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The CouncilGPT MCP Server gives AI assistants secure access to CouncilGPT’s legal AI capabilities through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard for connecting AI tools to external data and services.

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What is the CouncilGPT MCP Server?

The CouncilGPT MCP Server exposes some of CouncilGPT’s core features — legal Q&A, Vault document analysis, and research knowledge sources as MCP tools. It is designed to work with MCP-compatible clients such as Claude Web or Desktop.

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What can you do with the CouncilGPT MCP Server?

  • Ask general legal questions — Get answers from CouncilGPT’s broad legal knowledge without referencing specific documents.
  • Analyze Vault documents — Ask questions about documents in your Vault projects with source citations.
  • Discover resources — List your Vault projects and available knowledge sources to find the right context for your questions.
  • Research with knowledge sources — Query specialized legal research databases like UK tax law.
CouncilGPT’s MCP integration allows you to connect CouncilGPT to third-party AI assistants like Claude. Any data sent to or processed by those third-party services is subject to your agreements with those providers. CouncilGPT is not responsible for how third-party services handle data once it leaves CouncilGPT’s systems.

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Setup guides

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Prerequisites

  • A CouncilGPT account
  • An AI assistant like Claude Web or Desktop. CouncilGPT MCP only works with Anthropic’s AI assistants currently.

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Claude Web

  1. Open and sign in to Claude.
  2. Go to Settings.
  3. Go to Connectors, search for CouncilGPT.
  4. Connect, authenticate, and make sure the CouncilGPT connector is toggled on when chatting.

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Claude Desktop

  1. Open Claude Desktop and sign in.
  2. Go to Settings.
  3. Go to Connectors, search for CouncilGPT.
  4. Connect and authenticate with your CouncilGPT account.
  5. Once connected, CouncilGPT tools will appear in your conversations.

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Available tools

ToolDescriptionExample prompts
ask_councilgptAsk a general legal question using CouncilGPT’s broad legal knowledge”What are the elements of a breach of contract claim?”
ask_with_knowledge_sourceAsk a question using a specific research knowledge source”What is the HMRC guidance on capital gains for non-residents?”
list_knowledge_sourcesList all available research knowledge sources”What research databases can I search?”
list_vault_projectsList all Vault projects accessible to the authenticated user”What Vault projects do I have access to?”
ask_about_vaultAsk a question about documents in a specific Vault project”Summarize the indemnification clauses in this project”

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Troubleshooting

Check with your CouncilGPT admin or representative to ensure you’re enrolled in this feature.
Your CouncilGPT account lacks the required permission for the specific tool you’re trying to use. For example, ask_about_vault requires the VAULT permission. Contact your CouncilGPT workspace administrator to check your permissions.
The vault_project_id parameter must be a valid UUID. Use list_vault_projects first to get valid project IDs.
The knowledge_source_type value doesn’t match any available knowledge source. Use list_knowledge_sources to see valid types for your account.
  • Verify your CouncilGPT account is active and you have access to the MCP feature.
  • Try re-authenticating by removing and re-adding the MCP server in your client.
  • Check that your MCP client supports Streamable HTTP transport (not just SSE or stdio).
  • Re-authenticate if the connection was previously established.

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FAQ

Yes. Each user authenticates individually through the browser OAuth flow. The server resolves each request to the authenticated user and enforces their specific permissions and feature gates.
The MCP server can only access data that the authenticated user has permission to view in CouncilGPT. Vault project queries are scoped to projects the user can access, and knowledge source queries are limited to sources enabled for the user’s account.
Each tool call is stateless — the server does not maintain conversation history between requests. To build multi-turn workflows, your MCP client should manage context across tool calls.