# uk-legal-mcp [PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/uk-legal-mcp/) [SafeSkill](https://safeskill.dev/scan/paulieb89-uk-legal-mcp) [Glama](https://glama.ai/mcp/connectors/io.github.paulieb89/uk-legal-mcp) [smithery badge](https://smithery.ai/servers/bouch/uk-legal) [Install in VS Code](https://vscode.dev/redirect/mcp/install?name=uk-legal&config=%7B%22type%22%3A%22http%22%2C%22url%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fuk-legal-mcp.fly.dev%2Fmcp%22%7D) [Install in VS Code Insiders](https://insiders.vscode.dev/redirect/mcp/install?name=uk-legal&config=%7B%22type%22%3A%22http%22%2C%22url%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fuk-legal-mcp.fly.dev%2Fmcp%22%7D&quality=insiders) [Install in Cursor](https://cursor.com/en/install-mcp?name=uk-legal&config=eyJ0eXBlIjoiaHR0cCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vdWstbGVnYWwtbWNwLmZseS5kZXYvbWNwIn0=) UK legal research sources for your AI assistant. uk-legal-mcp connects ChatGPT, Claude, VS Code, Cursor, and other MCP-aware clients to UK case law, legislation, Hansard, bills, votes, committees, OSCOLA citation parsing, and HMRC guidance. It returns primary source text and citation metadata so your agent can build evidence packs you can check and footnote. No API keys are required for the legal sources. HMRC's authenticated Making Tax Digital endpoint is optional. For best results, tell your assistant to use the `uk-legal-mcp` server and not to answer from memory when a UK legal source can be checked. --- ## Quick Start Use the hosted MCP endpoint: ```text https://uk-legal-mcp.fly.dev/mcp ``` For clients that use `mcpServers` JSON: ```json { "mcpServers": { "uk-legal": { "type": "http", "url": "https://uk-legal-mcp.fly.dev/mcp" } } } ``` For local stdio use: ```bash uvx uk-legal-mcp ``` Claude Desktop local config: ```json { "mcpServers": { "uk-legal": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["uk-legal-mcp"] } } } ``` If a hosted tool stops responding, refresh the server from your client's Apps / Customise menu. For very large Acts, local mode can be more reliable because it uses your own IP rather than a shared cloud IP. --- ## Try This First After connecting the server, start a fresh chat and ask: ```text I am checking a UK legal source. Only use uk-legal-mcp. Find the source, give me the source URL, and tell me what metadata I should check before relying on it. ``` For legal work, ask for an evidence pack rather than a bare answer: ```text Only use uk-legal-mcp. Give me the source text or source summary, the source URL, citation metadata, and any caveats about jurisdiction, version, or uncertainty. ``` See [the lawyer guide](docs/lawyer-guide.md) for ready-to-run prompts. --- ## What It Covers | Source area | What your assistant can check | |---|---| | Case law | UK judgments from TNA Find Case Law, including neutral citations, court, date, judgment metadata, paragraph reads, and in-judgment search. | | Legislation | Acts and Statutory Instruments from legislation.gov.uk, including tables of contents, sections, territorial extent, in-force signals, and point-in-time reads. | | Parliament | Hansard debates and contributions, debate-to-division chains, member biographies, column references, and petitions. | | Bills | Parliamentary Bills, stages, sponsors, publications, and bill history. | | Votes | Commons and Lords divisions, counts, results, and per-member voting records. | | Committees | Select committees, memberships, oral evidence, and written evidence. | | Citations | OSCOLA-style citation parsing and resolution to canonical sources. | | HMRC | VAT rate lookups, GOV.UK HMRC guidance search, and optional authenticated MTD VAT status checks. | The server also exposes `judgment://`, `legislation://`, and `hansard://` resources for source text that is too large to return in a single search result. Full details are in the [tool reference](docs/tool-reference.md) and [upstream API reference](docs/api-reference.md). --- ## Examples **Legislation check:** the assistant finds the Worker Protection Act duty, commencement position, territorial extent, and source links. **Parliamentary evidence:** the assistant follows a House of Lords debate into a division result for an Automated Vehicles Bill amendment. More examples are in the [lawyer guide](docs/lawyer-guide.md). --- ## Using It Safely uk-legal-mcp helps your AI assistant find and quote UK legal sources. It does not replace legal judgement. - **Check jurisdiction.** Legislation can apply differently in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. When reading a section, check the `extent` field before relying on it. - **Check whether a provision is current.** Some sections may be repealed, amended, prospective, or not yet in force. The server returns in-force and version-date information where the source provides it. - **Verify citations before relying on them.** Ask the agent to resolve case citations and Hansard volume/column references against the primary source. - **Separate exact matches from nearby candidates.** Case names and party names can be similar. A good answer should say which source was verified and which candidates were merely related. - **Treat the result as an evidence pack.** The server returns primary source text and citation metadata. Your agent can summarise it, but you decide how the law applies. --- ## For Developers Run the streamable HTTP server locally: ```bash python -m src.gateway ``` Run the declarative FastMCP manifest for inspection/dev tooling: ```bash fastmcp run fastmcp inspect ``` `fastmcp run` is for inspection/dev only — it wraps the FastMCP runner directly and skips the production uvicorn shape (`_HttpGuard`, `_AcceptNormalizer`, `proxy_headers`) that `python -m src.gateway` wires for the Fly deployment. The `_HttpGuard` GET-SSE shim is required by claude.ai's web connector, so use `python -m src.gateway` for anything prod-like. Use a local checkout over stdio: ```json { "mcpServers": { "local-uk-legal": { "command": "uv", "args": ["run", "--project", "", "uk-legal-mcp"], "env": { "VIRTUAL_ENV": "" } } } } ``` Release notes live in [CHANGELOG.md](CHANGELOG.md). --- Attribution added by YourAIKit. It is not part of the upstream file. - Source: https://github.com/paulieb89/uk-legal-mcp - Credit: paulieb89, uk-legal-mcp - Upstream copy: paulieb89/uk-legal-mcp at commit 9a8517d7b2ddb4b8680e205b3206a86f327e9d44, README.md - Copyright: Copyright (c) 2026 Paul Boucherat - License: MIT. Full text: https://youraikit.com/licenses/paulieb89-uk-legal-mcp-root/LICENSE - Changes: YourAIKit removed 9 embedded images (badges, logos, or pictures); a linked image keeps its link as text. - The full upstream license text (LICENSE) follows. License (LICENSE): ```text MIT License Copyright (c) 2026 Paul Boucherat Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. ```