses Open States and NYC Legistar as discovery helpers, never as final proof

Related MCP server: universal-research-mcp

What it does not do

• It does not publish content or modify WordPress

• It does not treat a keyword hit as legal verification

• It does not treat third-party discovery results as source-of-record status

• It does not convert retrieval failures into legal-status changes

Requirements

• Node.js 20 or newer

• A local MCP client that can launch a stdio server

Installation

cd tools/clearon-legislation-monitor-mcp
npm install
npm test
npm run smoke

MCP client setup

Example stdio configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "clearon-legislation-monitor": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/clearon-legislation-monitor-mcp/server.mjs"],
      "env": {
        "CLEARON_LEGISLATION_WORKSPACE": "/absolute/path/to/workspace"
      }
    }
  }
}

If your normalized tracker inputs are not in the default workspace locations, also set:

• CLEARON_LEGISLATION_REGISTRY_PATH

• CLEARON_LEGISLATION_WATCHLIST_PATH

Storage

By default, monitor state is stored outside the repository in a user data directory:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/clearon-legislation-monitor-mcp/legislation-monitor

• Linux: ${XDG_DATA_HOME:-~/.local/share}/clearon-legislation-monitor-mcp/legislation-monitor

• Windows: %APPDATA%\\clearon-legislation-monitor-mcp\\legislation-monitor

Override that location with CLEARON_LEGISLATION_MONITOR_ROOT.

The canonical tracker inputs are still expected to come from your chosen workspace:

• trackers/state-legislation/jurisdictions.json

• trackers/state-legislation/watchlist.csv

unless you override them explicitly with environment variables.

Credentials

Optional provider keys can be supplied directly in the environment:

• OPENSTATES_API_KEY

• NYC_LEGISTAR_TOKEN

The server also supports an optional local secrets file. By default it looks for:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/openclaw/local-secrets.json

• Linux: ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-~/.config}/openclaw/local-secrets.json

• Windows: %APPDATA%\\openclaw\\local-secrets.json

Override that path with OPENCLAW_LOCAL_SECRETS.

Install or rotate stored credentials through protected stdin so values stay out of shell history:

node bin/install-credentials.mjs < /path/to/private-credentials.json
npm run credentials

Supported JSON keys:

{
  "openstatesApiKey": "provider-issued value",
  "nycLegistarToken": "provider-issued value"
}

Recommended workflow

1. Call list_jurisdictions to choose the official route.

2. Use scan_official_source, search_openstates_bills, or search_nyc_legistar_matters to gather leads.

3. Record plausible official-source measures with record_discovery_candidate.

4. Review each candidate and call review_candidate with accept or reject.

5. Record official observations with record_measure_observation.

6. Use get_due_reviews and get_exceptions for scheduled follow-up.

Tools

• get_server_health

• list_jurisdictions

• scan_official_source

• search_openstates_bills

• search_nyc_legistar_matters

• record_discovery_candidate

• list_discovery_candidates

• review_candidate

• import_normalized_watchlist

• list_watchlist

• record_measure_observation

• dedupe_watchlist_measures

• record_exception

• resolve_exception

• get_due_reviews

• get_exceptions

• verify_event_log

Development

npm test
npm run smoke
npm run syntax