RIS MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that gives AI assistants access to Austria's official legal database — the Rechtsinformationssystem (RIS).

Ask your AI assistant about Austrian law, and it will search and retrieve legal documents directly from the official government API. No API key required.

What You Can Do

Once connected, you can ask your AI assistant things like:

"What does Austrian law say about tenancy rights?"

"Find Constitutional Court decisions on freedom of expression."

"Show me §1295 of the ABGB (Austrian Civil Code)."

"What laws about climate protection were published in 2024?"

"Look up the building code for the province of Salzburg."

"Get the full text of document NOR40052761."

The server translates these natural language requests into structured API calls against the RIS Open Government Data API.

Features

• 12 specialized tools covering all major RIS collections
• Federal law (ABGB, StGB, UGB, ...) and state law for all 9 provinces
• Court decisions from 11 court types (Supreme Court, Constitutional Court, Administrative Court, ...)
• Law gazettes — Federal (BGBl) and state (LGBl)
• Government bills, ministerial decrees, cabinet protocols
• Full document retrieval with smart prefix-based routing
• Change history tracking across 30 application types
• Markdown and JSON output formats
• Free and open — uses Austria's Open Government Data API, no API key needed

Quick Start

Run directly without installation:

pnpm dlx ris-mcp-ts

Or install globally:

pnpm add -g ris-mcp-ts

Configuration

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config (Settings > Developer > Edit Config):

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ris": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "ris-mcp-ts"]
    }
  }
}

Note: The "Add custom connector" UI in Claude Desktop only supports remote MCP servers (HTTP/SSE). Local stdio servers like this one must be configured via the JSON file.

Tip: You can also use pnpm dlx instead of npx in all configuration examples if you prefer pnpm.

Claude Code

Add to your project or user settings:

claude mcp add ris -- npx -y ris-mcp-ts

VS Code (GitHub Copilot)

Add to .vscode/mcp.json in your project:

{
  "servers": {
    "ris": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "ris-mcp-ts"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to .cursor/mcp.json in your project (or ~/.cursor/mcp.json for global access):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ris": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "ris-mcp-ts"]
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Add to your Windsurf MCP config at ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ris": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "ris-mcp-ts"]
    }
  }
}

Other MCP Clients

Any MCP-compatible client can connect via stdio transport:

npx -y ris-mcp-ts
# or: pnpm dlx ris-mcp-ts

Available Tools

Tool Reference

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 20.0.0

Setup

git clone https://github.com/philrox/ris-mcp-ts.git
cd ris-mcp-ts
pnpm install
pnpm run build

Scripts

Project Structure

src/
├── index.ts           # Entry point (stdio transport)
├── server.ts          # MCP server setup, delegates to tools/
├── client.ts          # HTTP client for RIS API
├── types.ts           # Zod schemas + TypeScript types
├── parser.ts          # JSON parsing and response normalization
├── formatting.ts      # Output formatting (markdown/json)
├── helpers.ts         # Shared helper functions
├── constants.ts       # Static mappings and configuration
├── tools/             # One file per tool handler
│   ├── index.ts
│   ├── bundesrecht.ts
│   ├── landesrecht.ts
│   ├── judikatur.ts
│   └── ...
└── __tests__/         # Unit and integration tests

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT

Built on the Open Government Data API provided by the Austrian Federal Chancellery (Bundeskanzleramt).