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

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.

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

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"]
    }
  }
}

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"

What's Included

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

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: 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.

Available Tools (13)

Core Legal Research Tools (8)

EU Law Integration Tools (5)

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.

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.

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

Automated Freshness Checks (Daily)

A daily GitHub Actions workflow monitors all data sources:

Security

This project uses multiple layers of automated security scanning:

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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}
}

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)

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