Ethiopian Law MCP Server

The Ethiopian Legal Brief alternative for the AI age.

Query 383 Ethiopian laws -- from the Computer Crime Proclamation and the Criminal Code to the Investment Proclamation, Labour Proclamation, and more -- directly from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client.

If you're building legal tech, compliance tools, or doing Ethiopian legal research, this is your verified reference database.

Built by Ansvar Systems -- Stockholm, Sweden

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Why This Exists

Ethiopian legal research means navigating ethiopianlegalbrief.com, lo.gov.et (Federal Negarit Gazeta), and scattered PDF publications. Whether you're:

• A lawyer validating citations in a brief or contract
• A compliance officer checking obligations under the Investment Proclamation or Data Protection framework
• A legal tech developer building tools on Ethiopian law
• A researcher tracing legislative provisions across federal proclamations

...you shouldn't need dozens of browser tabs and manual PDF cross-referencing. Ask Claude. Get the exact provision. With context.

This MCP server makes Ethiopian law searchable, cross-referenceable, and AI-readable.

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Quick Start

Use Remotely (No Install Needed)

Connect directly to the hosted version -- zero dependencies, nothing to install.

Endpoint: https://mcp.ansvar.eu/law-et/mcp

Client	How to Connect
Claude.ai	Settings > Connectors > Add Integration > paste URL
Claude Code	claude mcp add ethiopian-law --transport http https://mcp.ansvar.eu/law-et/mcp
Claude Desktop	Add to config (see below)
GitHub Copilot	Add to VS Code settings (see below)

Claude Desktop -- add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ethiopian-law": {
      "type": "url",
      "url": "https://mcp.ansvar.eu/law-et/mcp"
    }
  }
}

GitHub Copilot -- add to VS Code settings.json:

{
  "github.copilot.chat.mcp.servers": {
    "ethiopian-law": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.ansvar.eu/law-et/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Use Locally (npm)

npx @ansvar/ethiopian-law-mcp

Claude Desktop -- add to claude_desktop_config.json:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ethiopian-law": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ansvar/ethiopian-law-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor / VS Code:

{
  "mcp.servers": {
    "ethiopian-law": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ansvar/ethiopian-law-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

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Example Queries

Once connected, just ask naturally:

• "What does the Computer Crime Proclamation say about cybercrime offences?"
• "Find provisions in the Criminal Code about corruption and bribery"
• "What are the requirements under the Investment Proclamation for foreign investors?"
• "Is Proclamation No. 1038/2017 still in force?"
• "Search for data protection provisions in Ethiopian law"
• "What does the Labour Proclamation say about termination of employment?"
• "Build a legal stance on intellectual property protection in Ethiopia"
• "Validate the citation 'Proclamation No. 810/2013'"

In Amharic (ኣማርኛ):

• "የኢትዮጵያ የሰራተኛ ህግ ምንድን ነው?" (What is Ethiopian labour law?)
• "የወንጀል ህጉ ስለ ሙስና ምን ይላል?" (What does the Criminal Code say about corruption?)
• "ስለ ኢንቨስትመንት አዋጅ ድንጋጌዎችን ፈልግ" (Search for provisions in the Investment Proclamation)

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What's Included

Category	Count	Details
Laws / Proclamations	383	Federal proclamations, regulations, and directives
Provisions	8,723 sections	Full-text searchable with FTS5
Legal Definitions	Included	Extracted from proclamation texts
Database Size	~17 MB	Optimized SQLite, portable
Freshness Checks	Automated	Monitoring against lawethiopia.com and lo.gov.et

Verified data only -- every citation is validated against official sources (Federal Negarit Gazeta, lawethiopia.com). Zero LLM-generated content.

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Why This Works

Verbatim Source Text (No LLM Processing):

• All statute text is ingested from lawethiopia.com and the Federal Negarit Gazeta (lo.gov.et)
• Provisions are returned unchanged from SQLite FTS5 database rows
• Zero LLM summarization or paraphrasing -- the database contains proclamation text, not AI interpretations

Smart Context Management:

• Search returns ranked provisions with BM25 scoring (safe for context)
• Provision retrieval gives exact text by proclamation number and article
• Cross-references help navigate without loading everything at once

Technical Architecture:

lawethiopia.com / lo.gov.et --> Parse --> SQLite --> FTS5 snippet() --> MCP response
                                  ^                        ^
                           Provision parser         Verbatim database query

Traditional Research vs. This MCP

Traditional Approach	This MCP Server
Search lo.gov.et by proclamation number	Search by plain language: "data protection consent"
Navigate multi-article proclamations manually	Get the exact provision with context
Manual cross-referencing between laws	build_legal_stance aggregates across sources
"Is this proclamation still in force?" --> check manually	check_currency tool --> answer in seconds
Find international alignment --> dig through AU frameworks	get_eu_basis --> linked frameworks instantly
No API, no integration	MCP protocol --> AI-native

Traditional: Search Negarit Gazeta --> Download PDF --> Ctrl+F --> Cross-reference proclamations --> Check amendments manually --> Repeat

This MCP: "What does Proclamation No. 1037/2017 say about cybercrime and what are the penalties?" --> Done.

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Available Tools (13)

Core Legal Research Tools (8)

Tool	Description
search_legislation	FTS5 full-text search across 8,723 provisions with BM25 ranking. Supports quoted phrases, boolean operators, prefix wildcards
get_provision	Retrieve specific provision by proclamation number and article (e.g., "Proc. No. 810/2013" + "Article 5")
check_currency	Check if a proclamation is in force, amended, or repealed
validate_citation	Validate citation against database -- zero-hallucination check. Supports "Proclamation No. 810/2013", "Art. 5 Proc. 1038/2017"
build_legal_stance	Aggregate citations from multiple proclamations for a legal topic
format_citation	Format citations per Ethiopian conventions (full/short/pinpoint)
list_sources	List all available laws with metadata, coverage scope, and data provenance
about	Server info, capabilities, dataset statistics, and coverage summary

International Law Integration Tools (5)

Tool	Description
get_eu_basis	Get international frameworks (AU, IGAD, EAC observer) that an Ethiopian law aligns with
get_ethiopian_implementations	Find Ethiopian laws implementing a specific international framework or convention
search_eu_implementations	Search international documents with Ethiopian alignment counts
get_provision_eu_basis	Get international law references for a specific provision
validate_eu_compliance	Check alignment status of Ethiopian laws against international standards

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International Law Alignment

Ethiopia is not an EU member state. Ethiopian law develops through its own constitutional and federal legislative framework, with international alignment through:

• African Union (AU) -- Malabo Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection; AU frameworks on digital economy and data governance
• IGAD -- Regional integration framework for the Horn of Africa
• EAC (observer) -- East African Community regulatory alignment
• UN Conventions -- UNCAC (anti-corruption), UNTOC, and international human rights instruments

The international bridge tools allow you to explore these alignment relationships -- checking which Ethiopian provisions correspond to AU or UN requirements, and vice versa.

Note: International cross-references reflect alignment and framework relationships, not direct transposition. Ethiopia develops its own legislative approach, and the alignment tools help identify where Ethiopian and international law address similar domains.

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Data Sources & Freshness

All content is sourced from authoritative Ethiopian legal databases:

• lawethiopia.com -- Comprehensive Ethiopian legislation database (primary source)
• Federal Negarit Gazeta -- Official government gazette (lo.gov.et)

Data Provenance

Field	Value
Authority	Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Primary source	lawethiopia.com / Federal Negarit Gazeta (lo.gov.et)
Languages	English (primary legal language) and Amharic
Coverage	383 federal proclamations, regulations, and directives
Last ingested	2026-02-25

Automated Freshness Checks

A GitHub Actions workflow monitors data sources for changes:

Check	Method
Proclamation amendments	Drift detection against known provision anchors
New proclamations	Comparison against source index
Repealed instruments	Status change detection

Verified data only -- every citation is validated against official sources. Zero LLM-generated content.

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Security

This project uses multiple layers of automated security scanning:

Scanner	What It Does	Schedule
CodeQL	Static analysis for security vulnerabilities	Weekly + PRs
Semgrep	SAST scanning (OWASP top 10, secrets, TypeScript)	Every push
Gitleaks	Secret detection across git history	Every push
Trivy	CVE scanning on filesystem and npm dependencies	Daily
Socket.dev	Supply chain attack detection	PRs
Dependabot	Automated dependency updates	Weekly

See SECURITY.md for the full policy and vulnerability reporting.

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Important Disclaimers

Legal Advice

THIS TOOL IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE

Statute text is sourced from lawethiopia.com and the Federal Negarit Gazeta. However:

• This is a research tool, not a substitute for professional legal counsel
• Court case coverage is not included -- do not rely solely on this for case law research
• Verify critical citations against primary sources for court filings
• International cross-references reflect alignment relationships, not direct transposition
• Amharic-language versions -- where proclamations exist in both English and Amharic, verify the Amharic text against official Negarit Gazeta publications

Before using professionally, read: DISCLAIMER.md | SECURITY.md

Client Confidentiality

Queries go through the Claude API. For privileged or confidential matters, use on-premise deployment.

Bar Association

For professional legal use in Ethiopia, consult guidance from the Ethiopian Bar Association and the Ethiopian Lawyers Association regarding professional obligations.

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Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/Ansvar-Systems/Ethiopian-Law-MCP
cd Ethiopian-Law-MCP
npm install
npm run build
npm test

Running Locally

npm run dev                                       # Start MCP server
npx @anthropic/mcp-inspector node dist/index.js   # Test with MCP Inspector

Data Management

npm run ingest              # Ingest laws from lawethiopia.com
npm run build:db            # Rebuild SQLite database
npm run drift:detect        # Run drift detection against anchors
npm run check-updates       # Check for amendments and new proclamations
npm run census              # Generate coverage census

Performance

• Search Speed: <100ms for most FTS5 queries
• Database Size: ~17 MB (efficient, portable)
• Reliability: 100% ingestion success rate across 383 laws

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Related Projects: Complete Compliance Suite

This server is part of Ansvar's Compliance Suite -- MCP servers that work together for end-to-end compliance coverage:

@ansvar/eu-regulations-mcp

Query 49 EU regulations directly from Claude -- GDPR, AI Act, DORA, NIS2, MiFID II, eIDAS, and more. Full regulatory text with article-level search. npx @ansvar/eu-regulations-mcp

@ansvar/us-regulations-mcp

Query US federal and state compliance laws -- HIPAA, CCPA, SOX, GLBA, FERPA, and more. npx @ansvar/us-regulations-mcp

@ansvar/security-controls-mcp

Query 261 security frameworks -- ISO 27001, NIST CSF, SOC 2, CIS Controls, SCF, and more. npx @ansvar/security-controls-mcp

70+ national law MCPs covering Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Malawi, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, UK, and more.

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Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Priority areas:

• Amharic-language full-text provision ingestion
• Court case law expansion (Federal Supreme Court, Federal High Court)
• Historical proclamation versions and amendment tracking
• Regional state legislation coverage
• AU framework cross-reference expansion

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Roadmap

• Core proclamation database with FTS5 search
• Full corpus ingestion (383 laws, 8,723 provisions)
• International law alignment tools
• Vercel Streamable HTTP deployment
• npm package publication
• Amharic-language provision text
• Court case law expansion
• Historical proclamation versions (amendment tracking)
• Regional state legislation
• AU Malabo Convention cross-references

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Citation

If you use this MCP server in academic research:

@software{ethiopian_law_mcp_2026,
  author = {Ansvar Systems AB},
  title = {Ethiopian Law MCP Server: AI-Powered Legal Research Tool},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://github.com/Ansvar-Systems/Ethiopian-Law-MCP},
  note = {383 Ethiopian proclamations with 8,723 provisions sourced from lawethiopia.com and Federal Negarit Gazeta}
}

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License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE for details.

Data Licenses

• Proclamations & Legislation: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (public domain)
• International Framework Metadata: AU / UN (public domain)

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About Ansvar Systems

We build AI-accelerated compliance and legal research tools for the global market. This MCP server started as our internal reference tool -- turns out everyone building for the Ethiopian or East African market has the same research frustrations.

So we're open-sourcing it. Navigating 383 federal proclamations shouldn't require a law degree.

ansvar.eu -- Stockholm, Sweden

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_{Built with care in Stockholm, Sweden}