CanLII MCP Server

Canadian case law and legislation metadata across all federal, provincial, and territorial jurisdictions via MCP. Bring your own CanLII API key.

The CanLII MCP server gives AI assistants access to the CanLII Canadian legal information API - case law and legislation metadata across all federal, provincial, and territorial jurisdictions, in English and French. Vaquill hosts a public instance with bring-your-own-key (BYOK) auth, so your CanLII token is forwarded on every request and never stored. US-focused teams use this when they need a Canadian comparator for cross-border matters.

GitHub

Source code, Docker, Workers entry

CanLII API

Upstream API docs

Hosted endpoint

canlii-mcp.vaquill.ai

Forked from tomilashy/canlii-mcp. The Vaquill fork adds BYOK auth, a /health route, and a hosted endpoint. Tools are unchanged.

The CanLII API returns metadata only - titles, citations, dates, keywords, and citation relationships. Full document text is not available through the API. For full opinions, link out to the canonical CanLII page.

Quickstart

1. Apply for a CanLII API key

   Submit the form at canlii.org/en/feedback. Approval typically takes a few business days.

2. Get an MCP gate token

   The hosted endpoint is gated by a bearer token to keep load predictable. Email [e-mail] to request access, or self-host (see below) if you would rather skip the gate.

3. Point your client at the hosted endpoint

   URL: https://canlii-mcp.vaquill.ai/mcp

   Headers:

   • Authorization: Bearer <MCP_AUTH_TOKEN>
   • X-CanLII-Token: <your-canlii-key>
4. Ask your assistant

   Try: “List all federal courts in Canada, then find Supreme Court of Canada decisions on Charter section 7 from 2023.”

Client setup

Claude Desktop / Claude Code

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canlii": {
      "url": "https://canlii-mcp.vaquill.ai/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_MCP_TOKEN",
        "X-CanLII-Token": "YOUR_CANLII_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Any client that supports MCP streamable HTTP with custom headers works. For stdio-only clients use mcp-remote to proxy the hosted endpoint, or run locally via npx.

Tools

Seven tools across case law and legislation:

Case law

Tool	Description
list_case_databases	List all courts and tribunals in the CanLII collection (federal, provincial, territorial)
list_cases	Browse decisions from a specific court or tribunal database
get_case	Metadata for a single case - title, citation, date, language, keywords
get_case_citations	Citation graph - cases cited by, cases citing it, and legislation referenced

Legislation

Tool	Description
list_legislation_databases	List all statute and regulation databases
list_legislation	Browse statutes or regulations from a specific database
get_legislation	Metadata for a single piece of legislation

Authentication

Mode	Header / env	When
BYOK (preferred)	X-CanLII-Token: <key>	Hosted or shared deployments
Server fallback	CANLII_API env var	Self-hosted single-tenant. Required for stdio.
MCP gate	Authorization: Bearer <MCP_AUTH_TOKEN>	Restricts who may use the hosted endpoint

The hosted endpoint requires both the bearer gate token and your CanLII key. Calls hit your own CanLII quota, not Vaquill’s.

Self-hosting

Requires Node.js 22+.

stdio (from source)

git clone https://github.com/Vaquill-AI/canlii-mcp.git
cd canlii-mcp
npm install
npm run build
CANLII_API=your_api_key node dist/index.js

HTTP server

PORT=3000 CANLII_API=your_api_key node dist/index.js --transport http
# MCP endpoint at http://localhost:3000/mcp

The server runs stateless - each request is self-contained, no session ID or initialize handshake required. Test directly with curl:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"list_case_databases","arguments":{"language":"en"}}}'

Docker

docker run \
  -e CANLII_API=your_api_key \
  -e MCP_AUTH_TOKEN=your_secret \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  ghcr.io/tomilashy/canlii-mcp

Or with Docker Compose:

services:
  canlii-mcp:
    image: ghcr.io/tomilashy/canlii-mcp
    environment:
      CANLII_API: your_api_key
      MCP_AUTH_TOKEN: your_secret  # optional
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"

Cloudflare Workers

The repo ships a Workers-compatible entry point (src/worker.ts).

npx wrangler secret put CANLII_API
npx wrangler secret put MCP_AUTH_TOKEN   # optional
npx wrangler deploy

For dashboard / Git-connected deploys, see the README.

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Default	Description
CANLII_API	Yes (server-side)	-	Your CanLII API key. Not needed when callers send X-CanLII-Token.
PORT	No	3000	HTTP server port (HTTP mode only)
MCP_AUTH_TOKEN	No	-	Bearer token for HTTP authentication. If set, all HTTP requests must include Authorization: Bearer <token>. If unset, the server runs without auth.

Rate limits

The server enforces CanLII’s published limits automatically:

• 1 concurrent request
• 2 requests per second
• 5,000 requests per day (hard cap)

Requests beyond the daily cap return an error instead of hitting the upstream API.

Usage examples

Type these to any connected AI assistant:

“List all federal courts and tribunals in Canada.”

“Find Supreme Court of Canada decisions on Charter section 7 from 2023.”

“Get the citation network for R v Jordan 2016 SCC 27 - which cases cite it and what legislation does it reference?”

For US versus Canada comparison work:

“For each Charter section 8 case in the last five years, find the closest US Fourth Amendment analogue using the CourtListener MCP.”

“Pull the metadata for the federal Criminal Code, then list the most recent amendments.”

Related

MCP overview

All Vaquill MCP servers at a glance

Vaquill MCP

Cross-jurisdiction wrapper over the Vaquill API

CourtListener MCP

US federal and state case law and eCFR

Integrations

Chatbots, widgets, browser extensions, automation

Authentication

How Vaquill handles auth across products