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 at canlii.org/en/api/. 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

Tools

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:

... [View full README on GitHub](https://github.com/vaquill-ai/canlii-mcp#readme)