Getting Started
LegisMCP is an open-source MCP server that gives AI agents access to live legislative data from Congress.gov. Set up in under a minute.
Congress.gov API Key Required
A free Congress.gov API key is required for all usage (local and remote). Get yours in seconds:
Sign up for a Congress.gov API keyOption 1: Run locally via npx
The fastest way to get started. Run the MCP server locally as a stdio process that your AI client connects to directly.
Claude Desktop Configuration
Add this to your Claude Desktop configuration file (claude_desktop_config.json):
{
"mcpServers": {
"legismcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "legismcp"],
"env": {
"CONGRESS_API_KEY": "your-key-here"
}
}
}
}Replace your-key-here with your Congress.gov API key. The server will not start without it.
Option 2: Connect to the remote server
Connect to the hosted MCP server endpoint directly. No local installation needed. Add this to your MCP client configuration:
{
"mcpServers": {
"legismcp": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://mcp.legismcp.com/mcp",
"headers": {
"X-Congress-API-Key": "your-key-here"
}
}
}
}Replace your-key-here with your Congress.gov API key.
Note: When using the hosted endpoint, a SHA-256 hash of your API key is stored for usage tracking. See our privacy policy for details.