US Code — federal statutes by citation

The text of the United States Code. Give it 18 and 1343, get back the wire fraud statute.

Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1684+ live data sources.

Auth

None for retrieval. usc_section and usc_titles are keyless.

usc_search uses the GovInfo API, which needs a data.gov key — Pipeworx fronts one, or pass _apiKey. If you already have a citation, usc_section is keyless and more direct.

Why this pack exists when govinfo already reached the data

It's a reachability fix, not a data one. The US Code has always been fetchable through the generic govinfo pack — but an agent asking "what does the wire fraud statute say" will never call search_packages({collections: 'USCODE'}). Tool selection is embedding similarity over descriptions, so a generic container matches nothing in particular. Obvious entry points beat generic ones.

The keyless path is GovInfo's citation link service:

/link/uscode/18/1343  →  302 →  USCODE-2024-title18-partI-chap63-sec1343.htm

That matters more than it looks. The document id embeds part and chapter — partI-chap63 — which nobody knows from "18 U.S.C. § 1343". The link service is the only path from the citation lawyers actually write to the document itself.

Tools

| Tool | Key needed | Returns | |---|---|---| | usc_section | no | Full statutory text for a citation | | usc_titles | no | The 54 titles and their subjects | | usc_search | yes | Section headings matching a subject |

Caveats worth passing on

• The Code is published by annual edition, so the text is current as of that edition and not as of today. A statute amended since is not reflected — check recent public laws for anything time-sensitive.
• Section numbers are not contiguous. Many are repealed or reserved, so a missing section is normal rather than an error.
• Subsections are not separate documents. Asking for 1343(a) returns all of § 1343, and the response says so rather than silently widening the request.
• usc_search returns headings, not section numbers. GovInfo's search does not expose them, so a heading identifies a statute but cannot be cited from directly. The response says this instead of implying otherwise.

Related

• court-listener — cases interpreting these statutes, with full opinion text
• ecfr, federal-register — regulations made under them
• congress — the bills that amend them

Data source

https://www.govinfo.gov/ — United States Code, US Government Publishing Office. Public domain.

Quick Start

Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "us-code": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/us-code/mcp"
    }
  }
}

What this endpoint actually serves

tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/us-code/mcp returns the tools in the table above plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools — ask_pipeworx, discover_tools, search_within, remember/recall and the rest of the gateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a single-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the pack's own. The connection's initialize response states its exact scope, and is the authoritative answer for a given day.

This is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a scoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via ask_pipeworx, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a second MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without them; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth, connect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.

Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed directly, instead of just this one's:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pipeworx": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Both URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1684+ data sources. The only difference is which pack's tools are listed directly; ask_pipeworx reaches all of them from either one.

No MCP client? Call it over HTTP

curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/usc_section \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"title":"18","section":"1343"}'

No account needed for the first calls. Inspect any tool: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/usc_section. Find one: POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_packs with {"query":"..."}.

Standalone (no gateway account)

This package also runs as a local stdio MCP server — no Pipeworx account, no gateway round-trip:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "us-code": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-us-code"]
    }
  }
}

Or run it directly to confirm it starts:

npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-us-code

It speaks MCP over stdin/stdout and answers initialize/tools/list/tools/call for only this pack's tools — none of the shared meta-tools the gateway connection above adds. Same source, same tools, no ask_pipeworx routing.

Using with ask_pipeworx

Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English — this works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:

ask_pipeworx({ question: "your question about Us Code data" })

The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.

More

• Docs and guides
• pipeworx.io

License

MIT