Portuguese Law MCP Server

The Diario da Republica alternative for the AI age.

Query 1,130 Portuguese statutes -- from the Constituicao and Codigo Penal to Lei 58/2019 (GDPR), Lei 46/2018 (NIS), and Lei 109/2009 (Cybercrime) -- directly from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client.

If you're building legal tech, compliance tools, or doing Portuguese legal research, this is your verified reference database.

Built by Ansvar Systems

Why This Exists

Portuguese legal research requires navigating DRE (Diario da Republica Eletronico), PGDL databases, and EUR-Lex cross-references. Whether you're:

• A lawyer validating citations in a brief or contract
• A compliance officer checking GDPR implementation under Lei 58/2019
• A legal tech developer building tools on Portuguese law
• A researcher tracing EU directive transpositions into Portuguese law

...you shouldn't need multiple browser tabs and manual cross-referencing. Ask Claude. Get the exact provision. With context.

This MCP server makes Portuguese law searchable, cross-referenceable, and AI-readable.

Quick Start

Use Remotely (No Install Needed)

Connect directly to the hosted version -- zero dependencies, nothing to install.

Endpoint: https://portuguese-law-mcp.vercel.app/mcp

| Client | How to Connect | |--------|---------------| | Claude.ai | Settings > Connectors > Add Integration > paste URL | | Claude Code | claude mcp add portuguese-law --transport http https://portuguese-law-mcp.vercel.app/mcp | | Claude Desktop | Add to config (see below) | | GitHub Copilot | Add to VS Code settings (see below) |

Claude Desktop -- add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "portuguese-law": {
      "type": "url",
      "url": "https://portuguese-law-mcp.vercel.app/mcp"
    }
  }
}

GitHub Copilot -- add to VS Code settings.json:

{
  "github.copilot.chat.mcp.servers": {
    "portuguese-law": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://portuguese-law-mcp.vercel.app/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Use Locally (npm)

npx @ansvar/portuguese-law-mcp

Claude Desktop -- add to claude_desktop_config.json:

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "portuguese-law": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ansvar/portuguese-law-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor / VS Code:

{
  "mcp.servers": {
    "portuguese-law": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ansvar/portuguese-law-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Example Queries

Once connected, just ask naturally:

• "What does Artigo 35 of the Constituicao say about digital rights?"
• "Find provisions about dados pessoais in Portuguese law"
• "What EU directives does Lei 58/2019 implement?"
• "Which Portuguese laws address cybersecurity requirements?"
• "Get Artigo 6 of Lei 109/2009 -- acesso ilegitimo"
• "Is Lei 67/98 (old data protection law) still in force?"
• "What are the penalties for computer fraud under the Codigo Penal?"

What's Included

| Category | Count | Details | |----------|-------|---------| | Statutes | 1,130 laws | Full Portuguese consolidated legislation | | Provisions | 56,955 articles | Full-text searchable with FTS5 | | Legal Definitions | 84 definitions | Extracted from definition articles | | EU Cross-References | Auto-extracted | Links to EU directives and regulations | | Database Size | ~76 MB | Optimized SQLite, portable | | Daily Updates | Automated | Freshness checks against PGDL |

Legislation Coverage

| Type | Count | |------|-------| | Decreto-Lei (Government Decree-Law) | 493 | | Lei (Act of Parliament) | 395 | | Portaria (Ministerial Order) | 138 | | Resolucao (Resolution) | 46 | | Decreto (Decree) | 35 | | Regulamento (Regulation) | 22 | | Despacho (Dispatch) | 11 |

Key Legislation

| Act | Portuguese Name | Significance | |-----|----------------|-------------| | Lei 58/2019 | Lei de execucao do RGPD | Portuguese GDPR implementation; age of digital consent at 13 | | Lei 46/2018 | Regime juridico da seguranca do ciberespaco | NIS Directive transposition; CNCS as competent authority | | Lei 109/2009 | Lei do Cibercrime | Budapest Convention transposition; cybercrime offences | | Constituicao | Constituicao da Republica Portuguesa | Art. 35 -- explicit digital rights and data protection | | Codigo Penal | Codigo Penal | Privacy violations (Art. 193-194), computer fraud (Art. 221) | | CSC | Codigo das Sociedades Comerciais | Commercial company law, corporate governance | | DL 7/2004 | Lei do Comercio Eletronico | E-Commerce Directive transposition | | Lei 16/2022 | Lei das Comunicacoes Eletronicas | EECC transposition |

Verified data only -- every article is ingested from PGDL (Procuradoria-Geral Distrital de Lisboa), the official consolidated legislation database. Zero LLM-generated content.

Available Tools (13)

Core Legal Research Tools (8)

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | search_legislation | FTS5 search on 56,955 provisions with BM25 ranking | | get_provision | Retrieve specific article by law identifier + article number | | list_sources | List all 1,130 laws in the database with metadata | | validate_citation | Validate citation against database (zero-hallucination check) | | build_legal_stance | Aggregate citations from multiple statutes | | format_citation | Format citations per Portuguese conventions (Diario da Republica) | | check_currency | Check if statute is in force, amended, or repealed | | about | Server metadata and corpus statistics |

EU Law Integration Tools (5)

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | get_eu_basis | Get EU directives/regulations for Portuguese statute | | get_portuguese_implementations | Find Portuguese laws implementing EU act | | search_eu_implementations | Search EU documents with Portuguese implementation counts | | get_provision_eu_basis | Get EU law references for specific provision | | validate_eu_compliance | Check implementation status |

Data Sources & Freshness

All content is sourced from authoritative Portuguese legal databases:

• PGDL (pgdlisboa.pt) -- Procuradoria-Geral Distrital de Lisboa consolidated legislation
• DRE (dre.pt) -- Official Diario da Republica Eletronico (INCM)
• EUR-Lex -- Official EU law database (cross-references)

Regulatory Context

• Data Protection Authority: CNPD (Comissao Nacional de Protecao de Dados), one of Europe's oldest DPAs, established 1994
• Cybersecurity Authority: CNCS (Centro Nacional de Ciberseguranca), designated under Lei 46/2018
• Constitutional Digital Rights: Art. 35 explicitly addresses "utilizacao da informatica" (use of computer data)
• Legal System: Civil law; Portuguese is the sole official language for legislation
• Citation Format: Diario da Republica references; distinction between Lei (Parliament) and Decreto-Lei (Government)

Full provenance metadata: sources.yml

Security

This project uses multiple layers of automated security scanning:

| Scanner | What It Does | Schedule | |---------|-------------|----------| | CodeQL | Static analysis for security vulnerabilities | Weekly + PRs | | Semgrep | SAST scanning (OWASP top 10, secrets, TypeScript) | Every push | | Gitleaks | Secret detection across git history | Every push | | Trivy | CVE scanning on filesystem and npm dependencies | Daily |

See SECURITY.md for the full policy and vulnerability reporting.

Important Disclaimers

Legal Advice

THIS TOOL IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE

Statute text is sourced from official PGDL/DRE publications. However:

• This is a research tool, not a substitute for professional legal counsel
• Verify critical citations against primary sources (dre.pt) for court filings
• EU cross-references are auto-extracted from statute text, not EUR-Lex full text

Before using professionally, read: DISCLAIMER.md | PRIVACY.md

Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/Ansvar-Systems/portuguese-law-mcp
cd portuguese-law-mcp
npm install
npm run build
npm test

Data Management

npm run census                              # Enumerate all laws from PGDL
npm run ingest                              # Full ingestion from census
npm run ingest -- --resume                  # Resume interrupted ingestion
npm run ingest -- --limit 5                 # Test with 5 laws
npm run build:db                            # Rebuild SQLite database
npm run check-updates                       # Check for amendments
npm run drift:detect                        # Detect data drift

Running Locally

npm run dev                                       # Start MCP server
npx @anthropic/mcp-inspector node dist/index.js   # Test with MCP Inspector

Performance

• Search Speed: <100ms for most FTS5 queries
• Database Size: ~76 MB (efficient, portable)
• Reliability: 99% ingestion success rate (1,130/1,141 laws)

Contract Tests

This MCP includes 12 golden contract tests covering:

• 4 article retrieval tests (Lei 58/2019, Codigo Penal, CSC, Lei 46/2018)
• 3 search tests (dados pessoais, ciberseguranca, comercio eletronico)
• 2 citation roundtrip tests (DRE URL patterns, Diario da Republica references)
• 1 cross-reference test (Lei 58/2019 to GDPR)
• 2 negative tests (non-existent law, malformed article)

Run with: npm run test:contract

License

Apache-2.0 -- see LICENSE

Data Licenses

• Statute text: Portuguese Government open data (public domain with attribution)
• EU Metadata: EUR-Lex (EU public domain)

About Ansvar Systems

We build AI-accelerated compliance and legal research tools. This MCP server makes Portuguese law searchable, cross-referenceable, and AI-readable -- so navigating 1,130 statutes doesn't require manual DRE browsing.

ansvar.eu