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Legal Workspace MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that gives Claude self-updating access to a local directory of documents — templates, articles, opinions, drafting guides, and more — so it can reference them automatically when answering questions.

Built for legal professionals, but works with any document collection.

How It Works

1. You point it at a directory containing your documents (PDFs, DOCX, Markdown, HTML, TXT, etc.).
2. It indexes everything using TF-IDF for fast, relevant search.
3. It watches for changes — add, edit, or delete files and the index updates automatically.
4. Claude uses it as context — when you ask a question, Claude can search your documents and pull in the most relevant passages without you uploading anything.

Install

Requirement: You must specify a target directory. The server watches one directory at a time (including all subdirectories). To change directories, re-register the server with a different path.

Option A: Install from PyPI (recommended)

pip install legal-workspace-mcp

Option B: Install from GitHub

pip install git+https://github.com/gwicho38/legal-workspace-mcp.git

Option C: Run without installing (uvx)

uvx legal-workspace-mcp /path/to/your/documents

Option D: Clone and install locally

git clone https://github.com/gwicho38/legal-workspace-mcp.git
cd legal-workspace-mcp
pip install -e .

Setup

Claude Code (CLI)

claude mcp add legal-workspace -- legal-workspace-mcp /path/to/your/documents

That's it. The server starts automatically with every claude session.

To change the target directory, remove and re-add:

claude mcp remove legal-workspace
claude mcp add legal-workspace -- legal-workspace-mcp /new/path/to/documents

Claude Desktop

Add this to your Claude Desktop config file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "legal-workspace": {
      "command": "legal-workspace-mcp",
      "args": ["/path/to/your/documents"]
    }
  }
}

Alternative: Environment Variable

Instead of passing the path as an argument:

export LEGAL_WORKSPACE_PATH="/path/to/your/documents"

Directory Management

The server watches exactly one directory (recursively) per instance. Here's how directory configuration works:

Specifying the directory (required)

The target directory is resolved at startup with this priority:

If no directory is configured, the server exits with an error — it will not silently default to a directory.

What gets indexed

• All files matching supported extensions (see below) in the target directory and all subdirectories
• Symlinks are resolved automatically
• Hidden files (starting with .) are skipped
• Certain directories are excluded by default: .git, __pycache__, node_modules, .venv, venv

Changing the target directory

Since the server is started as a subprocess by Claude, you change the directory by updating your MCP registration:

# Claude Code
claude mcp remove legal-workspace
claude mcp add legal-workspace -- legal-workspace-mcp /new/path

# Claude Desktop
# Edit the config JSON file and change the path in "args"

The old index is persisted inside the watched directory (.legal_workspace_index.json). When you point at a new directory, a fresh index is built automatically.

Index location

By default the index is a SQLite database inside the watched directory (.legal_workspace_index.db). Set LEGAL_WORKSPACE_INDEX_PATH to a full file path to keep it elsewhere:

LEGAL_WORKSPACE_INDEX_PATH=~/.local/share/legal-workspace/index.db

Do this when the watched directory is on a removable or external disk. SQLite memory-maps the index's -shm file. If the disk detaches, the next read crashes the server with SIGBUS. With the index on the internal disk, a detached workspace only causes file read errors.

Live updates

The server uses watchdog to monitor the directory. Changes are processed automatically:

Changes are debounced (2-second quiet period) to avoid thrashing during active editing.

Optional fine-tuning

Place a .legal-workspace-mcp.json file inside the target directory:

{
  "chunk_size": 1500,
  "chunk_overlap": 200,
  "max_results": 10,
  "excluded_dirs": [".git", "__pycache__", "node_modules", "archive"],
  "excluded_patterns": [".*"]
}

Available Tools

Once configured, Claude gains access to these tools:

Supported File Types

Example Usage

Once set up, ask Claude things like:

• "Draft an indemnification clause for a software license agreement, using the style from my templates."
• "What do my reference articles say about force majeure provisions post-COVID?"
• "Help me revise this non-compete — check my drafting guides for best practices."
• "Compare the NDA templates I have and suggest the best one for a mutual NDA."

Claude will automatically search your workspace documents and incorporate relevant context.

Architecture

Claude (Desktop / Code / API)
    │
    ▼  stdio transport
Legal Workspace MCP Server
    ├── FastMCP (tool definitions)
    ├── Document Index (TF-IDF + chunks)
    ├── Watchdog (filesystem monitoring)
    └── Text Extractors (PDF, DOCX, MD, HTML)
            │
            ▼
    Your Document Directory
    ├── templates/
    ├── articles/
    └── opinions/

Development

git clone https://github.com/gwicho38/legal-workspace-mcp.git
cd legal-workspace-mcp
pip install -e .

# Run directly
legal-workspace-mcp /path/to/test/documents

# Test with MCP Inspector
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector legal-workspace-mcp /path/to/test/documents

License

MIT