fr-eli-mcp

An MCP server for the French Legifrance API via PISTE. It searches French legislation (LODA laws & decrees, codes) and case law (JURI), and returns verbatim text with verifiable citations. Part of the eu-legal-mcp line of national legal connectors by MateMatic.

Every response carries the citation contract: a stable eli_uri, a human_readable_citation (French convention) and a resolvable source_url.

Read-only. The server only queries Legifrance and writes a local audit log. It never modifies official text and never sends anything beyond your query / document id.

Tools

A note on ELI vs ECLI

France has an official ELI scheme, but the PISTE lf-engine-app consult API returns the native ELI field null for the legislation we tested. Following this line's rule - say what you do not have, never fabricate an ELI - eli_uri carries the stable, resolvable Legifrance resource URL (CID-keyed), not a /eli/... string parsed from prose. Each response repeats this in eli_note.

Case law is different: the API returns a native, authoritative ECLI (e.g. ECLI:FR:CCASS:2025:C100399), surfaced verbatim in fr_get_decision.

Related MCP server: French Law MCP Server

Configuration

Legifrance requires OAuth2 application credentials from a free PISTE account (piste.gouv.fr → Applications → subscribe to the Legifrance API → OAuth Credentials). Credentials are read from the environment only:

Copy .mcp.json.example to .mcp.json (gitignored) and fill in your credentials, or set the variables in your host environment. The OAuth token is cached in memory and refreshed automatically.

Install

py -3.13 -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install -e ".[dev]"   # Windows
# or: python -m pip install -e ".[dev]"                  # POSIX

Tests

pytest tests/test_instructions_drift.py tests/test_parse.py   # offline, no creds
pytest tests/test_smoke.py -v                                 # live, needs PISTE creds in .env

Distribution

Because Legifrance requires a PISTE key, this connector is distributed through the PATRON / appliance channel (governed), not casual drop-in download. See the eu-legal-mcp line notes.

Licence

Apache-2.0. Legifrance content is © the French Republic / DILA and subject to the Legifrance / PISTE terms of use; this software only retrieves and cites it.