cle-engine 0.1.0

Python SDK for the CLE Engine API - Continuing Legal Education deadline computation

CLE Engine Python SDK

A Python client library for the CLE Engine API, providing easy access to continuing legal education (CLE) deadline computation across all US jurisdictions.

Installation

pip install cle-engine

Quick Start

from cle_engine import CLEEngineClient

# Initialize the client
client = CLEEngineClient(api_key="your-api-key")

# Compute CLE due date for a California attorney
result = client.compute_due_date(
    jurisdiction="CA",
    admission_date="2020-01-15"
)

print(f"Due date: {result.due_date}")
print(f"Credits required: {result.credits_required}")
print(f"Cycle: {result.cycle_start} to {result.cycle_end}")

Configuration

API Key

You can provide your API key in two ways:

1. Direct initialization:

   client = CLEEngineClient(api_key="your-api-key")
   

2. Environment variable:

   export CLE_ENGINE_API_KEY="your-api-key"
   

   client = CLEEngineClient()  # Reads from environment
   

Custom Base URL

For testing or self-hosted instances:

client = CLEEngineClient(
    api_key="your-api-key",
    base_url="https://your-instance.example.com"
)

Or via environment variable:

export CLE_ENGINE_BASE_URL="https://your-instance.example.com"

Usage Examples

Computing Due Dates

Basic computation:

from cle_engine import CLEEngineClient
from datetime import date

client = CLEEngineClient(api_key="your-api-key")

# Using string dates
result = client.compute_due_date(
    jurisdiction="CA",
    admission_date="2020-01-15"
)

# Using date objects
result = client.compute_due_date(
    jurisdiction="NY",
    admission_date=date(2018, 5, 1),
    last_name="Smith"  # Used for surname-based reporting groups
)

With all optional parameters:

result = client.compute_due_date(
    jurisdiction="TX",
    profession="lawyer",
    last_name="Johnson",
    birth_date="1985-03-20",
    admission_date="2015-07-01",
    reporting_category="Group1",
    reporting_period_end="2025-03-31",
    renewal_year=2025
)

# Access response fields
print(f"Due date: {result.due_date}")
print(f"CLE required: {result.cle_required}")
print(f"Credits required: {result.credits_required}")
print(f"Reporting group: {result.reporting_group}")
print(f"Missing fields: {result.missing_fields}")
print(f"Notes: {result.notes}")

Health Check

client = CLEEngineClient(api_key="your-api-key")
health = client.health_check()
print(f"API status: {health.status}")  # "ok"

Getting Jurisdictions

client = CLEEngineClient(api_key="your-api-key")
jurisdictions = client.get_jurisdictions()

for j in jurisdictions:
    print(f"{j.code}: {j.name}")
    print(f"  CLE required: {j.cle_required}")
    if j.cle_required:
        print(f"  Credits per cycle: {j.credits_per_cycle}")
        print(f"  Cycle length: {j.cycle_years} years")

Using Context Manager

with CLEEngineClient(api_key="your-api-key") as client:
    result = client.compute_due_date(jurisdiction="CA")
    print(result.due_date)
# Connection is automatically closed

Error Handling

The SDK provides specific exception classes for different error types:

from cle_engine import CLEEngineClient
from cle_engine.exceptions import (
    CLEEngineError,
    AuthenticationError,
    RateLimitError,
    ValidationError,
    ServerError,
    NetworkError,
)

client = CLEEngineClient(api_key="your-api-key")

try:
    result = client.compute_due_date(jurisdiction="INVALID")
except AuthenticationError as e:
    print(f"Authentication failed: {e}")
    # Invalid or expired API key
except RateLimitError as e:
    print(f"Rate limited. Retry after {e.retry_after} seconds")
except ValidationError as e:
    print(f"Invalid request: {e}")
    print(f"Details: {e.response_body}")
except ServerError as e:
    print(f"Server error: {e}")
except NetworkError as e:
    print(f"Network error: {e}")
except CLEEngineError as e:
    # Catch-all for any API error
    print(f"API error [{e.status_code}]: {e.message}")

Exception Hierarchy

All exceptions inherit from CLEEngineError:

• AuthenticationError - Invalid or missing API key (401/403)
• RateLimitError - Rate limit exceeded (429)
• ValidationError - Invalid request parameters (400/422)
• ServerError - Server-side errors (5xx)
• NetworkError - Connection/timeout issues

Response Models

ComputeResponse

Field	Type	Description
due_date	date | None	The CLE compliance deadline
cycle_start	date | None	Start of the reporting cycle
cycle_end	date | None	End of the reporting cycle
credits_required	int | None	Total credits required
reporting_group	str | None	Assigned reporting group
cle_required	bool | None	Whether CLE is mandatory
required_fields	list[str]	Fields needed for computation
missing_fields	list[str]	Required fields not provided
citations	list[Citation]	Source documentation
notes	str | None	Additional information

Citation

Field	Type	Description
source_id	str	Identifier for the source
excerpt_id	str | None	Specific excerpt reference
url	str | None	Link to source documentation

Development

Running Tests

# Install dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
pytest

# Run with coverage
pytest --cov=cle_engine --cov-report=term-missing

# Type checking
mypy cle_engine

# Linting
ruff check cle_engine

Building

pip install build
python -m build

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• requests >= 2.25.0
• pydantic >= 2.0.0

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Support

• Documentation: https://docs.cle-engine.com
• Issues: https://github.com/cle-engine/cle-engine/issues
• Email: [e-mail]