Installation

There are three ways to install the /legal skills. Choose whichever suits your workflow.

Method 1: One-line install (recommended)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/davendra/uk-legal-skills/main/install.sh | bash

This clones the repository into a temporary directory, copies the skills and agents into ~/.claude/, and cleans up after itself.

Method 2: Clone and install

git clone https://github.com/davendra/uk-legal-skills.git
cd uk-legal-skills
./install.sh

Use this method if you want to keep a local copy for contributing or customising skills.

Method 3: Manual copy

If you prefer full control, copy the files yourself:

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/davendra/uk-legal-skills.git
cd uk-legal-skills

# Create target directories
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
mkdir -p ~/.claude/agents

# Copy the orchestrator
cp -r legal ~/.claude/skills/legal

# Copy all sub-skills
cp -r skills/legal-* ~/.claude/skills/

# Copy all agents
cp agents/*.md ~/.claude/agents/

# Copy scripts and templates
cp scripts/*.py ~/.claude/skills/legal/scripts/
cp templates/*.md ~/.claude/skills/legal/templates/

What install.sh does

The installer performs these steps:

1. Detects local vs remote --- if run from a local clone it uses those files; otherwise it clones davendra/uk-legal-skills from GitHub into a temp directory
2. Creates directories --- ~/.claude/skills/ and ~/.claude/agents/
3. Copies the skill files --- the main orchestrator (legal/SKILL.md) plus the 38 command skills (skills/legal-*/SKILL.md)
4. Copies 12 agent files --- parallel analysis agents used by the review, employment, and corporate orchestrators
5. Copies scripts and templates --- Python scripts for PDF generation and Markdown templates for document generation
6. Checks prerequisites --- warns if the agent host, Python 3, or reportlab are missing (installation still succeeds)
7. Prints a summary --- installed counts and a command reference table

Verify the installation

After installing, open your agent host and type /legal. You should see the full command menu with all 38 skills listed.

MCP server setup

Two MCP servers provide real-time legal data. uk-legislation looks up statutes against legislation.gov.uk; caselaw searches court judgments via the National Archives caselaw service. Both query public government APIs and need no API key. They require Node.js 18+.

Build and run a server from its directory:

cd mcp-servers/uk-legislation
npm install
npm run build     # tsc → dist/
npm run dev       # tsx src/index.ts — stdio MCP server

The caselaw server has the same npm layout:

cd mcp-servers/caselaw
npm install
npm run build
npm run dev

The project's .mcp.json registers uk-legislation and caselaw for local use, plus the remote lex server for additional court-case search.

Available MCP tools (uk-legislation)

Tool	Description
search_legislation	Full-text search across UK legislation
lookup_statute	Look up a specific Act by title and year
lookup_section	Retrieve a specific section of an Act
check_in_force	Verify whether a provision is currently in force
check_amendments	List amendments to a section
get_extent	Check geographic extent (E+W, S, NI)

Uninstalling

To remove all installed skills and agents:

./uninstall.sh

This removes the skill directories from ~/.claude/skills/ and agent files from ~/.claude/agents/. Your agent host installation is otherwise unchanged. The MCP servers are not affected --- delete their directories manually if needed.