Data access · Live

Datasets as tools for AI agents.

The Data.co MCP server exposes marketplace data as Model Context Protocol tools, with the same keys, scopes and metering as the REST API. It is live at api.data.co/mcp, and the LAW.co tools return live court opinions, summaries and citation data.

MCP documentation Get an API key

Tools

8 legal tools

Of these, 3 can be fully backed by LAW.co's current API, 3 only partially, and 2 not yet — LAW.co has no citation resolver, and its statute reference table is not yet populated.

Tool	What it does	Input	LAW.co today	Notes
`search_legal_corpus`	Keyword search across all legal datasets.	query, type?, dataset?, jurisdiction?, court?, date_from?, date_to?, limit?	Partial	Backed by LAW.co's legacy search: randomly sampled (≤50), not paginated or stable.
`get_legal_document`	Fetch one legal document with provenance and enrichment.	id	Supported by LAW.co	Single case records via LAW.co's public case endpoint.
`search_statutes`	Search statute data.	query?, state?, limit?	Unavailable	Would serve estate-planning statute reference values only; LAW.co's production table is not yet populated. LAW.co holds no statute corpus.
`search_case_law`	Search court opinions with court, date and citation filters.	query, jurisdiction?, court?, date_from?, date_to?, citation?, limit?	Partial	Same sampled upstream search; court and date filters applied to the sample.
`get_citation`	Resolve a citation string to a record.	citation	Unavailable	LAW.co has no citation-resolution endpoint yet (proposed in the integration plan).
`list_jurisdictions`	List jurisdictions covered.	none	Partial	Catalog-level coverage only; no verified per-court breakdown.
`list_legal_datasets`	List legal datasets and their access status.	none	Supported by LAW.co	Served from the Data.co catalog.
`get_dataset_metadata`	Full descriptor and schema for one dataset.	slug	Supported by LAW.co	Served from the Data.co catalog.

Connect

One config block

Add the server to any MCP-compatible client. The endpoint is https://api.data.co/mcp. Keys need the mcp:invoke scope, plus legal:read for legal tools.

mcp.jsonIllustrative

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dataco": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.data.co/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ${DATACO_API_KEY}" }
    }
  }
}

Same permissions as REST

A tool call is checked against the same scopes and dataset rights as the equivalent API request.

Provenance in every result

Tool results carry source, license and derived flags so agents can cite correctly.

Metered in one place

Tool calls and API calls appear together in your usage, tagged by dataset.

In practice

How an agent uses the tools

A grounded legal answer usually takes three or four tool calls. The tool descriptions are written so a model can pick the right one without custom prompting.

1
Orient
The agent calls list_legal_datasets or get_dataset_metadata to learn what exists, what each dataset covers and which channels are open.
2
Search
It calls search_case_law or search_legal_corpus with a keyword query and optional court, jurisdiction and date filters, and reads any warnings about sampled results.
3
Read
It calls get_legal_document for the most relevant results to get full opinion text, provenance and, where entitled, an AI summary marked as derived.
4
Answer with citations
It quotes from the opinion text and cites case name, citation, court and source URL from the record, and tells the user about any gaps the warnings described.

Clients

Works with MCP-compatible clients

The server uses the streamable HTTP transport with bearer-token authentication, so it is designed to work with clients that support remote MCP servers and custom headers, such as Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code. Step-by-step configuration for each is in the MCP documentation.

If your client only supports local servers, you can run your own small proxy, or call the REST API from your agent's function-calling layer instead; the records and errors are the same.

Questions

MCP FAQ

Why are some tools listed if LAW.co cannot back them?

So agents and developers see the full designed surface and get a clear unsupported_operation error instead of silent empty results. get_citation is the main example: it needs a resolver endpoint LAW.co has not built.

Does a tool call cost the same as an API call?

Tool calls are metered separately from API requests against your plan, and both appear in one usage view tagged by dataset. Demo records are never billed.

Can an agent download a whole dataset over MCP?

No. MCP tools return search results and single records. Bulk export is a separate, rights-gated channel.

Do agents see the same data as my code?

Yes. A tool call is checked against the same key, scopes, plan entitlement and dataset rights as the equivalent REST request, and returns the same record shape with provenance.

What should I put in my agent's instructions?

Ask it to quote only from opinion text it retrieved, to cite case name, citation, court and source URL from each record, to treat AI summaries as not authority, and to tell users when search warnings say results may be incomplete.

Will non-legal tools be added?

Tools are added as providers list datasets in other categories. Today every tool is legal because LAW.co is the only provider.

Start building with live data.

API and MCP access is live. Sign up at app.data.co, create a scoped key, or talk to us about your use case.

Get an API key Contact the marketplace team