@patentprecheck/mcp — Patent PreCheck CLI + MCP server

Run a patentability pre-check on your code from inside your terminal or your AI coding agent (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity). It wraps the hosted Patent PreCheck engine, so no API keys are required — the scoring engine and prior-art corpus stay server-side.

Informational only — not legal advice and not a substitute for a licensed patent attorney.

What it does

• Scores code or an invention description across the four USPTO statutory pillars (§101 eligibility, §102 novelty, §103 non-obviousness, §101 utility) plus a separate §112 filing-readiness signal.
• Reports the band (Not Ready → File Ready), the pillar holding the band back, top opportunities to strengthen, and how much prior art was consulted.
• Exposes MCP tools so an agent can score the code it just wrote, inline.

Install

# Run directly (no install)
npx -y @patentprecheck/mcp score ./src/widget.ts

# Or install globally
npm i -g @patentprecheck/mcp
precheck score ./src/widget.ts

CLI

precheck score ./path/to/file.ts          # human-readable report
precheck score ./file.ts --format json    # raw JSON
cat invention.md | precheck score -        # read from stdin
precheck score ./file.ts --min-score 60    # exit 4 if below threshold (CI gate)
precheck pillars                           # scoring reference (no network)
precheck review                            # Interactive Code Review signup URL
precheck mcp                               # run as an MCP server over stdio

Exit codes: 0 ok · 1 usage · 2 request error · 3 §101 gate not passed · 4 below --min-score. stdout is clean data; progress/errors go to stderr.

Use in an AI coding agent

See config-examples/. Quickest paths:

# Claude Code
claude mcp add patent-precheck -- npx -y @patentprecheck/mcp mcp

// Cursor — .cursor/mcp.json
{ "mcpServers": { "patent-precheck": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@patentprecheck/mcp", "mcp"] } } }

MCP tools: precheck_score, precheck_prior_art, precheck_rejection_patterns, precheck_legal_context, precheck_pillars, precheck_start_review, precheck_search_corpus, precheck_cpc_suggest, precheck_session_status, precheck_deliverables, precheck_lookup_patent, precheck_compare_to_patent.

Cursor users can skip the JSON and use the Add to Cursor button at the top. The server is published to the official MCP Registry (io.github.Patent-PreCheck/patent-precheck), so MCP-aware clients can discover it directly.

Hosted endpoint (no install)

There's also a hosted, keyless Streamable HTTP MCP server, so remote-capable clients can connect without npx or a local Node install:

https://patentprecheck.com/mcp

// Cursor — remote server, no command needed
{ "mcpServers": { "patent-precheck": { "url": "https://patentprecheck.com/mcp" } } }

Same 12 tools and the same scoring engine. The hosted variant takes invention text inline via code (it never reads files from your machine — use the local npx server above if you want the path argument).

Quick try in Cursor (no install): copy config-examples/cursor-mcp-hosted.json into .cursor/mcp.json.

Why Patent PreCheck vs. other patent MCPs?

USPTO lookup MCPs (50+ tools) answer "what does patent X say?" Patent PreCheck answers "can this code be patented?" — pillar scores, prior-art similarity, rejection patterns, and a path to strengthen before filing. No USPTO API key; corpus and keys stay server-side.

Develop from source

cd tools/precheck-mcp
npm install
node bin/precheck.js pillars
echo "a novel rate limiter that ..." | node bin/precheck.js score - --format text
node bin/precheck.js mcp   # stdio server; blocks waiting for an MCP client