French Law MCP Server

The Légifrance alternative for the AI age.

Query 3,958 French statutes -- from le RGPD (loi Informatique et Libertés), le Code pénal, and le Code civil to le Code du travail, le Code de commerce, and more -- directly from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client.

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

Built by Ansvar Systems -- Stockholm, Sweden

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Why This Exists

French legal research is scattered across Légifrance, the Journal Officiel, legistix, and EUR-Lex. Whether you're:

• A lawyer validating citations in a brief or contract
• A compliance officer checking RGPD obligations or sectoral regulations
• A legal tech developer building tools on French law
• A researcher tracing legislative history from projet de loi to code

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

This MCP server makes French 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-fr/mcp

Client	How to Connect
Claude.ai	Settings > Connectors > Add Integration > paste URL
Claude Code	claude mcp add french-law --transport http https://mcp.ansvar.eu/law-fr/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": {
    "french-law": {
      "type": "url",
      "url": "https://mcp.ansvar.eu/law-fr/mcp"
    }
  }
}

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

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

Use Locally (npm)

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

Cursor / VS Code:

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

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Example Queries

Once connected, just ask naturally:

• "Que dit l'article 6 de la loi Informatique et Libertés sur le consentement ?"
• "Recherche 'protection des données personnelles' dans le droit français (RGPD, loi Informatique et Libertés)"
• "Quelles dispositions du Code pénal concernent la fraude informatique ?"
• "Trouve les articles sur le droit du travail liés aux heures supplémentaires dans le Code du travail"
• "What EU directives does the loi Informatique et Libertés implement?"
• "Which French laws implement the NIS2 Directive?"
• "Valide la citation 'Article L. 226-1 du Code pénal'"
• "Compare les exigences de notification d'incident sous NIS2 et la loi française de transposition"
• "Recherche 'responsabilité civile' dans le Code civil"
• "Get the premium case law for RGPD enforcement decisions"

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What's Included

Category	Count	Details
Statutes	3,958 statutes	Comprehensive French legislation from Légifrance
Provisions	193,793 articles	Full-text searchable with FTS5
Case Law	7,112 decisions	Premium tier -- judicial decisions
Preparatory Works	3,411 documents	Premium tier -- projets de loi, rapports
Agency Guidance	0 (free tier)	Reserved for future ingestion
Database Size	~335 MB	Optimized SQLite, portable
Daily Updates	Automated	Freshness checks against Légifrance

Verified data only -- every citation is validated against official sources (Légifrance, legifrance.gouv.fr). Zero LLM-generated content.

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See It In Action

Why This Works

Verbatim Source Text (No LLM Processing):

• All statute text is ingested from Légifrance official publications
• Provisions are returned unchanged from SQLite FTS5 database rows
• Zero LLM summarization or paraphrasing -- the database contains regulation text, not AI interpretations

Smart Context Management:

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

Technical Architecture:

Légifrance API --> Parse --> SQLite --> FTS5 snippet() --> MCP response
                    ^                        ^
             Provision parser         Verbatim database query

Traditional Research vs. This MCP

Traditional Approach	This MCP Server
Search Légifrance by code name	Search by plain French: "protection données personnelles"
Navigate multi-book codes manually	Get the exact article with context
Manual cross-referencing between codes	build_legal_stance aggregates across sources
"Est-ce que cet article est en vigueur ?" -> check manually	check_currency tool -> answer in seconds
Find EU basis -> dig through EUR-Lex	get_eu_basis -> linked EU directives instantly
Check Légifrance, Journal Officiel, EUR-Lex separately	Daily automated freshness checks
No API, no integration	MCP protocol -> AI-native

Traditional: Search Légifrance -> Navigate the code -> Ctrl+F -> Cross-reference with RGPD -> Check EUR-Lex for directive -> Repeat

This MCP: "Quels textes européens ont conduit à l'article L. 34-5 du Code des postes ?" -> Done.

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Available Tools (13)

Core Legal Research Tools (8)

Tool	Description
search_legislation	FTS5 full-text search across 193,793 provisions with BM25 ranking
get_provision	Retrieve specific provision by code + article number
validate_citation	Validate citation against database (zero-hallucination check)
build_legal_stance	Aggregate citations from statutes, case law, preparatory works
format_citation	Format citations per French conventions (full/short/pinpoint)
check_currency	Check if statute is in force, amended, or repealed
list_sources	List all available statutes with metadata and data provenance
about	Server info, capabilities, dataset statistics, and coverage summary

EU Law Integration Tools (5)

Tool	Description
get_eu_basis	Get EU directives/regulations underlying a French statute
get_french_implementations	Find French laws implementing a specific EU act
search_eu_implementations	Search EU documents with French implementation counts
get_provision_eu_basis	Get EU law references for a specific provision
validate_eu_compliance	Check implementation status against EU directives

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EU Law Integration

France is a founding EU member state and plays a central role in EU law-making. French law has extensive EU cross-references across all major regulatory domains.

Metric	Value
EU Integration	Founding EU member (1957)
GDPR Implementation	Loi Informatique et Libertés (modified 2018, CNIL oversight)
NIS2 Transposition	Loi de programmation militaire + ANSSI framework
AI Act	Direct application (no transposition needed for regulation)
EUR-Lex Integration	Automated metadata fetching

Key EU Acts with French Implementations

1. GDPR (2016/679) -- Loi Informatique et Libertés, CNIL decisions
2. NIS2 Directive (2022/2555) -- Loi relative à la résilience des infrastructures critiques
3. eIDAS Regulation (910/2014) -- Ordonnance n° 2017-1426 (identité numérique)
4. AI Act (2024/1689) -- Direct application + French adaptation measures
5. DORA (2022/2554) -- Direct application in financial sector

See EU_INTEGRATION_GUIDE.md for detailed documentation and EU_USAGE_EXAMPLES.md for practical examples.

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Data Sources & Freshness

All content is sourced from authoritative French legal databases:

• Légifrance -- Official French legal database (Direction de l'information légale et administrative)
• Journal Officiel de la République Française -- Official gazette
• EUR-Lex -- Official EU law database (metadata only)

Data Provenance

Field	Value
Authority	Direction de l'information légale et administrative (DILA)
Retrieval method	Légifrance API (legifrance.gouv.fr)
Languages	French (official language of law)
License	Légifrance open data (Licence Ouverte / Open Licence)
Coverage	3,958 consolidated statutes and codes
Last ingested	2026-02-25

Automated Freshness Checks (Daily)

A daily GitHub Actions workflow monitors all data sources:

Source	Check	Method
Statute amendments	Légifrance API date comparison	All 3,958 statutes checked
New statutes	Journal Officiel publications (90-day window)	Diffed against database
Preparatory works	Légifrance proposition API (30-day window)	New texts detected
EU reference staleness	Git commit timestamps	Flagged if >90 days old

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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
Docker Security	Container image scanning + SBOM generation	Daily
Socket.dev	Supply chain attack detection	PRs
OSSF Scorecard	OpenSSF best practices scoring	Weekly
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 official Légifrance publications. However:

• This is a research tool, not a substitute for professional legal counsel
• Court case coverage is limited (premium tier) -- do not rely solely on this for case law research
• Verify critical citations against primary sources for court filings
• EU cross-references are extracted from French statute text, not EUR-Lex full text
• Regulatory guidance (CNIL, ANSSI decisions) is not included in the free tier

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

Client Confidentiality

Queries go through the Claude API. For privileged or confidential matters, use on-premise deployment. For guidance on professional obligations, consult the Conseil National des Barreaux (CNB). See PRIVACY.md for compliance guidance.

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Documentation

• EU Integration Guide -- Detailed EU cross-reference documentation
• EU Usage Examples -- Practical EU lookup examples
• Security Policy -- Vulnerability reporting and scanning details
• Disclaimer -- Legal disclaimers and professional use notices
• Privacy -- Client confidentiality and data handling

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Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/Ansvar-Systems/France-law-mcp
cd France-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 statutes from Légifrance
npm run ingest:legi                    # Ingest via Légifrance API
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 statutes
npm run census                         # Generate coverage census report

Performance

• Search Speed: <100ms for most FTS5 queries
• Database Size: ~335 MB (efficient, portable)
• Reliability: 100% ingestion success rate

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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/french-law-mcp (This Project)

Query 3,958 French statutes directly from Claude -- Code civil, Code pénal, Code du travail, loi Informatique et Libertés, and more. Full provision text with EU cross-references. npx @ansvar/french-law-mcp

@ansvar/spanish-law-mcp

Query 12,181 Spanish statutes -- BOE legislation, LOPDGDD, Código Penal, and more. npx @ansvar/spanish-law-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

@ansvar/sanctions-mcp

Offline-capable sanctions screening -- OFAC, EU, UN sanctions lists. pip install ansvar-sanctions-mcp

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Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Priority areas:

• Court case law expansion (Cour de cassation, Conseil d'État)
• CNIL guidance and decisions ingestion
• Historical statute versions and amendment tracking
• Regional and local authority regulations

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Roadmap

• Core statute database with FTS5 search
• Full corpus ingestion (3,958 statutes, 193,793 provisions)
• EU law integration tools
• Vercel Streamable HTTP deployment
• npm package publication
• Premium case law (7,112 decisions)
• Premium preparatory works (3,411 documents)
• CNIL decisions and guidance documents
• Conseil d'État and Cour de cassation full coverage
• Historical statute versions (amendment tracking)
• English translations for key codes

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Citation

If you use this MCP server in academic research:

@software{french_law_mcp_2026,
  author = {Ansvar Systems AB},
  title = {French Law MCP Server: Production-Grade Legal Research Tool},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://github.com/Ansvar-Systems/France-law-mcp},
  note = {3,958 French statutes and codes with 193,793 provisions and EU law cross-references}
}

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License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE for details.

Data Licenses

• Statutes & Codes: DILA / Direction de l'information légale et administrative (Licence Ouverte)
• Case Law: Légifrance open data
• EU Metadata: EUR-Lex (EU public domain)

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About Ansvar Systems

We build AI-accelerated compliance and legal research tools for the European market. This MCP server started as our internal reference tool for French law -- turns out everyone building for the French and EU markets has the same research frustrations.

So we're open-sourcing it. Navigating 3,958 statutes and codes shouldn't require a law degree.

ansvar.eu -- Stockholm, Sweden

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