CanLII

canlii-mcp

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for the CanLII Canadian legal information API. Gives AI assistants access to Canadian case law and legislation metadata across all federal, provincial, and territorial jurisdictions.

Forked from tomilashy/canlii-mcp. This fork adds bring-your-own-key (BYOK) auth, a /health route, and a hosted endpoint at canlii-mcp.vaquill.ai. Tools are unchanged.

Note: The CanLII API provides metadata only — titles, citations, dates, keywords, and citation relationships. Full document text is not available through the API.

Use the hosted endpoint (no install)

https://canlii-mcp.vaquill.ai/mcp

The hosted instance is public. No Vaquill token is required. Provide your own CanLII key one of two ways:

• Header (recommended, keeps the key out of the URL): X-CanLII-Token: <your_canlii_api_key>

• URL parameter (simplest; works in header-less clients like the Claude Desktop connector UI and claude.ai web): append ?token=<your_canlii_api_key> to the URL:

  https://canlii-mcp.vaquill.ai/mcp?token=YOUR_CANLII_API_KEY
  

Apply for a key via the CanLII API request form. The server never stores your key, and there is no server-side fallback key, so every call counts against your own CanLII quota.

Claude Desktop / Claude Code

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canlii": {
      "url": "https://canlii-mcp.vaquill.ai/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "X-CanLII-Token": "YOUR_CANLII_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor / VS Code / Windsurf

Same pattern: any client supporting MCP streamable HTTP with custom headers works. For stdio-only clients use mcp-remote to proxy.

Authentication

Mode	Header	When
BYOK header (preferred)	X-CanLII-Token: <key>	Hosted / shared deployments
BYOK URL param	?token=<key> (or ?canlii_token=)	Header-less clients: Claude Desktop connector UI, claude.ai web
Server fallback	(env CANLII_API)	Self-hosted single-tenant. Required for stdio.
MCP gate	Authorization: Bearer <MCP_AUTH_TOKEN>	Optional, self-host only. The public hosted endpoint at canlii-mcp.vaquill.ai does not use it, so no bearer token is required.

Tools

Tool	Description
list_case_databases	List all courts and tribunals in the CanLII collection
list_cases	Browse decisions from a specific court/tribunal database
get_case	Get metadata for a specific case (title, citation, date, keywords)
get_case_citations	Get cases cited by a case, cases citing it, or legislation it references
list_legislation_databases	List all statute and regulation databases
list_legislation	Browse statutes or regulations from a specific database
get_legislation	Get metadata for a specific piece of legislation

Requirements

• Node.js 22+
• A CanLII API key — apply here

Usage

stdio via npx (quickest)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canlii": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@tomilashy/canlii-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CANLII_API": "your_api_key"
      }
    }
  }
}

stdio (from source)

npm install
npm run build
node dist/index.js

Add to your MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canlii": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/canlii-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "CANLII_API": "your_api_key"
      }
    }
  }
}

HTTP server

PORT=3000 CANLII_API=your_api_key node dist/index.js --transport http

The MCP endpoint is available at http://localhost:3000/mcp. The server runs in stateless mode — each request is self-contained, no session ID or initialize handshake required. Clients can call tools directly:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"list_case_databases","arguments":{"language":"en"}}}'

Docker

docker run -e CANLII_API=your_api_key -e MCP_AUTH_TOKEN=your_secret -p 3000:3000 ghcr.io/tomilashy/canlii-mcp

Or with Docker Compose:

services:
  canlii-mcp:
    image: ghcr.io/tomilashy/canlii-mcp
    environment:
      CANLII_API: your_api_key
      MCP_AUTH_TOKEN: your_secret  # optional
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"

Cloudflare Workers

The server includes a Workers-compatible entry point (src/worker.ts).

CLI deploy

npx wrangler secret put CANLII_API
npx wrangler secret put MCP_AUTH_TOKEN  # optional
npx wrangler deploy

Dashboard deploy (Connect to Git)

1. Go to Cloudflare Dashboard → Workers & Pages → Create → Connect to Git
2. Select your tomilashy/canlii-mcp repository
3. On the Set up your application page:
   • Project name: canlii-mcp
   • Build command: npm install && npm run build
   • Deploy command: npx wrangler deploy (pre-filled)
4. Expand Advanced settings:
   • Variable name: CANLII_API
   • Variable value: your CanLII API key
   • Check Encrypt to store it as a secret
5. Click Deploy

The MCP endpoint will be at https://canlii-mcp.<your-subdomain>.workers.dev/mcp.

Configuration

Environment Variable	Required	Default	Description
CANLII_API	Only for stdio and self-hosted single-tenant	—	Your CanLII API key. Not needed in HTTP mode, where clients bring their own key per request.
PORT	No	3000	HTTP server port (HTTP mode only)
MCP_AUTH_TOKEN	No	—	Bearer token for HTTP authentication. If set, all HTTP requests must include Authorization: Bearer <token>. If not set, the server runs without authentication.

Rate Limits

The server enforces CanLII's API limits automatically, per CanLII key, so one caller's usage never throttles another's:

• 1 request at a time
• 2 requests per second
• 5,000 requests per day

These mirror CanLII's own per-key limits. Each X-CanLII-Token gets its own independent budget (keyed by a hash of the key; raw keys are never retained). Requests that exceed the daily limit return an error rather than hitting the API.

Development

npm install
npm run build      # compile TypeScript
npm run watch      # watch mode

Release

This project uses Semantic Versioning via semantic-release. Commit messages follow the Conventional Commits spec:

Commit prefix	Release type
fix:	Patch (1.0.0 → 1.0.1)
feat:	Minor (1.0.0 → 1.1.0)
feat!: or BREAKING CHANGE	Major (1.0.0 → 2.0.0)

Pushing to main triggers the release workflow. If a release is cut, the Docker image is automatically built and published to ghcr.io.

License

MIT

Community

Questions, ideas, or want to contribute? Join the Vaquill community on Discord.