AusLaw

Provides access to Australian and New Zealand legal materials via MCP, with case law searches, legislation lookups, and full-text retrieval.

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Language

6 months ago

First Indexed

2 months ago

Catalog Refreshed

Documentation & install

Readme and setup notes from the catalogue, plus a client-ready config you can copy for your MCP host.

Installation

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

Configuration

View docs

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "russellbrenner-auslaw-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/path/to/auslaw-mcp/dist/index.js"
      ],
      "env": {
        "AUSTLII_TIMEOUT": "10000",
        "JADE_SESSION_COOKIE": "YOUR_JADE_SESSION_COOKIE_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

AusLaw MCP enables you to search Australian and New Zealand case law and legislation, retrieve full-text judgments with precise paragraph numbering, and use OCR for scanned PDFs. It integrates with jade.io for authenticated document access and provides structured outputs to support deep legal research across jurisdictions.

How to use

You connect your MCP client to the AusLaw MCP server to perform searches, fetch full texts, and format citations. Start by ensuring the server is running, then configure your client to launch the server process locally or remotely. When you issue a search, you can look for recent decisions, topic-based results, or specific cases, and you can request full-text documents with pinpoint citations.

How to install

Prerequisites you need before installing: Node.js and npm for local development, Docker if you plan to containerize, and access to a Kubernetes cluster if you deploy with k3s.

Local development steps you can follow to run the server on your machine:

git clone https://github.com/russellbrenner/auslaw-mcp.git
cd auslaw-mcp
npm install
npm run dev  # hot reload for local development

Docker deployment

To run AusLaw MCP in Docker, build the image and start the container with Docker Compose or directly with Docker.

# Build the Docker image
docker build -t auslaw-mcp:latest .

# Run with Docker Compose
docker-compose up

# Or run directly
docker run -it --rm auslaw-mcp:latest

Kubernetes (k3s) deployment

If you prefer deploying to a Kubernetes cluster, build the image, export it, and apply the manifests in the k8s directory.

# Build and export image
docker build -t auslaw-mcp:latest .
docker save auslaw-mcp:latest -o auslaw-mcp.tar

# Deploy to k3s cluster
kubectl apply -f k8s/

Available tools

search_cases

Search Australian and New Zealand case law across jurisdictions with multiple search methods (title, phrase, boolean, proximity, auto). Returns ranked results by authority and relevance.

search_legislation

Query Australian and New Zealand legislation with options for sorting and method types, including legislative-focused searches.

fetch_document_text

Fetch full text of a case or legislation from AustLII or jade.io, with OCR for PDFs when needed.

format_citation

Format citations according to AGLC4 rules, including neutral and reported citations, with optional pinpoint references.

validate_citation

Verify that a neutral citation exists in AustLII and return a canonical citation when valid.

generate_pinpoint

Generate a pinpoint citation by locating a paragraph or matching a phrase within a judgment.

search_by_citation

Find a case using a neutral citation or case name, returning structured results.

resolve_jade_article

Resolve and enrich metadata for jade.io articles by numeric ID.

jade_citation_lookup

Create a lookup URL to a jade.io article using a neutral citation.