MCP Integration

When you ask AI Legal UK to check whether a law has been amended or is still in force, it doesn't just guess from its training data -- it actually looks it up in real time. This is possible because of something called the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Think of MCP like giving the AI a library card. Without it, the AI can only tell you what it learned during training (which might be months out of date). With MCP, the AI can walk into the library (legislation.gov.uk and a database of 63,000 court cases) and check the actual current state of the law.

This matters because laws change constantly. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 abolished Section 21 evictions. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 changed GDPR rules. If your AI doesn't know about these changes, it gives you wrong advice. MCP prevents that.

Plate I — the broadsheet rebrand.

Plate I.a — the original, kept for reference.

What Is MCP?

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol that lets AI models connect to external data sources and tools in real time. Instead of relying solely on training data (which may be months or years out of date), MCP gives the AI live access to external systems during a conversation.

Without MCP

The AI only knows what was in its training data. If a statute was amended last month, the AI may still cite the old version. If a new Act commenced last week, the AI does not know it exists.

With MCP

The AI can:

• Look up live legislation from legislation.gov.uk
• Check if a statute is still in force or has been repealed
• Search amendments affecting a specific Act
• Query 63,000+ court cases with semantic search
• Retrieve explanatory notes for complex legislation

Real-Time Legal Data

MCP bridges the gap between the AI's training cutoff and the current state of UK law. This is especially important for fast-moving areas like employment law (ERA 2025), consumer protection (DMCCA 2024), and corporate compliance (ECCTA 2023).

How AI Legal UK Uses MCP

AI Legal UK connects to two MCP servers that provide complementary coverage:

Server	Type	Source	Coverage
uk-legislation	Local	legislation.gov.uk	All UK statutes and SIs
lex	Remote	lex.lab.i.ai.gov.uk	63,000+ court cases + semantic search

Configuration

Both servers are registered in .mcp.json at the project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "uk-legislation": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["tsx", "mcp-servers/uk-legislation/src/index.ts"]
    },
    "lex": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://lex.lab.i.ai.gov.uk/mcp"
    }
  }
}

• The uk-legislation server runs locally as a stdio process
• The lex server is a remote HTTP endpoint -- no local setup required

How Skills Use MCP

Skills reference MCP tools by name in their prompts. For example, the Legislation Tracker skill may call search_legislation to find a statute, then check_in_force to verify it is still current, then check_amendments to see recent changes.

The skill itself does not contain code -- it is a Markdown prompt that instructs the active agent host to use the available MCP tools when it needs live data.

No Extra Setup for CLI Users

If you installed AI Legal UK via install.sh, the MCP configuration is already in place. The uk-legislation server starts automatically when Claude Code needs it. The remote lex server requires no local installation.

When MCP Is Used

MCP tools are called on demand during analysis. Not every skill needs live data. For example:

Skill	Uses MCP?	Why
Contract Review	Sometimes	To verify statute citations in the contract
Legislation Tracker	Always	Core purpose is checking statute currency
Compliance Audit	Sometimes	To confirm regulatory provisions are current
Plain English	Rarely	Translation does not usually require live data
NDA Generator	No	Document generation uses templates, not live lookups

The AI decides when to call MCP tools based on the analysis context. You do not need to configure anything -- it happens automatically.