Questlaw Library vs Swiss Case Law
A side-by-side look at the Questlaw Library and Swiss Case Law MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose Questlaw Library for legal work as a local process; choose Swiss Case Law for legal over a hosted endpoint. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
Which MCP server should you choose?
Choose Questlaw Library when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Legal domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
- You have the keys it needs:
QUESTLAW_VAULT_FILE, QUESTLAW_RECOVERY_CODE, QUESTLAW_ALLOW_ENV_KEY. - You want tools like
library_overview, list_cases, search_library.
Choose Swiss Case Law when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Legal domain.
- You prefer a remote HTTP/SSE transport.
- You want tools like
search, fetch, search_decisions.
Feature & specification comparison
Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Legal | Legal |
| Quality signal | 53/100 · Good | 61/100 · Good |
| Install command | Confirmed | Confirmed |
| Transport | Local subprocess (stdio) | Remote HTTP/SSE |
| Auth | Not declared | Not declared |
| Pricing | Not declared | Not declared |
| Required env vars | QUESTLAW_VAULT_FILEQUESTLAW_RECOVERY_CODEQUESTLAW_ALLOW_ENV_KEY | None listed |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 0 | 74 |
| Directory activity | 0 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 3 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | 10 | 42 |
| Full listing | View Questlaw Library | View Swiss Case Law |
Tools & capabilities
Questlaw Library tools 10
library_overviewWhat the library holds, its projects, courts, and tags, and the export datelist_casesEvery authority, or a filtered subset, in pagessearch_libraryOne ranked search across everythingsearch_casesSaved authorities that matchget_caseOne authority in full, with notes, quotations, and related casessearch_quotesSaved quotations that matchlist_project_casesEverything filed under one projectget_source_textCaptured text of a statute, regulation, rule, or opinionfind_citation_mentionsEvery place a draft cites an authority already in the libraryreload_snapshotRead the newest export from disk again
Swiss Case Law tools 42
searchMinimal search tool following the deep-research search/fetch convention. Returns a ranked list of Swiss court decisions matching a query, each as {id, title, url, snippet}. Pair with `fetch` to retrieve a decision's full text by id. General (non-deep-research) clients should prefer `search_decisions`, which exposes filters (court, canton, date, language) and richer metadata.fetchMinimal fetch tool following the deep-research search/fetch convention. Fetches one Swiss decision's full text by id, returning {id, title, text, url, metadata}. The id comes from a `search` result (a decision_id like bger_6B_1234_2025; a docket number or BGE reference also resolves). General clients should prefer `get_decision`.search_decisionsUse this tool to find COURT DECISIONS (Rechtsprechung): 1,050,000+ Swiss federal and cantonal decisions plus ~2,800 ECtHR decisions concerning Switzerland. Full-text search with keywords, phrases (in quotes), Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), prefix matching (word*), docket lookup (6B_1234/2025) and column-scoped search (regeste:keyword). Filter by court, canton, language, date range, chamber. Results are relevance-ranked and enriched with citation counts, statute references and is_leading_case. Use offset to page. Most recent decisions: empty query + sort='date_desc' + court filter. Newly PUBLISHED decisions (alerts): published_from + sort='published_desc'. Not for statutes (search_laws), commentary (search_scholarship), or administrative guidance (search_practice).get_decisionFetch a single court decision with full text. Look up by decision_id (e.g., bger_6B_1234_2025), docket number (e.g., 6B_1234/2025), or partial match. Full text is truncated at 200,000 characters for very long decisions. Set full_text=false to get only metadata and regeste.get_decisionsUse this tool to fetch SEVERAL decisions at once (1-10 ids) instead of calling get_decision repeatedly. Same data per decision — canonical citation strings, Markdown link, Regeste, metadata — in ONE call. Prefer this whenever you are about to read more than one decision from a search result: it is the difference between one tool call and ten, which matters because clients cap tool calls per turn. full_text defaults to FALSE here (unlike get_decision) because ten full judgments exceed connector response limits; set it true only for a short id list, and each text is excerpted with the cut disclosed. Ids not found are reported individually — the rest of the batch still returns.list_courtsList all available courts with decision counts, date ranges, and language coverage. Use this to discover what data is available.get_statisticsGet aggregate statistics about the dataset. Optionally filter by court, canton, or year.find_citationsGiven a decision_id, show what it cites and what cites it. Uses the reference graph database with 9.65M citation edges. Returns resolved citations with confidence scores and unresolved references.find_appeal_chainTrace the appeal chain (Instanzenzug) for a decision. Shows prior instances (lower courts) and subsequent instances (appeals to higher courts). Reconstructs the full procedural path, e.g. Bezirksgericht → Obergericht → Bundesgericht. Uses the is_prior_instance flag from decision headers.find_leading_casesFind the most-cited decisions for a topic or statute. Authority ranking based on citation graph; a free-text topic ranks decisions whose regeste carries the query terms first (`regeste_match`: share of terms found, null without a regeste). Filter by statute (law_code + article), topic query, court, and date range. Top-3 results auto-attach a `pinpoint` field {e_number, matched_sentence, confidence, url, score, source} anchoring the most-relevant Erwägung (surface it as 'E. <e_number>' when confidence is high or medium). Each result also carries citation_string_{de,fr,it} + canonical_url + is_leading_case + citation_count for ready-to-quote Swiss-format citations. A statute reference inside `query` ("Art. 29 BV") is used as the statute filter. When the query excludes every candidate, the page is relaxed to ranked OR and flagged `filters_relaxed: true` with a `note` — nearest neighbours, not on-point authority.analyze_legal_trendYear-by-year decision counts showing jurisprudence evolution. Use with a statute reference (law_code + article), a text query, or both. Returns yearly counts with visual bar chart.draft_mock_decisionBuild a research-only mock decision outline from user facts. Combines relevant Swiss case law retrieval with statute references. If possible, enriches statutes with Fedlex text excerpts. IMPORTANT: The tool may return clarification questions (high/medium priority). High-priority clarifications must be answered (via the clarifications parameter) before the tool will provide a conclusion. Call again with clarifications to get the full analysis.- +30 more on the listing page
Ready-to-paste client configs
Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
Questlaw Library
{
"mcpServers": {
"questlaw-library": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"questlaw-mcp@0.5.1"
],
"env": {
"QUESTLAW_VAULT_FILE": "YOUR_QUESTLAW_VAULT_FILE_HERE",
"QUESTLAW_RECOVERY_CODE": "YOUR_QUESTLAW_RECOVERY_CODE_HERE",
"QUESTLAW_ALLOW_ENV_KEY": "YOUR_QUESTLAW_ALLOW_ENV_KEY_HERE"
}
}
}
}
Swiss Case Law
{
"mcpServers": {
"swiss-case-law": {
"url": "https://mcp.opencaselaw.ch"
}
}
}
Frequently asked questions
Questlaw Library is categorized under Legal and uses a local stdio subprocess. Swiss Case Law belongs to Legal and uses a remote HTTP/SSE transport. Pick Questlaw Library for legal work and Swiss Case Law for legal.
Copy the mcpServers block from the config section on this page into your client's config (for example claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json), then fully restart the client.
Questlaw Library has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. Swiss Case Law has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. If a server needs environment variables such as API keys, define them under the env key in your client's MCP config.
Yes. MCP clients support multiple servers: add questlaw-library and swiss-case-law as separate keys in the same mcpServers object, and your assistant will call tools from either one.
On AllMCPs, Questlaw Library has a quality signal of 53/100 (Good) with 0 views, 0 installs and 0 GitHub stars. Swiss Case Law has 61/100 (Good) with 3 views, 0 installs and 74 GitHub stars.