# australian-law-mcp [Health: Active]

**Category:** ⚖️ Legal  
**Repository:** https://github.com/ChangkeunJ/australian-law-mcp  
**GitHub Stars:** 3  
**npm Downloads (last month):** 518  
**Views:** 1  
**Installs:** 0  
**Upvotes:** 0  
**Directory Page:** https://allmcps.com/mcp/australian-law-mcp

## Description
Read Australian Commonwealth law as it stood on any date, and verify citations against the register

## Tools
Capabilities this server exposes over MCP:

- **search_law** — Find acts and instruments by name. Returns the title ids the other tools take.
- **get_law_text** — The current compilation: the table of provisions, one section, or the full text paginated. Schedules are addressable too (`section="Schedule 7"`), which is where rate tables and forms actually live.
- **get_law_as_at** — The same, but as the law stood on any past date.
- **verify_citations** — Pull statute citations out of text and check each against the register: does the act exist, is it in force, does the cited section exist. Upstream failures come back as UNVERIFIED, never as a missing law.
- **get_amendment_status** — In force or repealed, what the latest compilation incorporates, whether commenced amendments are still unincorporated, and what has amended it.
- **compare_versions** — What changed between two dates: sections added, removed, reworded — or a line diff of one section.
- **search_full_text** — Relevance-ranked search over the body text of every title on the register.
- **check_frl_health** — Ping the register API so failures elsewhere can be attributed.

## Claude Desktop Quick Installation
Install path detected from listing signals. Uses `npx` (confidence: high):

```json
"mcpServers": {
  "australian-law-mcp": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y","australian-law-mcp"]
  }
}
```

## Documentation

## What australian-law-mcp does

The australian-law-mcp MCP server connects an MCP client to the Federal Register of Legislation, the Commonwealth register for Australian federal legislation. It can locate Acts and legislative instruments, retrieve their text, inspect historical versions, and search across the body of registered titles.

Its point-in-time support is intended for questions where the applicable law may differ from the current compilation. A request can target a date and, where relevant, a section or schedule. This is useful for historical tax, migration, contract, regulatory, and court-related research. The server covers Commonwealth legislation only; it does not provide state legislation, case law, or ATO rulings.

## How it works

Responses are obtained live from the register API rather than from a bundled legal database. The register provides compilations with in-force periods, allowing historical requests to use the version associated with the requested date. Current text can be returned as a table of provisions, a selected section, or paginated full text. Schedules can also be addressed directly.

Citation checking extracts statutory references from supplied text and checks them against the register. It can report whether a title exists, whether it is in force, and whether a cited provision exists. Network or upstream failures are represented as unverified results, rather than being treated as proof that a law or section is absent. Older scanned material is accepted only when its recovered section numbering is coherent.

## Setup and configuration

The server requires Node.js 20 or newer. A stdio MCP client can launch it with `npx -y australian-law-mcp`, so no separate package installation or API key is required. Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, and other stdio clients can use the same command-and-arguments configuration.

A Dockerfile is included for environments that should not install Node on the host. The container must remain attached to standard input because the MCP transport uses stdio; the documented pattern builds the image and runs it interactively with automatic cleanup.

The australian-law-mcp MCP server does not document required environment variables or additional configuration files.

## Tools and capabilities

- `search_law` finds Acts and instruments by name and returns title identifiers for other requests.
- `get_law_text` retrieves the current compilation, provisions, sections, schedules, or paginated full text.
- `get_law_as_at` retrieves the version applicable on a supplied historical date.
- `verify_citations` checks statute references and separates missing provisions from unverified upstream results.
- `get_amendment_status` reports force or repeal status, incorporated amendments, unincorporated commenced amendments, and amending legislation.
- `compare_versions` identifies changes between dates or produces a section-level line diff.
- `search_full_text` performs relevance-ranked searches across title text.
- `check_frl_health` checks whether the register API is responding, helping diagnose failures in other operations.

## Limitations and notes

This tool is limited to Commonwealth legislation. It is not a case-law search service, does not access state registers, and does not provide ATO rulings. The register is the authorised source for the reproduced legislation, and responses include its required attribution. The project is independent of the Office of Parliamentary Counsel and the Australian Government. Its output is legal information rather than legal advice; users should rely on the authorised register publication when a definitive version is required.

The code is MIT-licensed, while legislative content from the register is supplied under CC BY 4.0.

_Full upstream README: https://allmcps.com/mcp/australian-law-mcp/readme_