Tanzanian Law MCP Server

The Tanzania Laws alternative for the AI age.

Query 3,562 Tanzanian laws -- from the Personal Data Protection Act 2022 and the Penal Code to the Employment and Labour Relations Act, Companies Act, and more -- directly from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client.

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

Built by Ansvar Systems -- Stockholm, Sweden

---

Why This Exists

Tanzanian legal research means navigating tanzlii.org and parliament.go.tz across a complex federation of Acts, Subsidiary Legislation, and regional instruments. Whether you're:

• A lawyer validating citations in a brief or contract
• A compliance officer checking obligations under the PDPA 2022 or the Electronic and Postal Communications Act
• A legal tech developer building tools on Tanzanian law
• A researcher tracing legislative history across 3,562 Acts

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

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

---

Quick Start

Use Remotely (No Install Needed)

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

Endpoint: https://tanzanian-law-mcp.vercel.app/mcp

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

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

{
  "github.copilot.chat.mcp.servers": {
    "tanzanian-law": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://tanzanian-law-mcp.vercel.app/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Use Locally (npm)

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

Cursor / VS Code:

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

---

Example Queries

Once connected, just ask naturally:

• "What does the Personal Data Protection Act 2022 say about consent?"
• "Find provisions in the Penal Code about cybercrime offences"
• "Search for employment law under the Employment and Labour Relations Act"
• "Is the Electronic and Postal Communications Act still in force?"
• "What does the Companies Act say about director duties?"
• "Find provisions about land rights under the Land Act"
• "Validate the citation 'Section 15 Personal Data Protection Act 2022'"
• "Build a legal stance on data breach notification requirements in Tanzania"

---

What's Included

Category	Count	Details
Statutes	3,562 laws	Comprehensive Tanzanian legislation from tanzlii.org
Provisions	32,865 sections	Full-text searchable with FTS5
Database Size	~55 MB	Optimized SQLite, portable
Legal Definitions	Table reserved	Extraction planned for upcoming release
Freshness Checks	Automated	Drift detection against official sources

Verified data only -- every citation is validated against official sources (Tanzania Laws, Parliament of Tanzania). Zero LLM-generated content.

---

Why This Works

Verbatim Source Text (No LLM Processing):

• All statute text is ingested from tanzlii.org and parliament.go.tz
• Provisions are returned unchanged from SQLite FTS5 database rows
• Zero LLM summarization or paraphrasing -- the database contains statute text, not AI interpretations

Smart Context Management:

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

Technical Architecture:

tanzlii.org / parliament.go.tz --> Parse --> SQLite --> FTS5 snippet() --> MCP response
                                     ^                        ^
                              Provision parser         Verbatim database query

Traditional Research vs. This MCP

Traditional Approach	This MCP Server
Search tanzlii.org by Act name	Search by plain English: "personal data consent"
Navigate multi-section statutes manually	Get the exact provision with context
Manual cross-referencing between Acts	build_legal_stance aggregates across sources
"Is this Act still in force?" -- check manually	check_currency tool -- answer in seconds
Find EAC/AU alignment -- search manually	get_eu_basis -- linked frameworks instantly
No API, no integration	MCP protocol -- AI-native

Traditional: Search tanzlii.org -> Navigate HTML -> Ctrl+F -> Cross-reference between Acts -> Repeat

This MCP: "What are the data breach notification requirements under the Personal Data Protection Act 2022?" -> Done.

---

Available Tools (13)

Core Legal Research Tools (8)

Tool	Description
search_legislation	FTS5 full-text search across 32,865 provisions with BM25 ranking. Supports quoted phrases, boolean operators, prefix wildcards
get_provision	Retrieve specific provision by Act identifier + section number
check_currency	Check if a statute is in force, amended, or repealed
validate_citation	Validate citation against database -- zero-hallucination check
build_legal_stance	Aggregate citations from multiple statutes for a legal topic
format_citation	Format citations per Tanzanian legal conventions
list_sources	List all available statutes 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 EU directives/regulations that a Tanzanian statute aligns with (e.g., PDPA 2022 and GDPR principles)
get_tanzanian_implementations	Find Tanzanian laws aligning with a specific international framework
search_eu_implementations	Search EU documents with Tanzanian alignment counts
get_provision_eu_basis	Get international law references for a specific provision
validate_eu_compliance	Check alignment status of Tanzanian statutes against EU/international frameworks

---

International Law Alignment

Tanzania is not an EU member state. The international alignment tools cover the frameworks that matter for Tanzanian law practice:

• EAC frameworks -- East African Community treaty obligations and harmonisation instruments
• African Union -- AU conventions including the Malabo Convention on Data Protection
• Commonwealth -- Commonwealth legal frameworks and model laws
• Personal Data Protection Act 2022 aligns with international data protection principles; the get_eu_basis tool maps these to GDPR-equivalent provisions for cross-reference
• Employment and Labour Relations Act aligns with ILO conventions and EAC labour protocols

The international bridge tools allow you to explore alignment relationships -- checking which Tanzanian provisions correspond to EAC or international requirements, and vice versa.

Note: International cross-references reflect alignment and treaty obligations, not formal transposition. Tanzania adopts its own legislative approach, and these tools help identify where Tanzanian and international law address similar domains.

---

Data Sources & Freshness

All content is sourced from authoritative Tanzanian legal databases:

• Tanzania Legal Information Institute (TanzLII) -- Primary source for Tanzanian legislation
• Parliament of Tanzania -- Official parliamentary records and Acts

Data Provenance

Field	Value
Authority	Tanzania Laws, Parliament of Tanzania
Primary language	English (Swahili for some subsidiary instruments)
License	Public domain (government publications)
Coverage	3,562 Tanzanian Acts and statutory instruments
Last ingested	2026-02-28

Automated Freshness Checks

A GitHub Actions workflow monitors Tanzanian legal sources for changes:

Check	Method
Statute amendments	Drift detection against known provision anchors
New statutes	Comparison against tanzlii.org index
Repealed statutes	Status change detection

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

---

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.

---

Important Disclaimers

Legal Advice

THIS TOOL IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE

Statute text is sourced from Tanzania Laws and TanzLII official sources. 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 before court filings
• International cross-references reflect alignment relationships, not formal transposition
• Zanzibar legislation may have separate applicability -- verify jurisdiction carefully

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 Reference

For professional use, consult the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS) guidelines on AI-assisted legal research.

---

Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/Ansvar-Systems/Tanzanian-law-mcp
cd Tanzanian-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 tanzlii.org
npm run build:db            # Rebuild SQLite database
npm run drift:detect        # Run drift detection against anchors
npm run check-updates       # Check for source updates
npm run census              # Generate coverage census

Performance

• Search Speed: <100ms for most FTS5 queries
• Database Size: ~55 MB (efficient, portable)
• Reliability: 100% ingestion success rate across 3,562 laws

---

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

80+ national law MCPs covering Namibia, Uganda, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and more.

---

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Priority areas:

• Court case law expansion (Court of Appeal, High Court judgments)
• Zanzibar legislation integration
• EAC treaty cross-references
• Swahili-language provision support
• Historical statute versions and amendment tracking

---

Roadmap

• Core statute database with FTS5 search
• Full corpus ingestion (3,562 laws, 32,865 provisions)
• International law alignment tools
• Vercel Streamable HTTP deployment
• npm package publication
• Court case law expansion (Court of Appeal, High Court)
• Zanzibar legislation
• Swahili provision text
• EAC treaty cross-references
• Historical statute versions

---

Citation

If you use this MCP server in academic research:

@software{tanzanian_law_mcp_2026,
  author = {Ansvar Systems AB},
  title = {Tanzanian Law MCP Server: AI-Powered Legal Research Tool},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://github.com/Ansvar-Systems/Tanzanian-law-mcp},
  note = {3,562 Tanzanian laws with 32,865 provisions}
}

---

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE for details.

Data Licenses

• Statutes & Legislation: Tanzania Laws (public domain, government publications)
• International Metadata: Public domain

---

About Ansvar Systems

We build AI-accelerated compliance and legal research tools for the global market. This MCP server makes Tanzanian law accessible to legal professionals and compliance teams worldwide.

So we're open-sourcing it. Navigating 3,562 Acts shouldn't require a law degree.

ansvar.eu -- Stockholm, Sweden

---

_{Built with care in Stockholm, Sweden}