What is the key difference between Court Listener and Federal Appeals?

Court Listener belongs to the Legal category with local stdio execution, while Federal Appeals belongs to the Legal category with local stdio execution.

How do I install Court Listener or Federal Appeals in Claude Desktop or Cursor?

Copy the mcpServers JSON configuration snippet provided on this page into your claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json file and restart your AI client.

Are Court Listener and Federal Appeals free or paid?

Court Listener operates under a Free / Open Source model (No auth required). Federal Appeals operates under a Free / Open Source model (No auth required).

Which MCP server has more tools and community activity?

Court Listener lists 9 tools with 0 views and 0 GitHub stars. Federal Appeals lists 2 tools with 0 views and 0 GitHub stars.

Can I use both Court Listener and Federal Appeals together in the same MCP host?

Yes! MCP hosts like Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, and VS Code support configuring multiple servers under the mcpServers object simultaneously.

Side-by-Side Model Context Protocol Comparison

Court Listener vs Federal Appeals

In-depth architectural comparison of the Court Listener and Federal Appeals MCP servers. Compare execution transports, security boundaries, tool capabilities, quality scores, and ready-to-paste client installation snippets for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code.

At a Glance & Executive Verdict

Court Listener

Legal · Local stdio

Quality: 56/100 (Good) | Auth: No auth required

Federal Appeals

Legal · Local stdio

Quality: 52/100 (Good) | Auth: No auth required

Verdict Summary: Choose Court Listener if you need specialized Legal tools running via a local process. Choose Federal Appeals if your workspace requires Legal integration with local subprocess execution. Both servers can be configured concurrently in your client's mcpServers manifest.

Which MCP Server Should You Choose?

Choose Court Listener when:

You need dedicated capabilities in the Legal domain.
You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
Primary tools included: find_case, lookup_citation, list_case_opinions.

Explore Court Listener Details

Choose Federal Appeals when:

You need dedicated capabilities in the Legal domain.
You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
Primary tools included: federal_appeal_search, federal_appeal_recent.

Explore Federal Appeals Details

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	Court Listener Legal	F Federal Appeals Legal
Summary	CourtListener MCP — Free Law Project's CourtListener API (free, no auth required for basic access)	Federal appellate dockets — US federal court dockets.
Category & Scope	Legal	Legal
Quality signal

Tools & Capabilities Breakdown

Court Listener Tools (9)

find_case

You know what the case is **called** — "Roe v. Wade", or just "Sullivan"

lookup_citation

You have a reporter citation — "410 U.S. 113"

list_case_opinions

You have a case and want its majority, concurrences and dissents

get_opinion

You have an opinion id and want the **full text

search_opinions

Case search by name, judge or category (mirror-first; a specific `court` code searches live)

search_dockets

Docket-level search, upstream

Ready-to-Paste Client Configurations

Paste either (or both) of these JSON server blocks into your client config file (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json).

Court Listener Configuration

mcpServers (Claude Desktop / Cursor)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "court-listener": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@pipeworx/mcp-court-listener"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Federal Appeals Configuration

mcpServers (Claude Desktop / Cursor)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "federal-appeals": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@pipeworx/mcp-federal-appeals"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Frequently Asked Questions

Court Listener is categorized under Legal and uses a local stdio subprocess. In contrast, Federal Appeals belongs to Legal using local stdio subprocess. Select Court Listener when you need capabilities focused on legal and Federal Appeals when you require tools for legal.