fr-eli-mcp

An MCP server for the French Legifrance API via PISTE. It searches French legislation (LODA laws & decrees, codes) and case law (JURI), and returns verbatim text with verifiable citations. Part of the eu-legal-mcp line of national legal connectors by MateMatic.

Every response carries the citation contract: a stable eli_uri, a human_readable_citation (French convention) and a resolvable source_url.

Read-only. The server only queries Legifrance and writes a local audit log. It never modifies official text and never sends anything beyond your query / document id.

Tools

Tool	What it does
fr_search(query, fond, page_size)	Keyword search a fond: LODA (laws & decrees), CODE (codes), JURI (case law). Returns hits with the citation contract; CODE hits expose matched article_ids.
fr_get_act(text_id, date)	Consult a LODA law/decree by LEGITEXT... id. Returns metadata + a table of contents (articles).
fr_get_text(article_id)	Verbatim text of a single article by LEGIARTI... id.
fr_get_decision(decision_id)	A JURI court decision by JURITEXT... id, with its native ecli, court, formation, solution and text.

A note on ELI vs ECLI

France has an official ELI scheme, but the PISTE lf-engine-app consult API returns the native ELI field null for the legislation we tested. Following this line's rule - say what you do not have, never fabricate an ELI - eli_uri carries the stable, resolvable Legifrance resource URL (CID-keyed), not a /eli/... string parsed from prose. Each response repeats this in eli_note.

Case law is different: the API returns a native, authoritative ECLI (e.g. ECLI:FR:CCASS:2025:C100399), surfaced verbatim in fr_get_decision.

Configuration

Legifrance requires OAuth2 application credentials from a free PISTE account (piste.gouv.fr → Applications → subscribe to the Legifrance API → OAuth Credentials). Credentials are read from the environment only:

Variable	Meaning
FR_ELI_OAUTH_URL	OAuth token endpoint (sandbox default shown in .mcp.json.example).
FR_ELI_BASE_URL	Legifrance lf-engine-app base.
FR_ELI_CLIENT_ID	Your PISTE application client id (required).
FR_ELI_CLIENT_SECRET	Your PISTE application client secret (required).
FR_ELI_CACHE_DIR	Disk cache dir (default ~/.matematic/cache/fr-eli).
FR_ELI_AUDIT_DIR	Audit log dir (default ~/.matematic/audit).

Copy .mcp.json.example to .mcp.json (gitignored) and fill in your credentials, or set the variables in your host environment. The OAuth token is cached in memory and refreshed automatically.

Install

py -3.13 -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install -e ".[dev]"   # Windows
# or: python -m pip install -e ".[dev]"                  # POSIX

Tests

pytest tests/test_instructions_drift.py tests/test_parse.py   # offline, no creds
pytest tests/test_smoke.py -v                                 # live, needs PISTE creds in .env

Distribution

Because Legifrance requires a PISTE key, this connector is distributed through the PATRON / appliance channel (governed), not casual drop-in download. See the eu-legal-mcp line notes.

Licence

Apache-2.0. Legifrance content is © the French Republic / DILA and subject to the Legifrance / PISTE terms of use; this software only retrieves and cites it.