What is MCP and how does Caselegis use it?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and Windsurf connect to external tools. Caselegis provides an MCP server so your AI can search California case law, retrieve full opinions, check citation status, and browse citation networks — all without leaving your AI workflow.

Which AI tools can connect to Caselegis?

Caselegis works with any MCP-compatible AI assistant, including Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Windsurf. Setup takes under 60 seconds: add your API key and the Caselegis MCP server URL to your AI tool's config file.

What can my AI assistant do once connected to Caselegis?

Once connected, your AI assistant can: search California case law by keyword or topic, retrieve full case opinions, check whether a case is still good law (Red/Yellow/Green), view cases that cite a case, and view cases a case cites. Pro users get 2,000 MCP queries per month.

How much does the Caselegis AI integration cost?

The free plan includes 50 MCP queries per month. The Pro plan at $29/month includes 2,000 MCP queries per month plus unlimited case law searches.

AI Assistant Setup

Give your AI assistant a law degree

Connect Claude, Cursor, or any AI assistant to verified California case law. Under 60 seconds. No technical experience required.

Under 60 secondsNo technical skills neededFree to start

What does this actually do?

AI assistants like Claude are powerful writers and reasoners, but they don't know the law. When you ask them about a case, they often invent citations that don't exist, or cite cases that have since been overruled. This is called hallucination, and it is a serious risk in legal work.

Connecting Caselegis fixes this. Instead of guessing, your AI looks up the real case, checks if it is still good law, and gives you a verified answer with the correct citation. You get the speed of AI with the accuracy of a real legal database.

What is MCP? MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a plugin standard for AI assistants. Caselegis is a plugin that gives your AI access to California case law. You do not need to understand MCP to use it.

Without Caselegis

You: “Is there a case on wrongful termination after whistleblowing?”

“Yes, see Martinez v. Acme Corp., 45 Cal.App.4th 312 (2021)...”

This case does not exist. The citation is invented.

With Caselegis connected

You: “Is there a case on wrongful termination after whistleblowing?”

“Yes, Lawson v. PPG Architectural Finishes, 12 Cal.5th 703 (Good Law, 2022)...”

Real case. Verified good law. Correct citation.

How it works

You ask your AI

In plain English

Your AI calls Caselegis

Automatically, in the background

Caselegis responds

With real, verified case data

Your AI answers you

Accurately, with real citations

Get your API key

Create a free Caselegis account and generate an API key in Settings. The key is a long code starting with brfl_. Think of it as a password your AI assistant will use to connect.

Keep your API key private, like a password. Do not share it or paste it into public documents.

Add Caselegis to your AI assistant

Open your AI assistant's settings and paste the configuration block. Takes about a minute. Choose your assistant below to see the exact steps.

1Open Claude Desktop, go to Settings, then Developer, then Edit Config
2Add the block below inside the mcpServers section
3Save the file and restart Claude Desktop

claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "caselegis": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["caselegis-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CASELEGIS_API_KEY": "brfl_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace brfl_your_key_here with the API key you generated in step 1.

Try it

After restarting your AI assistant, ask it one of the questions on the right. If Caselegis is connected, it will look up the real case and give you a verified answer.

Your AI may show a brief “searching Caselegis” message before replying.

Find California wrongful termination cases from 2023.

Is Rowland v. Christian, 69 Cal.2d 108, still good law?

How many cases cite Brown v. USA Taekwondo, and how have courts treated it?

Summarise the holding of Hartley v. Pacific Surgical Assocs.

What your AI can do

Once connected, your AI assistant has access to six research tools that work automatically based on what you ask.

Search for cases

Ask your AI to find California cases on any legal topic, court, or date range.

Read a full opinion

Ask your AI to read and summarise the full text of any case in the database.

Check if a case is good law

Your AI will tell you if a case is still valid, has been questioned, or has been overruled.

See what a case cites

Find all the cases that a given opinion references and relies on.

See what cites a case

Find all later decisions that have cited a case, and how they treated it.

Check your remaining searches

Ask your AI how many research queries you have left this month.

How many searches do I get?

You can ask your AI “How many Caselegis searches do I have left?” at any time. Upgrade to Pro for 40x more searches.

Free

Resets on the 1st of each month

50 per month

Pro ($29/month)

Enough for daily research workflows

2,000 per month

Enterprise

Custom

Privacy and security

Caselegis only sees the specific lookups your AI makes. It does not see your conversations or anything else.

Are my searches private?

Caselegis logs which cases are requested to enforce quotas and improve the service. Your search terms are not shared with third parties.

Is my API key secure?

Your API key is stored as a one-way hash. Even if our database were breached, the original key could not be recovered. You can revoke any key instantly from your settings.

Does Caselegis see my conversations?

No. Caselegis only sees the specific lookups your AI assistant makes (e.g. a case ID or search query). It does not see your full conversation or anything else you discuss with your AI.

Something not working?

Most issues come down to a missing dependency or a typo in the config. Email hello@caselegis.com and we will help.

Caselegis tools don't appear after restarting

The setup software (uvx) may not be installed on your computer. Open your terminal app and run: pip install uv. Then restart your AI assistant. If you're not sure how to do this, email us at hello@caselegis.com and we'll help.

My key isn't working

Go to Settings, then API Keys, revoke the existing key, and create a new one. Paste the new key into your config file, making sure there are no extra spaces before or after it.

I've run out of searches

Your monthly quota has been used up. It resets automatically on the 1st of next month. To get 2,000 searches per month instead of 50, upgrade to Pro.

I need help setting this up

Email us at hello@caselegis.com and we will walk you through the setup step by step.

caselegis-mcp is open source

MIT licensed and freely available. The code that runs this integration is public and auditable.