Tutorial: Legislation - Gnist Context

Government

Data source: Congress.gov, EUR-Lex, Finlex, Stortinget, Riksdagen

Overview

Legislation searches across 5 data sources (Congress.gov, EUR-Lex, Finlex, Stortinget, Riksdagen) in a single query. It deduplicates and normalizes results, saving you from building 5 separate integrations. This tutorial walks through all 4 tools with working code examples.

Prerequisites

Sign up at https://context.gnist.ai/signup for a free API key (100 calls/day).
Choose your integration method: MCP protocol or REST API.

Connect via MCP

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

MCP Config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gnist-legislation": {
      "url": "https://context.gnist.ai/mcp/legislation/",
      "headers": {
        "Gnist-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools (4)

`search_legislation`

Search legislation across US Congress, EU EUR-Lex, Finnish Finlex, Norwegian Stortinget, and Swedish Riksdagen. Queries all legislative databases in parallel and returns unified results sorted by date (most recent first). Each result includes the jurisdiction, identifier, title, status, and a link to the original source. Examples: search_legislation(query="climate change") search_legislation(query="artificial intelligence", jurisdiction="EU") search_legislation(query="tax reform", year=2025, jurisdiction="US")

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`query`	string	required	Search query — keywords, bill name, or topic.
`max_results`	integer	optional	Maximum number of results per source. (default: `10`)
`year`	any	optional	Filter by year.
`jurisdiction`	any	optional	Filter by jurisdiction: US, EU, FI, NO, or SE. Omit to search all.

curl -X POST "https://context.gnist.ai/mcp/legislation/" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Gnist-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "tools/call", "id": 1, "params": {"name": "search_legislation", "arguments": {"query": "renewable energy"}}}'

import httpx

resp = httpx.post(
    "https://context.gnist.ai/mcp/legislation/",
    headers={"Gnist-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
    json={'id': 1,
 'jsonrpc': '2.0',
 'method': 'tools/call',
 'params': {'arguments': {'query': 'renewable energy'},
            'name': 'search_legislation'}},
)
print(resp.json())

`get_recent_legislation`

Get recent legislative activity across all jurisdictions. Returns the most recent bills, regulations, and parliamentary cases from US Congress, EU EUR-Lex, Finnish Finlex, Norwegian Stortinget, and Swedish Riksdagen. Examples: get_recent_legislation() get_recent_legislation(jurisdiction="NO", max_results=5)

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`max_results`	integer	optional	Maximum results per source. (default: `10`)
`jurisdiction`	any	optional	Filter by jurisdiction: US, EU, FI, NO, or SE. Omit for all.

curl -X POST "https://context.gnist.ai/mcp/legislation/" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Gnist-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "tools/call", "id": 1, "params": {"name": "get_recent_legislation", "arguments": {"max_results": 10}}}'

import httpx

resp = httpx.post(
    "https://context.gnist.ai/mcp/legislation/",
    headers={"Gnist-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
    json={'id': 1,
 'jsonrpc': '2.0',
 'method': 'tools/call',
 'params': {'arguments': {'max_results': 10}, 'name': 'get_recent_legislation'}},
)
print(resp.json())

`list_legislation_sources`

List all registered legislative data sources and their status. Examples: list_legislation_sources()

curl -X POST "https://context.gnist.ai/mcp/legislation/" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Gnist-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "tools/call", "id": 1, "params": {"name": "list_legislation_sources", "arguments": {}}}'

import httpx

resp = httpx.post(
    "https://context.gnist.ai/mcp/legislation/",
    headers={"Gnist-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
    json={'id': 1,
 'jsonrpc': '2.0',
 'method': 'tools/call',
 'params': {'arguments': {}, 'name': 'list_legislation_sources'}},
)
print(resp.json())

`report_feedback`

Report a bug, feature request, or general feedback for this data source. Use this when something doesn't work as expected, when you'd like a new feature, or when you have suggestions for improvement. Args: feedback: Describe the issue or suggestion. feedback_type: One of 'bug', 'feature_request', or 'general'.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`feedback`	string	required
`feedback_type`	string	optional	(default: `general`)

curl -X POST "https://context.gnist.ai/mcp/legislation/" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Gnist-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "tools/call", "id": 1, "params": {"name": "report_feedback", "arguments": {"feedback": "example"}}}'

import httpx

resp = httpx.post(
    "https://context.gnist.ai/mcp/legislation/",
    headers={"Gnist-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
    json={'id': 1,
 'jsonrpc': '2.0',
 'method': 'tools/call',
 'params': {'arguments': {'feedback': 'example'}, 'name': 'report_feedback'}},
)
print(resp.json())

Common Patterns

Search then retrieve
Use search_legislation to find items, then get_recent_legislation to get full details. This two-step pattern is common for exploring data before drilling down.

Pagination
Several tools support limit, offset, or page parameters. Start with small limits during development, then increase for production queries.

FAQ

What data does Legislation provide?

Unified legislative search across US Congress, EU EUR-Lex, Finnish Finlex, Norwegian Stortinget, and Swedish Riksdagen — bills, regulations, directives, and parliamentary cases. It exposes 4 tools: search_legislation, get_recent_legislation, list_legislation_sources, report_feedback.

What do I need to get started?

A Gnist API key (free tier: 100 calls/day). Sign up at https://context.gnist.ai/signup.

What format does the Legislation API return?

JSON, via either MCP protocol (JSON-RPC 2.0) or REST API.

Which data sources does Legislation aggregate?

Congress.gov, EUR-Lex, Finlex, Stortinget, Riksdagen. Results are deduplicated and normalized into a consistent format.