Legalithm — EU AI Act compliance in your coding loop

Shipping an AI feature to EU users? Article 50 transparency duties have applied since 2 August 2026. Content marking for systems placed before that date is due 2 December 2026, and Annex III high-risk obligations follow on 2 December 2027. Catch it where you code, in seconds.

_{This image is AI-generated, and it is marked as such with our own tool: legalithm mark --watermark added a C2PA content credential and a pixel watermark, which is what Article 50(2) asks for. Download it and run legalithm verify on it. The credential is signed with the CLI's test certificate, so it is valid but not trust-listed.}

Quickstart

Install the offline server in your editor. No API key, and nothing leaves your machine.

claude plugin marketplace add legalithm-org/legalithm
claude plugin install legalithm@legalithm

Codex:

codex plugin marketplace add legalithm-org/legalithm
codex plugin add legalithm@legalithm

Cursor: use the Add to Cursor badge above.

Then ask your agent "does the EU AI Act apply to this feature, and what tier?"

{
  "risk": "high",
  "confidence": "high",
  "rationale": "This AI system is classified as high-risk under Article 6(2) as it falls into the category of Employment, Workers Management and Access to Self-employment as specified in Annex III...",
  "citations": [
    {
      "article": "6(2)",
      "annex": "III",
      "label": "Article 6(2) & Annex III - High-Risk AI Systems",
      "url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=OJ:L_202401689#article-6",
      "asOf": "2026-08-03",
      "appliesFrom": "2027-12-02"
    }
  ],
  "matchedRules": ["high_risk_employment", "high_risk_domain_selected"],
  "applicableDeadline": "2027-12-02",
  "obligationsHint": {
    "count": 10,
    "topTitles": [
      "Quality Management System (Article 17)",
      "Data Governance (Article 10)",
      "Technical Documentation (Article 11)",
      "Human Oversight (Article 14)"
    ]
  },
  "confidenceScore": 0.72,
  "reviewRequired": false
}

Content marking for Article 50(2), also no key:

npm i -g legalithm
legalithm mark ./out.png --watermark   # writes out.signed.png
legalithm verify ./out.signed.png      # detect both layers

Install it rather than using npx for these two: C2PA and the watermark come from c2pa-node and sharp, which are optional native dependencies that npx does not reliably fetch. Without them mark warns and marks nothing. Everything else in this README works fine under npx.

The compliance record (needs a free key)

npx legalithm setup   # wires hooks, editor rule and MCP config
npx legalithm init    # writes a dated, cited compliance/legalithm.json
npx legalithm check   # re-verify; non-zero exit on drift (for CI)

init and check talk to the hosted record service, so they need a free API key. Everything above this line does not.

Three surfaces

1. Editor — an offline MCP server (legalithm-mcp-server) exposing 4 tools (classify, explain_obligation, generate_disclosure, check_record). No API key. The first three run fully offline; check_record reads a public API.
2. Repo — legalithm init writes a dated, cited compliance/legalithm.json that records your AI system's risk tier and the obligations behind it.
3. CI — legalithm check and the GitHub Action fail the build when the committed record drifts — because your app changed or the law changed under you.

MCP config

Add the offline server to Claude Code, Cursor or Codex manually:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "legalithm": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "legalithm-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

GitHub Action

# .github/workflows/ai-act.yml
name: AI Act
on: [pull_request]
jobs:
  ai-act:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: legalithm-org/legalithm/packages/action@v1
        with:
          api-key: ${{ secrets.LEGALITHM_API_KEY }}

Honest framing

A cited starting point that tells you when to get a human — not legal advice. When unsure, it flags the result for review instead of guessing. Every output is checked against Regulation (EU) 2024/1689; it is not a certification.

Links

• Full docs: https://www.legalithm.com/en/developers/docs
• Landing: https://www.legalithm.com/en/developers

License

MIT