claude-legal-skill MCP — Use Cases, Install & Live Demo

Why use it

Key features

CUAD-based risk detection across 41 contract clause types
Market benchmarks (typical ranges for cap on liability, indemnity, etc.)
Lawyer-ready redlines in tracked-changes markdown
Risk heatmap per contract
Side-by-side comparison across multiple vendor drafts
Cross-agent compatible

Live Demo

What it looks like in practice

claude-legal-skill.replay ▶ ready

0/0

Install

Pick your client

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "claude-legal-skill": {
      "command": "git",
      "args": [
        "clone",
        "https://github.com/evolsb/claude-legal-skill",
        "~/.claude/skills/claude-legal-skill"
      ],
      "_inferred": true
    }
  }
}

Open Claude Desktop → Settings → Developer → Edit Config. Restart after saving.

~/.cursor/mcp.json · .cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "claude-legal-skill": {
      "command": "git",
      "args": [
        "clone",
        "https://github.com/evolsb/claude-legal-skill",
        "~/.claude/skills/claude-legal-skill"
      ],
      "_inferred": true
    }
  }
}

Cursor uses the same mcpServers schema as Claude Desktop. Project config wins over global.

VS Code → Cline → MCP Servers → Edit

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "claude-legal-skill": {
      "command": "git",
      "args": [
        "clone",
        "https://github.com/evolsb/claude-legal-skill",
        "~/.claude/skills/claude-legal-skill"
      ],
      "_inferred": true
    }
  }
}

Click the MCP Servers icon in the Cline sidebar, then "Edit Configuration".

~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "claude-legal-skill": {
      "command": "git",
      "args": [
        "clone",
        "https://github.com/evolsb/claude-legal-skill",
        "~/.claude/skills/claude-legal-skill"
      ],
      "_inferred": true
    }
  }
}

Same shape as Claude Desktop. Restart Windsurf to pick up changes.

~/.continue/config.json

{
  "mcpServers": [
    {
      "name": "claude-legal-skill",
      "command": "git",
      "args": [
        "clone",
        "https://github.com/evolsb/claude-legal-skill",
        "~/.claude/skills/claude-legal-skill"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Continue uses an array of server objects rather than a map.

~/.config/zed/settings.json

{
  "context_servers": {
    "claude-legal-skill": {
      "command": {
        "path": "git",
        "args": [
          "clone",
          "https://github.com/evolsb/claude-legal-skill",
          "~/.claude/skills/claude-legal-skill"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Add to context_servers. Zed hot-reloads on save.

claude mcp add claude-legal-skill -- git clone https://github.com/evolsb/claude-legal-skill ~/.claude/skills/claude-legal-skill

One-liner. Verify with claude mcp list. Remove with claude mcp remove.

Use Cases

Real-world ways to use claude-legal-skill

How to triage a vendor MSA before sending to counsel

👤 Founders and ops leaders reviewing vendor contracts ⏱ ~45 min intermediate

When to use: Vendor sent an MSA, you need to know what's unusual before your $600/hr lawyer looks at it.

Prerequisites

Skill installed — git clone https://github.com/evolsb/claude-legal-skill ~/.claude/skills/claude-legal-skill
The contract as markdown or PDF — Skill extracts text; best with machine-readable PDFs

Flow

Extract and classify clauses

Review vendor-msa.pdf with claude-legal-skill. Classify all clauses and flag anything outside market norms.✓ Copied

→ Per-clause classification + deviation flags
Generate redlines

For each flagged clause, produce a tracked-changes redline with rationale.✓ Copied

→ Markdown with strikethrough + bold for changes
Produce a counsel brief

Summarize the top 5 issues in a 1-page brief for my lawyer.✓ Copied

→ 1-pager with issue, risk, proposed fix

Outcome: A prioritized issues list + redlines that save billable hours.

Pitfalls

Treating output as legal advice — This is a triage tool. Anything material goes to licensed counsel.
Benchmark ranges are US-centric — Tell the skill your governing law; ranges shift by jurisdiction

Compare two vendor drafts side-by-side

👤 Procurement leads evaluating competing vendors ⏱ ~30 min intermediate

When to use: Two vendors for the same service sent you their paper; you want to see which is friendlier.

Flow

Load both

Compare vendor-A.pdf and vendor-B.pdf. For each of: liability cap, IP assignment, termination, payment terms — show both and call the winner.✓ Copied

→ Side-by-side table per clause

Outcome: A leverage document for negotiation.

Pitfalls

Picking a winner on every clause without context — Ask Claude to call 'similar' explicitly when the diff is immaterial

Review an NDA in 5 minutes

👤 Founders signing lots of NDAs ⏱ ~5 min beginner

When to use: Someone sent an NDA; it's boilerplate-ish but you want to be sure.

Flow

Quick scan

Quick NDA review — flag only: non-compete, unilateral return/destruction, jurisdiction weirdness, and term > 3 years.✓ Copied

→ Short list, green if clean

Outcome: A 5-minute clean/unclean verdict with specific asks.

Combinations

Pair with other MCPs for X10 leverage

claude-legal-skill + startup-skill

Startup skill sizes vendor choice, legal skill reviews the paper

Choose between vendor A and B with startup-skill, then legal-review both with claude-legal-skill.✓ Copied

Tools

What this MCP exposes

Tool	Inputs	When to call	Cost
Clause classification	contract_path: str	First pass on any contract	Claude tokens (high for long contracts)
Risk flagging	classified contract, jurisdiction?	After classification	Claude tokens
Redline generation	flags	When you intend to push back	Claude tokens
Comparison	contracts: list	Multi-vendor evals	Claude tokens
Counsel brief	flags	Before handing off to counsel	Claude tokens

Cost & Limits

What this costs to run

API quota: None
Tokens per call: 20-100k tokens per contract (long docs are expensive)
Monetary: Free (consumes Claude subscription)
Tip: Chunk long contracts by section; don't re-analyze unchanged sections on each pass.

Security

Permissions, secrets, blast radius

Credential storage: No credentials. Contracts stay local except for Claude inference.

Data egress: Contract text is sent to Anthropic for inference. Confidential contracts should use a workspace with data retention disabled.

Not a substitute for licensed legal counsel. Do not sign anything material based solely on this output.
CUAD benchmarks are US-skewed. Non-US jurisdictions need explicit framing.

Troubleshooting

Common errors and fixes

PDF text extraction garbled

Convert to markdown first with a tool like marker or pandoc; image-based PDFs need OCR.

Redlines touch boilerplate the other side will reject

Ask skill to distinguish 'must-have' from 'nice-to-have' and drop the latter

Alternatives

claude-legal-skill vs others

Alternative	When to use it instead	Tradeoff
Harvey / Ironclad	Enterprise legal teams with compliance requirements	Paid, not in Claude Code

More

Resources

📖 Read the official README on GitHub

🐙 Browse open issues

🔍 Browse all 400+ MCP servers and Skills