Bettercallclaude

Swiss Legal Intelligence Plugin for Cowork Desktop

BetterCallClaude transforms legal research, case strategy, and document drafting for Swiss lawyers. It provides deep integration with Swiss legal databases, multi-lingual analysis (DE/FR/IT/EN), and built-in Anwaltsgeheimnis (attorney-client privilege) protection -- 20 agents, 19 commands, 14 skills, and 9 MCP servers covering BGE/ATF/DTF precedent research, litigation strategy, adversarial analysis, legal drafting, citation verification, document intelligence, and CAS/TAS sports arbitration across all 26 Swiss cantons.

Claude Code CLI users: this repository is Cowork Desktop only. The CLI version is at fedec65/bettercallclaude-cli.

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Overview

BetterCallClaude provides a structured methodology for handling legal work with AI assistance. The framework consists of five interconnected phases.

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What's New in v4.4.0

v4.4.0 — Repository split + two new MCP servers. The plugin repo is now plugin-only; MCP server source code lives canonically in a dedicated repository, and two new MCP servers are exposed to users.

• Repository split — mcp-servers-src/ and mcp-servers-http/ have been removed from this repo. The TypeScript source for all 7 remote MCP servers and the HTTP aggregator deployed at mcp.bettercallclaude.ch now live in fedec65/BetterCallClaudeMCP. Plugin users are unaffected — .mcp.json still points at the same production URLs.
• New MCP: legal-persona — Swiss-law-aware document intelligence. Three tools: legal_strategy (structured case strategy with statutory citations), legal_draft (15 Swiss document types across contracts, litigation, and opinions in DE/FR/IT/EN), and legal_analyze (compliance, clause-extraction, and issue-flagging against OR / ZGB / DSG).
• New MCP: tas-jurisprudence — Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS/TAS) decision search. Four tools: cas_search, cas_get_award, cas_recent, cas_by_sport. Backed by a Playwright-rendered crawl of jurisprudence.tas-cas.org with respectful rate limits.
• Ollama local server — still bundled in this repo; npm run build:ollama now rebuilds it in-place for contributors.
• Simpler CI — plugin-only repo means CI is now validate-plugin + package dry-run; the MCP build/test matrix has moved to BetterCallClaudeMCP.

Content counts: 20 agents, 19 commands, 14 skills, 9 MCP servers in .mcp.json (7 remote HTTP on mcp.bettercallclaude.ch + swiss-caselaw SSE on mcp.opencaselaw.ch + ollama local STDIO).

Full changelog →

Cowork Desktop dedicated release -- This repository is exclusively for Claude Cowork Desktop. The Claude Code CLI version is at fedec65/bettercallclaude-cli.

• HTTP-only transport: 8 of 9 MCP servers connect via mcp.bettercallclaude.ch / mcp.opencaselaw.ch -- no local Node.js build required for those
• Local STDIO server (ollama): bundled and only touches http://localhost:11434 for privacy-routed translation/summarisation
• Simplified setup: /setup checks connectivity only -- no transport switching needed in Cowork

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Installation

Full installation guide with screenshots: BetterCallClaude Tutorial →

1. In Cowork, click Customize > Browse plugins > Personal > + > Add marketplace from GitHub
2. Enter fedec65/bettercallclaude and click Sync
3. Click Install on the BetterCallClaude card

MCP servers connect automatically via HTTP. No Node.js, no local setup, no API keys required.

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Commands

Command	Description
/bettercallclaude:legal	Intelligent gateway -- analyzes intent, routes to the appropriate specialist agent, and manages multi-step legal workflows. Use --refine to transform vague queries first.
/bettercallclaude:refine	Transform vague legal queries into structured prompts through Socratic dialogue. Recommends optimal workflows and introduces Swiss legal terminology.
/bettercallclaude:research	Search Swiss legal precedents and compile research memoranda. Supports BGE/ATF/DTF databases, doctrine references, and cross-jurisdictional analysis.
/bettercallclaude:strategy	Develop litigation strategy with risk assessment, cost-benefit analysis, and procedural pathway evaluation.
/bettercallclaude:draft	Draft Swiss legal documents including contracts, court briefs, legal opinions, and memoranda with proper citation formatting.
/bettercallclaude:cite	Verify and format Swiss legal citations across all four national languages (BGE/ATF/DTF formats).
/bettercallclaude:validate	Validate Swiss legal citations in bulk -- check format, existence, and cross-language consistency.
/bettercallclaude:precedent	Search and analyze BGE/ATF/DTF precedents with precedent chain tracking and evolution analysis.
/bettercallclaude:federal	Analyze a legal question under federal Swiss law (ZGB, OR, StGB, BV, and related federal statutes).
/bettercallclaude:cantonal	Analyze a legal question under cantonal law for a specific canton.
/bettercallclaude:adversarial	Run three-agent adversarial analysis -- advocate builds the case, adversary challenges it, judicial analyst synthesizes.
/bettercallclaude:briefing	Structured pre-execution briefing -- assembles a specialist panel, collects case context, and builds an execution plan before agents start working.
/bettercallclaude:workflow	Define and execute multi-agent legal workflows (due diligence, litigation prep, contract lifecycle, real estate closing).
/bettercallclaude:translate	Translate Swiss legal documents between DE, FR, IT, and EN while preserving legal terminology precision.
/bettercallclaude:doc-analyze	Analyze Swiss legal documents -- identify legal issues, extract key clauses, verify citations, assess compliance.
/bettercallclaude:summarize	Consolidate multi-agent pipeline output -- deduplicate disclaimers, terminology, and citations with length control (--short/--medium/--long).
/bettercallclaude:setup	Check MCP server connectivity and display status for all 9 servers.
/bettercallclaude:version	Display plugin version, installed components, and system status.
/bettercallclaude:help	Show complete command reference, available agents, skills, and usage examples.

Usage Examples

/bettercallclaude:legal I need to assess our exposure under Art. 97 OR for late delivery

/bettercallclaude:refine I have problems with my landlord

/bettercallclaude:research Art. 97 OR contractual liability for late delivery

/bettercallclaude:strategy Commercial lease dispute in Zurich, landlord claims CHF 200k damages

/bettercallclaude:draft Employment contract for a software engineer in Geneva, bilingual DE/FR

/bettercallclaude:adversarial Is the non-compete clause in this employment contract enforceable?

/bettercallclaude:workflow litigation-prep Personal injury claim against manufacturer

/bettercallclaude:briefing Prepare full litigation for Art. 97 OR breach, CHF 500K, Zurich

/bettercallclaude:cantonal ZH Commercial court jurisdiction for contract disputes over CHF 30k

/bettercallclaude:doc-analyze @contract.pdf Review this commercial lease agreement

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Key Features

• Briefing sessions -- Complex queries trigger a collaborative intake phase with specialist panels, targeted questions, and structured execution plans before agents start working. Supports --resume for cross-session persistence.
• Adversarial analysis -- Three-agent workflow: advocate builds the case, adversary challenges it, judicial analyst synthesizes using Swiss Erwagung methodology with probability scores.
• Multi-agent workflows -- Predefined pipelines for due diligence, litigation prep, contract lifecycle, and real estate closings.
• All 26 cantons -- Full cantonal coverage with court systems, citation formats, and MCP search via entscheidsuche.ch. Federal law is the default; mentioning a canton triggers cantonal mode.
• Multi-language -- Automatic language detection for DE/FR/IT/EN with correct legal terminology and citation formats.

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MCP Servers

All servers connect automatically after installation. No configuration required.

Server	Purpose	Transport
entscheidsuche	Swiss court decision search (Bundesgericht + cantonal)	HTTP
bge-search	Federal Supreme Court decision search	HTTP
legal-citations	Citation verification and formatting	HTTP
fedlex-sparql	Federal legislation database (SPARQL)	HTTP
onlinekommentar	Swiss legal commentaries	HTTP
legal-persona	Swiss-law document intelligence (strategy, drafting, analysis)	HTTP
tas-jurisprudence	CAS/TAS sports arbitration decisions	HTTP
swiss-caselaw	Case law, citation graphs, appeal chains (opencaselaw.ch)	SSE
ollama	Local privacy classification for Anwaltsgeheimnis	Local

The seven HTTP servers connect to https://mcp.bettercallclaude.ch (rate limit: 60 req/min per IP). The swiss-caselaw server connects to https://mcp.opencaselaw.ch. No API keys required for any server.

See CONNECTORS.md for detailed API documentation.

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Privacy

BetterCallClaude includes built-in Anwaltsgeheimnis (attorney-client privilege, Art. 321 StGB) compliance. A PreToolUse hook scans outgoing tool calls for privilege indicators in German (Anwaltsgeheimnis, Mandantengeheimnis, vertraulich), French (secret professionnel, confidentiel), and Italian (segreto professionale, confidenziale).

Mode	Behavior
strict	All external calls require confirmation. Local processing preferred via Ollama.
balanced	Privileged content triggers confirmation. Non-privileged content processed normally.
cloud	Standard cloud processing with privacy hook active for explicit privilege markers only.

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Language Support

Language	Code	Legal Context
German	DE	Primary: ZGB, OR, StGB, BGE. Used in ZH, BE, BS, and German-speaking cantons.
French	FR	Official: CC, CO, CP, ATF. Used in GE, VD, and French-speaking cantons.
Italian	IT	Official: CC, CO, CP, DTF. Used in TI and Italian-speaking regions.
English	EN	Working language with Swiss legal term mapping.

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Requirements

• Claude Cowork Desktop (latest version)
• Node.js >= 18 (for the ollama privacy classifier only -- all other servers connect via HTTP)

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CLI Version

Prefer working from the terminal? BetterCallClaude CLI is the Claude Code CLI edition with local stdio MCP transport, configurable HTTP fallback, and the same 20 agents, 19 commands, and 14 skills.

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Author

Federico Cesconi -- fedec65/bettercallclaude -- bettercallclaude.ch

License

AGPL-3.0 -- See LICENSE for full terms.

Support the project

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For Developers

This repo contains the plugin only (agents, commands, skills, hooks, .mcp.json, and the bundled ollama local STDIO server). MCP server source code and the HTTP aggregator deployed to Railway at mcp.bettercallclaude.ch live in the separate fedec65/BetterCallClaudeMCP repo.

npm run package        # Create distributable plugin zip

To change an MCP server's behaviour, open a PR in fedec65/BetterCallClaudeMCP. Railway auto-redeploys on merge to main.

See CONNECTORS.md for MCP server API documentation and CONTRIBUTING.md for the full contributor workflow.

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Professional Disclaimer

BetterCallClaude is a legal research and analysis tool. All outputs produced by this plugin:

• Require professional lawyer review and validation before use.
• Do not constitute legal advice.
• May contain errors, omissions, or outdated information.
• Must be verified against official sources (admin.ch, court databases, official gazettes).
• Must be adapted to the specific circumstances of each case.

Lawyers maintain full professional responsibility for all legal work products. This tool assists legal professionals but does not replace professional judgment, independent verification, or the duty of care owed to clients.