swiss-courts-mcp 0.2.0

MCP Server for Swiss court decisions — Federal Supreme Court, Federal Administrative Court, Federal Criminal Court + 26 cantonal courts via entscheidsuche.ch

Part of the Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio

swiss-courts-mcp

MCP Server for Swiss court decisions — Federal Supreme Court (BGer), Federal Administrative Court (BVGer), Federal Criminal Court (BStGer), and all 26 cantonal courts via entscheidsuche.ch

Deutsche Version

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Overview

Access Swiss court decisions from all judicial levels through a single MCP interface. Combines full-text search with structured filters for canton, court level, date range, and law references.

Source	Coverage	Data
entscheidsuche.ch	Federal + 26 cantons	Court decisions since ~2000

Synergy with fedlex-mcp: Legislation (SR) + case law = complete legal research.

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Features

• Full-text search across all Swiss court decisions
• Multi-stage law reference search with regex parser and Elasticsearch boost scoring
• Dedicated Federal Supreme Court search with chamber filter
• Canton and court level filtering
• Recent decisions feed
• Court taxonomy listing
• Decision statistics with aggregations
• Trilingual support (German, French, Italian)
• No API key required

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Prerequisites

• Python 3.11 or higher
• An MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.)

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Installation

pip install swiss-courts-mcp

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/malkreide/swiss-courts-mcp.git
cd swiss-courts-mcp
pip install -e ".[dev]"

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Quickstart

# Run directly
swiss-courts-mcp

# Or via Python module
python -m swiss_courts_mcp

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Configuration

Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "swiss-courts": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "swiss_courts_mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Cloud Deployment (HTTP transport)

The HTTP transport is off by default. The default bind host is 127.0.0.1 (loopback only) — 0.0.0.0 must be opted into explicitly (the Dockerfile does this). Running HTTP without authentication logs a warning; only do so behind an authenticating reverse proxy.

# Local HTTP (loopback), no auth — development only
swiss-courts-mcp --http --port 8000

# Container (binds 0.0.0.0, auth enabled) — see Dockerfile
docker build -t swiss-courts-mcp .
docker run -p 8000:8000 -e MCP_AUTH_SECRET="$(openssl rand -hex 32)" swiss-courts-mcp

Relevant environment variables (see .env.example):

Variable	Default	Purpose
MCP_HOST	127.0.0.1	Bind host. Set to 0.0.0.0 only in containers.
MCP_PORT	8000	Bind port.
MCP_ALLOW_PUBLIC_BIND	false	Suppress the 0.0.0.0 warning (containers).
MCP_STATELESS_HTTP	true	Stateless HTTP → horizontal scaling without sticky sessions.
MCP_AUTH_ENABLED	false	Enable bearer-token auth for HTTP.
MCP_AUTH_SECRET	—	HS256 signing key (dev).
MCP_OAUTH_JWKS_URL	—	JWKS URL for RS256 validation (production).
MCP_REQUIRED_SCOPES	—	Comma-separated required scopes.
MCP_CORS_ORIGINS	—	Comma-separated allowed origins (no wildcard in prod).

Authentication validates the user identity from the JWT sub claim only; see ADR 0001.

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MCP Protocol Version

This server pins MCP protocol version 2025-11-25 (constant PROTOCOL_VERSION in server.py). A regression test detects drift against the installed SDK so a protocol bump is a conscious change (version + CHANGELOG + this section). SDK updates land monthly via Dependabot.

Project Phase

Phase 1 — read-only (see ROADMAP.md). All tools are readOnlyHint: true; there are no writing or destructive operations. A move to Phase 2 (write) requires a clean re-audit and the gates listed in the roadmap.

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Available Tools

Court Decision Search

Tool	Description
search_court_decisions	Full-text search across all court decisions with canton, court level, and date filters
get_court_decision	Retrieve a single decision by its unique signature
search_bger_decisions	Search Federal Supreme Court decisions with optional chamber filter
search_by_law_reference	Find decisions citing a specific law article (e.g., "Art. 8 BV")

Court Information

Tool	Description
list_courts	List all indexed courts, optionally filtered by canton
get_recent_decisions	Latest decisions, filterable by canton and court level
get_decision_statistics	Statistics on indexed decisions by canton and year

Tool Annotations

All seven tools share the same hints — they are read-only, idempotent, non-destructive, and reach an external system:

Annotation	Value
readOnlyHint	true
destructiveHint	false
idempotentHint	true
openWorldHint	true

A rechtsrecherche prompt is also provided (a second MCP primitive alongside tools).

Example Use Cases

Use Case	Tool Chain
Research case law on data protection	search_court_decisions("Datenschutz")
Find practice on a constitutional right	search_by_law_reference("Art. 8 BV")
Latest Federal Supreme Court rulings	search_bger_decisions("Arbeitsrecht", date_from="2024-01-01")
Combined: Law text + case law	fedlex_search_laws("DSG") then search_by_law_reference("Art. 25 DSG")

→ More use cases by audience →

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Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│         MCP Client (LLM)            │
│   Claude / Cursor / Windsurf        │
└──────────────┬──────────────────────┘
               │ MCP Protocol
┌──────────────▼──────────────────────┐
│       swiss-courts-mcp              │
│  7 tools · Pydantic validation      │
│  Elasticsearch query builder        │
└──────────────┬──────────────────────┘
               │ HTTPS (POST/GET)
┌──────────────▼──────────────────────┐
│       entscheidsuche.ch             │
│  Elasticsearch backend              │
│  No authentication required         │
│  Federal + 26 cantonal courts       │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

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Safety & Limits

Aspect	Details
Access	Read-only (readOnlyHint: true) — the server cannot modify or delete any data
Personal data	No personal data — all decisions are public court rulings
Rate limits	Built-in per-query caps (max 50 results per search, 50 aggregation buckets)
Timeout	30 seconds per API call
Data source auth	No API keys required — entscheidsuche.ch is publicly accessible
HTTP transport auth	Optional bearer-token auth (JWT, sub-claim identity); see ADR 0001
Egress	Code-layer allow-list (entscheidsuche.ch only, HTTPS-enforced); see egress policy
Error masking	Internal exceptions are logged server-side only; clients receive friendly messages
Secrets	No secrets in code/logs; .env git-ignored, Gitleaks on PRs; see secret management
Licenses	Court decisions are public domain under Swiss law (BGG Art. 27)
Terms of Service	Subject to entscheidsuche.ch usage terms — please be kind to the server

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Project Structure

swiss-courts-mcp/
├── src/
│   └── swiss_courts_mcp/
│       ├── __init__.py
│       ├── __main__.py
│       ├── server.py            # MCP server, 7 tools + 1 prompt, lifespan, auth wiring
│       ├── api_client.py        # HTTP client, ES query builder, egress allow-list
│       ├── auth.py              # JWT bearer-token verifier (HTTP transport)
│       ├── config.py            # Settings object (env-driven)
│       ├── logging_config.py    # structured logging on stderr
│       └── models.py            # structured response envelope
├── tests/                       # unit (respx-mocked) + live + security tests
├── docs/                        # egress, secret-management, ADRs
├── .github/workflows/           # ci · security (gitleaks) · live · publish
├── Dockerfile                   # hardened container (non-root, 0.0.0.0 only here)
├── ROADMAP.md
├── pyproject.toml · CHANGELOG.md · CONTRIBUTING.md · LICENSE
└── README.md · README.de.md

Note (single-file tools): the 7 tools live in server.py rather than a tools/ package. At this count a single module stays readable; the registry (register_tools) keeps registration declarative. This is a deliberate deviation from the "split when > 5 tools" convention and will be revisited if the tool count grows.

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Known Limitations

• Search is limited to decisions indexed by entscheidsuche.ch (not all decisions are publicly available)
• Full-text document content is not returned — only metadata, title, and abstract
• Statistics depend on Elasticsearch aggregation support of the backend
• The court taxonomy structure from Facetten_alle.json may vary

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Testing

Unit tests mock all HTTP with respx; live tests hit the real API and run in a separate nightly workflow (live.yml), never blocking PRs.

# Unit tests (HTTP mocked) — what CI runs
pytest tests/ -v -m "not live"

# Live API tests (real entscheidsuche.ch)
pytest tests/ -v -m live

# Linting
ruff check src/ tests/
ruff format src/ tests/

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Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md.

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

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License

MIT

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Author

Hayal Oezkan · malkreide

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Credits & Related Projects

• entscheidsuche.ch — Swiss court decision search engine
• fedlex-mcp — MCP Server for Swiss federal law (legislation synergy)
• zurich-opendata-mcp — MCP Server for Zurich open data
• Model Context Protocol — Open protocol for AI tool integration