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. This configuration works with clients that support the HTTP transport natively, such as Claude Code and Cursor.
{
"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.
Claude Desktop Setup (Remote Server)
Claude Desktop uses the stdio transport and does not natively support HTTP connections. To connect Claude Desktop to the hosted LegisMCP server, use the mcp-remote bridge utility to translate between transports.
1. Open Developer Settings
Open the Claude Desktop application and navigate to Settings > Developer from the application's menu bar. Click the Edit Config button to open claude_desktop_config.json in your text editor.
2. Add the LegisMCP server
Add the following entry to the mcpServers object in your config file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"legismcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"mcp-remote",
"https://mcp.legismcp.com/mcp",
"--header",
"X-Congress-API-Key: your-key-here"
]
}
}
}Replace your-key-here with your Congress.gov API key.
3. Save and restart
Save the config file, then completely quit and relaunch Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect.
Note: The mcp-remote package acts as a bridge between Claude Desktop's stdio transport and the remote Streamable HTTP endpoint. It is downloaded automatically via npx — no separate installation is needed.