CanLII MCP Server

by vaquill-ai Your server? Claim it

answering

CanLII is answering right now. Last checked 13 min ago. Last commit 14 Sep 2026.

MCP for CanLII: Canadian case law and legislation metadata (federal, provincial, territorial).

Uptime history 47 days of history · worst day 99%

47 days agonow

100.0%

Uptime 24h

91 of 91 checks

—

Tools

hidden behind auth

172 ms

Response time

average over 24h

Stars

last commit 14 Sep 2026

Nothing serious here today

Today is the operative word: we check CanLII every 15 minutes and re-read its code on every release. Watch it and you find out the day that stops being true.

Connect this server

Endpoint below is the one we actually reach during checks — not the one copied from a README. Last verified 13 min ago.

Claude Code Claude Desktop Codex Cursor VS Code

run in your terminal

claude mcp add canlii-mcp --transport http https://canlii-mcp.vaquill.ai/mcp

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canlii-mcp": {
      "url": "https://canlii-mcp.vaquill.ai/mcp"
    }
  }
}

~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.canlii-mcp]
url = "https://canlii-mcp.vaquill.ai/mcp"

.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canlii-mcp": {
      "url": "https://canlii-mcp.vaquill.ai/mcp"
    }
  }
}

.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canlii-mcp": {
      "url": "https://canlii-mcp.vaquill.ai/mcp"
    }
  }
}

This endpoint answered with an authorization challenge. The server is running, but it did not say what kind of credentials it expects.

Endpoints

URL	Transport	State	Latency	Checked
https://canlii-mcp.vaquill.ai/mcp	streamable-http	needs auth	175 ms	13 min ago

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CanLII — questions

Answers built from our own checks of this server.

Why is there no tool list for CanLII?

The server answered our handshake with an authorization challenge, so it is running — but it will not describe its tools to an anonymous client. To see them you need to connect with your own credentials. We record it as alive, not as broken: 100.0% of checks in the last 24 hours got a reply.

Is CanLII working right now?

We send a real MCP handshake every 15 minutes. Over the last 24 hours 91 of 91 checks got a reply (100.0%), average response time 172 ms. The bar chart above shows every period we have measured.

How do I connect CanLII?

Copy the ready config from this page — we generate it for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor and VS Code, each with the file path that client actually reads. It is a remote server, so there is nothing to install — the client connects to the address. You will need your own credentials: it refuses anonymous clients.

Does CanLII need an API key?

Yes. Every time we knock, CanLII answers with an authorization challenge instead of its tool list — that is how we know it is running and gated rather than broken. Bring your own credentials and it will talk.

How fast is CanLII?

It answers our handshake in 172 ms on average, which is faster than 72% of all working MCP servers we measure. The comparison comes from our own checks across the whole registry, every 15 minutes.

Is CanLII open source?

Yes — it is published under the MIT licence, written in TypeScript and 5 stars on GitHub. The source link is on this page, so you can read exactly what it does with your data before you connect it.