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MCP Server

Expose a deployment's rules as Model Context Protocol tools so any MCP-enabled AI client can call them.

Audience: Developers wiring deployed rules into Claude, an IDE agent, or a custom MCP host Prerequisites: A deployment (Exporting Rules for Deployment) Time: 10 minutes Goal: Connect an AI chat/MCP client to your deployment

When to Use This

Use the MCP server when an AI client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, an IDE agent, or your own MCP host) should be able to call your exported rules as tools during a conversation. Each exported function becomes one MCP tool with a typed input schema derived from its GIVEN parameters.

Prefer the OpenAPI spec for deterministic server-to-server calls, or the OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible AI APIs for a hosted chat experience.

Endpoint

Legalese Cloud:

https://mcp.legalese.cloud/{orgSlug}/{deploymentId}

Self-hosted jl4-service:

http://{serviceUrl}/{deploymentId}/.mcp

{serviceUrl} is the jl4-service URL configured in the extension settings. The VS Code Integrate dialog pre-fills the correct form for whichever connection you are on.

Authentication

  • Legalese Cloud: authenticate with your Legalese Cloud session via OAuth, or use an API key (Authorization: Bearer sk_...) created in the console. Uses the l4:rules, l4:evaluate and l4:read permissions.
  • Self-hosted: whatever auth your jl4-service is configured with (often none for a local instance).

Legalese Cloud Permissions

An MCP client does two things — list the tools, then call them — so the key needs the matching scopes:

Permission Enables
l4:rules The MCP tools/list response: one tool per exported rule, with its name and description. Without it the client sees an empty tool list.
l4:read The full input/output schema for each tool, so the client can validate arguments and the model knows exactly what each rule expects.
l4:evaluate The MCP tools/call operation: actually running a rule with arguments and returning its typed decision.

l4:rules + l4:read alone make a read-only catalog (tools are visible but uncallable); add l4:evaluate for a client that can also execute rules.

Use It

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http legalese-rules \
  https://mcp.legalese.cloud/{orgSlug}/{deploymentId} \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer sk_..."

Claude Desktop / generic MCP client

Add an HTTP MCP server entry pointing at the endpoint above and supply the Authorization header. The client will list one tool per exported rule; the model invokes them with structured arguments and receives the rule's typed decision back.

Verifying

Once connected, the client's tool list shows your exported rule names. Ask the model a question that needs one of the rules — it will call the matching tool and answer from the rule's output rather than guessing.

Notes

  • Tools and their input schemas update automatically when you redeploy.
  • The server only exposes the rules in that one deployment.
  • A self-hosted jl4-service serves MCP at http://{serviceUrl}/{deploymentId}/.mcp; there is no separate mcp. host.