hourei

The Hourei MCP server provides access to the e-Gov 法令 API for searching and retrieving Japanese statutes. It exposes three main tools: search_law for keyword-based law search (with optional category and limit), get_law_data to fetch full details of a law by its lawNum, and get_law_revision to obtain the revision history of a law. Clients connect to this MCP server using the MCP protocol and issue the tool calls with the appropriate parameters. You can configure various MCP clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor AI, ChatGPT Desktop, Manus, Dify, etc.) to point at the same hourei-mcp-server using the npx command line integration or a URL-based SSE wrapper if you deploy an SSE-enabled gateway.

Typical usage flows involve querying for relevant laws by keyword, then fetching the full text and revision history for precise compliance checks or research. For example, you can search for laws related to personal information protection, then retrieve the complete statute text and review any amendments that affect your use case. The server supports XML-formatted data and structures such as sections and articles, making it suitable for integration into compliance tooling or document-generation pipelines.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js (recommended LTS) and npm installed on your machine
• Internet access to download the MCP server package via npm/npx

Installation steps (two common approaches):

1. Quick start with npx (no local install required):

# Run the MCP server directly without installing locally
npx hourei-mcp-server

2. Local development install (clone repository and install dependencies):

# Clone the repository
git clone <repository-url>
cd hourei-mcp-server

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start the server (if index.js or start script is defined in package.json)
npm run start

Note: The readme indicates you can run via npm via npx as shown in approach 1. If you clone locally, follow the repository's start script (often npm run start or node index.js) as described in the repository.

Environment and configuration tips:

• The recommended runtime for end-users is via npx hourei-mcp-server, which keeps the server stateless per invocation.
• If you need to deploy a persistent SSE gateway, the readme notes that the URL-based mode requires an SSE wrapper server; otherwise, you can use the standard stdio (npx) mode.
• The MCP client configurations shown in the readme use the key hourei for the server name. Ensure your client tools align with this identifier.
• Supported client integrations include Claude Desktop, Cursor AI, ChatGPT Desktop, Manus, Dify, and other MCP-compatible clients. Certain clients may require either the npx command format or a URL to a running SSE endpoint.
• For local testing, you can start the server with node if you have a local copy and a start script, as shown in the development notes.
• If you encounter issues with API access or rate limits, verify network access to e-Gov API and ensure your environment allows outbound HTTPS requests.