CourtAPI — Federal Court Data vs Courtlistener MCP Server

In-depth architectural comparison of the CourtAPI — Federal Court Data and Courtlistener MCP Server 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.

Which MCP Server Should You Choose?

Choose CourtAPI — Federal Court Data 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).

Explore CourtAPI — Federal Court Data Details

Choose Courtlistener MCP Server 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).

Explore Courtlistener MCP Server Details

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	CourtAPI — Federal Court Data Legal	Courtlistener MCP Server Legal
Summary	Search and retrieve US federal court cases, dockets, claims, and documents via PACER	Search US court opinions, federal dockets, judges, citations, and oral arguments via CourtListener.
Category & Scope	Legal	Legal

Tools & Capabilities Breakdown

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).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "courtapi-federal-court-data": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@courtio/courtapi-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "courtlistener-mcp-server": {
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": [
        "@cyanheads/courtlistener-mcp-server@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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