About Pacer
Pacer is an MCP server for legal researchers and others searching U.S. federal court records. It provides live case and party searches across federal courts, with local stdio and Pipeworx gateway deployment options; searches require PACER credentials and may incur fees.
Key features
- 01Search cases by party, title, or number
- 02Search district, bankruptcy, and appellate courts
- 03Find parties and their roles across cases
- 04Return court, filing date, and case type
Use cases
- 01Find a particular federal court case
- 02Check cases associated with a person or organization
- 03Retrieve case details by case number
MCP support
Exposes case and party search tools to MCP clients. It can run locally over stdio or connect through the Pipeworx gateway.
Configuration
Remote servers need no local install. Pick your client, then copy the config or install in one click.
https://gateway.pipeworx.io/pacer/mcpclaude mcp add --transport http pipeworx-io-pacer https://gateway.pipeworx.io/pacer/mcp{"mcpServers":{"pipeworx-io-pacer":{"type":"http","url":"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/pacer/mcp"}}}Open in Cursor{"servers":{"pipeworx-io-pacer":{"type":"http","url":"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/pacer/mcp"}}}Open in VS Code{"mcpServers":{"pipeworx-io-pacer":{"type":"http","url":"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/pacer/mcp"}}}{"mcpServers":{"pipeworx-io-pacer":{"serverUrl":"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/pacer/mcp"}}}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.
Tools
43| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| q | string | No | Alias for question. |
| ask | string | No | Alias for question. |
| text | string | No | Alias for question. |
| input | string | No | Alias for question. |
| packs | array | No | OPTIONAL. Restrict routing to these pack slugs (e.g. ["sec-form-d","sec-13f"]) — the router then picks only from tools in those packs. Omit for the default full-catalog routing. Slugs come from list_packs / search_packs / https://pipeworx.io/directory; unlisted or unknown slugs are ignored and named in _meta.pack_scope.ignored, and if none of them resolves the question is routed across the whole catalog with _meta.pack_scope.full_catalog:true (never an empty answer). |
| query | string | No | Alias for question. |
| prompt | string | No | Alias for question. |
| message | string | No | Alias for question. |
| question | string | Yes | Your question or request in natural language. Accepts query, q, prompt, text, input, ask, message as aliases. |
Details
From the project READMEmcp-pacer
PACER Case Locator (PCL) MCP — live US federal court case & party search on the
Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1683+ live data sources.
Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
pacer_case_search | Find US federal court cases by party name, case title, or case number — live search of the PACER Case Locator (PCL) across every federal district, bankruptcy, and appellate court. Returns case number, title, court, filing date, nature of suit, and case type. Requires your own PACER credentials (NextGen); PACER charges your account per search ($0.10/page, capped). Example: pacer_case_search({ case_title: "Lytx v. Sanderson", _apiKey: "myuser:mypass" }) or pacer_case_search({ party_name: "Nicholas Henderson", court_id: "ilndc", _apiKey: "myuser:mypass" }) |
pacer_party_search | Find parties across US federal court cases by name — live PACER Case Locator (PCL) party search across all federal courts. Returns each matching party (name, role) with the associated case number, court, and case title. Requires your own PACER credentials (NextGen); PACER charges your account per search ($0.10/page, capped). Example: pacer_party_search({ party_name: "Nicholas Henderson", _apiKey: "myuser:mypass" }) |
Quick Start
Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):
{
"mcpServers": {
"pacer": {
"url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/pacer/mcp"
}
}
}
What this endpoint actually serves
tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/pacer/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 1683+ 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
This pack takes your own API key (_apiKey) — we don't front one for it, so there's no curl here that would run without it. Inspect any tool: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/pacer_case_search. 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": {
"pacer": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-pacer"]
}
}
}
Or run it directly to confirm it starts:
npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-pacer
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 Pacer data" })
The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.
More
License
MIT
Comments
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