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JAIL Search

JAIL Search

Remote
jail.liSearch0Updated 26w ago
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About JAIL Search

JAIL Search searches documents across fields, including papers, books, code, legal cases, forums, and Wikipedia. The README reports that the backend is offline; its MCP tools support search and document metadata retrieval.

Key features

  1. 01Search across varied document sources
  2. 02Filter by type and paginate with a cursor
  3. 03Retrieve full metadata by document ID
  4. 04Connect through hosted or local stdio transport

Use cases

  1. 01Find papers, legal cases, or code across sources
  2. 02Search forum discussions and encyclopedia content
  3. 03Retrieve metadata for a search result

MCP support

It offers a hosted MCP endpoint and npm or PyPI stdio setup, exposing `search` and `detail` tools to MCP clients. The README currently marks the backend as offline.

Configuration

Remote servers need no local install. Pick your client, then copy the config or install in one click.

Endpointhttps://api.jail.li/mcp
Copy install command
Claude CodeTerminal
Cursor.cursor/mcp.json
VS Code.vscode/mcp.json
Claude Desktopclaude_desktop_config.json
Windsurf~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

Run commands in a terminal; paste JSON into the client’s MCP config and restart. Servers that need sign-in will prompt on first connect.

Packages
npmjail-mcp1.4.0
pypijail-mcp1.4.0

Tools

Details

From the project README

JAIL Search — MCP Server

Status: backend offline.

Install in Cursor Install in VS Code

Search a billion+ documents — papers, books, code, legal cases, forums, Wikipedia, and more.

jail.li

Installation

Connect to the hosted MCP server:

https://api.jail.li/mcp

Get API key for higher limits — append ?jailApiKey= to the URL.

Claude Code 
claude mcp add --transport http jail https://api.jail.li/mcp

With API key:

claude mcp add --transport http jail "https://api.jail.li/mcp?jailApiKey=sk_live_..."
Codex 
codex mcp add jail --url https://api.jail.li/mcp

With API key: codex mcp add jail --url "https://api.jail.li/mcp?jailApiKey=sk_live_..."

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jail": {
      "url": "https://api.jail.li/mcp"
    }
  }
}

With API key: "url": "https://api.jail.li/mcp?jailApiKey=sk_live_..."

VS Code

Add to .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "jail": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.jail.li/mcp"
    }
  }
}

With API key: "url": "https://api.jail.li/mcp?jailApiKey=sk_live_..."

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jail": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://api.jail.li/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

With API key: "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://api.jail.li/mcp?jailApiKey=sk_live_..."]

OpenCode

Add to your opencode.json:

{
  "mcp": {
    "jail": {
      "type": "remote",
      "url": "https://api.jail.li/mcp",
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

With API key: "url": "https://api.jail.li/mcp?jailApiKey=sk_live_..."

Copilot CLI

Edit ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jail": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.jail.li/mcp"
    }
  }
}

With API key: "url": "https://api.jail.li/mcp?jailApiKey=sk_live_..."

Windsurf

Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jail": {
      "serverUrl": "https://api.jail.li/mcp"
    }
  }
}

With API key: "serverUrl": "https://api.jail.li/mcp?jailApiKey=sk_live_..."

Hermes

Add to ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

mcp_servers:
  jail:
    url: "https://api.jail.li/mcp"

With API key: url: "https://api.jail.li/mcp?jailApiKey=sk_live_..."

Or install the skill: hermes skill install jail-search

Via npm Package
Use the npm/pypi package for stdio transport 
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jail": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "jail-mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Or with Python: "command": "uvx", "args": ["jail-mcp"]

For API key with stdio: "env": { "JAIL_API_KEY": "sk_live_..." }

Tools

ToolWhat it does
searchSearch across all content types. Filter by type, paginate with cursor.
detailGet full metadata for a document by ID.

Content Types

TypeSources
academicOpenAlex, arXiv, Semantic Scholar, DBLP
booksBooks, digital libraries, classical literature
wikiWikipedia — en, zh, de, fr, es, ru, ja, ko + 10 more
forumsHacker News, StackExchange, Lobsters, LessWrong, 60+ more
legalHarvard Case Law, CourtListener, EUR-Lex, UK Legislation
newsNews articles and journalism
packagesnpm, PyPI, Crates.io, Libraries.io
economicsWorld Bank, IMF, FRED, ECB, BLS, Tax Foundation
knowledgeWikidata, structured knowledge
videoIMDb, YouTube
musicDiscogs, MusicBrainz
healthClinical trials, food safety
geoWorld place names, geographic data
techDev.to, product community forums
socialReddit, Mastodon, Lemmy, fediverse
fandomFan wiki articles, community knowledge
cryptoDeFi protocols, token data, on-chain analytics
predictionsPrediction markets, forecasting
audioPodcasts and audio content

License

MIT

Comments

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