When Paperclip wakes the CEO and the model issues an mcp__legal-ai__*
call within ~10s of session init, Claude Code sometimes returns
"No such tool available" because the legal-ai MCP server hasn't
finished bringing up its tool catalog yet. Observed twice today on
CMPA precedent-extraction wakeups (sessions 9989fbaf and a9c61801);
the agent fell back to bash + .venv/bin/python and finished the work,
but the race needed fixing on the server side.
Three changes that close the window:
1. Lazy schema init (services/db.py + server.py)
`init_schema()` was awaited inside the FastMCP lifespan, blocking
the `initialize`/`tools/list` handshake until ~10 CREATE TABLE IF
NOT EXISTS statements ran. Under contention (two CEOs waking at
once for different companies) this stretched. Now the lifespan
returns immediately and `get_pool()` runs the schema migrations
exactly once on first DB access, guarded by an asyncio.Lock.
tools/list is answered in milliseconds regardless of DB state.
2. Lazy heavy imports
- services/embeddings.py: voyageai (~450ms) loaded only inside
_get_client()
- services/extractor.py: google.cloud.vision (~550ms) loaded only
inside _get_vision_client() and _ocr_with_google_vision()
These two were being imported at module top from
legal_mcp.tools.documents -> services.processor -> services.{
extractor,embeddings}, so the FastMCP server couldn't even start
responding until both finished. Cold start dropped from 2.7s to
1.17s end-to-end (init + tools/list response).
3. Agent-side warmup + retry guidance (.claude/agents/legal-ceo.md)
Even with a fast server, the model can still race on the very
first call. The precedent-extraction section now tells the CEO
to call workflow_status as a warmup probe and to retry after a
short sleep if it sees "No such tool available", before falling
back to the python bypass.
Also expanded the precedent-tool whitelists on the sub-agents that
delegate halacha/library work (commits 4a9a6b7 + 7ee90dc added the
tools to the MCP server but only the CEO got them in its allowed
list). Added to: legal-researcher (full extraction set), legal-analyst
(library_get/list + halacha review), legal-writer (library lookups +
halacha_review), legal-qa (library_get + halacha_review), and the two
that the CEO was already missing (halacha_review, halachot_pending).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The chair wanted a one-click "extract metadata" button on the edit sheet.
The constraint stays the same — claude_session needs the local CLI which
the container doesn't have, so the button can't run the extractor itself.
Compromise: button stamps a queue marker; the local MCP server drains the
queue on demand.
DB (V8): two nullable timestamps on case_law,
metadata_extraction_requested_at and halacha_extraction_requested_at,
with partial indexes for cheap "find pending" scans.
API:
POST /api/precedent-library/{id}/request-metadata → stamp the row
POST /api/precedent-library/{id}/request-halachot → same for halacha
GET /api/precedent-library/queue/pending?kind=... → read-only view
UI: Sparkles button in the edit sheet header. Click → toast tells the
chair what to run from Claude Code. The button never triggers the
extractor directly from the container.
MCP tool: precedent_process_pending(kind, limit) — runs from Claude Code
with the local CLI, picks up everything stamped, calls the extractor for
each, clears the timestamp on success. Failures keep the timestamp so the
next invocation retries them.
Architectural rule (claude_session local-only) is preserved end-to-end
and called out in the new endpoint comment + tool docstring.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three improvements to the precedent library based on usage feedback:
1. Auto-fill metadata at upload time. New service
precedent_metadata_extractor reads the ruling's full_text and
suggests case_name (short), summary, headnote, key_quote,
subject_tags, appeal_subtype. The merge policy fills only empty
fields, preserving everything the chair typed in the upload form.
Wired into the ingest pipeline; also exposed as a re-run endpoint
POST /api/precedent-library/{id}/extract-metadata for existing
records.
2. Edit sheet in the UI. Pencil icon on each library row opens a
pre-populated form covering every field. A Sparkles button on the
sheet runs the metadata extractor on demand and refreshes the
form. The case_number is read-only because halachot are FK'd to
it; renaming requires delete + re-upload.
3. Halacha extractor branches on is_binding. Sources marked binding
(Supreme/Administrative) keep the strict halacha prompt. Non-binding
sources (other appeals committees, district courts on planning
matters) get a different prompt that extracts applications,
interpretive principles, and persuasive conclusions — labeled with
new rule_types 'application' and 'persuasive'. The fallback also
widens chunk selection: if the chunker labeled nothing as
legal_analysis/ruling/conclusion, we now run on all chunks rather
than returning zero halachot for a usable ruling.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds a third corpus of legal authority distinct from style_corpus
(Daphna's prior decisions for voice) and case_precedents (chair-attached
quotes per case). The new corpus holds chair-uploaded court rulings and
other appeals committee decisions, with binding rules (הלכות) extracted
automatically and queued for chair approval.
Pipeline (web/app.py + services/precedent_library.py):
file → extract → chunk → Voyage embed → halacha_extractor → store +
publish progress over the existing Redis SSE channel.
Schema V7 (services/db.py): extends case_law with source_kind +
extraction status fields under a CHECK constraint pinning practice_area
to the three appeals committee domains (rishuy_uvniya, betterment_levy,
compensation_197). New precedent_chunks (vector(1024)) and halachot
tables (vector(1024) over rule_statement, IVFFlat indexes, gin on
practice_areas/subject_tags). Halachot start as pending_review; only
approved/published rows are visible to search_precedent_library.
Agents: legal-writer, legal-researcher, legal-analyst, legal-ceo,
legal-qa get search_precedent_library. legal-writer prompt explains
the three-corpus distinction and CREAC use; legal-qa now verifies that
every cited halacha resolves to an approved row in the corpus.
UI: /precedents page with four tabs — library / semantic search /
pending review (J/K nav, A/R/E shortcuts, badge count) / stats.
Reuses the existing upload-sheet progress + SSE pattern.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Until now changing a document's doc_type required a manual SQL update.
Adds an inline editor on the document badge so the chair can retag
without leaving the case page, and threads an appraiser_side tag
(committee / appellant / deciding) through the appraisal pipeline so
betterment-levy cases — which usually have 2-3 appraisers — render
conflicts with the deciding appraiser's view marked as governing.
Backend
- New appraiser_facts.appraiser_side column (V5.1) populated from
documents.metadata.appraiser_side at extraction time.
- extract_appraiser_facts now returns status='sides_missing' with the
list of untagged appraisals instead of running with empty side
labels — chair must tag every appraisal first via the UI.
- Conflict detection orders entries committee → appellant → deciding so
the deciding appraiser appears last; block-tet's prompt instructs the
writer to phrase the deciding appraiser's view as the governing
factual finding ("ואולם, השמאי המכריע קבע...").
- New PATCH /api/cases/{n}/documents/{doc_id} (Pydantic model with
whitelist validation) and matching document_update MCP tool. Both
merge appraiser_side into metadata JSONB instead of touching the
schema.
UI
- New shared doc-types module exports the canonical 11 doc_type
options plus the 3 appraiser-side options; both upload-sheet and
the document badge now read from it instead of duplicating Hebrew
labels.
- New DocumentTypeEditor renders a Popover off the doc-type Badge
with two Selects. The save button stays disabled while doc_type is
appraisal but no side has been picked, mirroring the backend
enforcement so the user finds out before triggering extraction.
- usePatchDocument React-Query mutation invalidates the case detail
on success so the badge updates without a manual refresh.
Lets the chair generate a partial decision DOCX before the discussion-and-
ruling block is decided. Same template, skill and DOCX styling as the final
decision (David, RTL, bookmarks) — only the block selection and order differ:
רקע (ו) → תכניות+היתרים (ט) → טענות (ז) → הליכים (ח). The opening (ה),
ruling (י), summary (יא), and signatures (יב) are omitted.
- New appraiser_facts table + CRUD + conflict detection in db.py (V5 schema).
Conflict = same plan/permit identifier reported differently by 2+ appraisers.
- New appraiser_facts_extractor service: per-appraisal Claude extraction of
plans + permits with raw quotes and page numbers.
- block-tet prompt extended with a permits sub-section sourced from the
extracted facts, plus an explicit instruction to flag inter-appraiser
conflicts in neutral wording without resolving them (deferred to block-yod).
- block-chet prompt extended with a post-hearing materials context sourced
from documents.metadata.is_post_hearing.
- docx_exporter.export_decision now accepts mode='interim' which reorders
the blocks per the chair's mental model and writes
טיוטת-ביניים-v{N}.docx (versioned independently of regular drafts).
- 3 new MCP tools: extract_appraiser_facts, write_interim_draft,
export_interim_draft. write_interim_draft auto-runs extraction if the
appraiser_facts table is empty for the case.
Fixes critical bug in 1033-25: user-uploaded עריכה-*.docx files were
orphaned on disk while exports kept rebuilding from stale DB blocks.
New architecture:
- User-uploaded DOCX becomes the source of truth (cases.active_draft_path)
- System edits via XML surgery with real Word <w:ins>/<w:del> revisions
- User can Accept/Reject each change from within Word
Components:
- docx_reviser.py: XML surgery for Track Changes (15 tests)
- docx_retrofit.py: retroactive bookmark injection with Hebrew marker
detection + heading heuristic (9 tests)
- docx_exporter.py: emits bookmarks around each of the 12 blocks
- 3 new MCP tools: apply_user_edit, list_bookmarks, revise_draft
- 4 new/updated endpoints: upload (auto-registers active draft),
/exports/revise, /exports/bookmarks, /exports/{filename}/retrofit,
/active-draft
- DB migration: cases.active_draft_path column
- UI: correct banner using real v-numbers, "מקור האמת" badge,
detailed upload toast with bookmarks_added/missing_blocks
- agents: legal-exporter (3 export modes), legal-ceo (stage G for
revision handling), legal-writer (revision mode)
Multi-tenancy:
- Works for both CMP (1xxx cases) and CMPA (8xxx/9xxx cases)
- New revise-draft skill added to both companies
- deploy-track-changes.sh syncs skills CMP ↔ CMPA
- retrofit_case.py: one-off retrofit of existing files
Tests: 34 passing (15 reviser + 9 retrofit + 4 exporter bookmarks + 6 e2e)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Support ingestion of betterment levy (היטל השבחה) decisions into a
separate training corpus (CMPA). Key changes:
- Add .doc file extraction via LibreOffice conversion in extractor
- Add practice_area/appeal_subtype columns to style_corpus table
- Route training files to cmp/ or cmpa/ subdirs based on appeal subtype
- Fix derive_subtype to handle ARAR-YY-NNNN format (was matching year digit)
- Expose practice_area/appeal_subtype params in MCP upload_training tool
- Add appeal_subtype filter to analyze_style for per-type style analysis
- Update betterment levy methodology in lessons.py: checklist (from generic
to corpus-based), opening/closing strategies, and discussion rules
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The merge of ui-rewrite removed these parameters from db.search_similar()
and db.create_case() but left the callers passing them, causing TypeError
on any corpus search. Restores the parameters and adds schema migration.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Backend changes cherry-picked from ui-rewrite branch to enable
feedback API endpoints for the Next.js staging UI.
- chair_feedback DB table + API endpoints (GET/POST/PATCH)
- Content checklists by appeal subtype injected into block-yod prompt
- MCP tools for recording and listing chair feedback
- Corpus analysis documentation (24 decisions)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
New self-contained table + MCP tools + FastAPI endpoints for letting
the chair attach external case-law quotes (quote + citation מראה מקום,
optional chair note, optional archived PDF) to either a specific
threshold_claim / issue or the case as a whole.
Data model
- case_precedents (SCHEMA_V5_SQL) — case_id, section_id NULL/
"threshold_N"/"issue_N", quote, citation (free-text), chair_note,
pdf_document_id FK to documents, denormalized practice_area for
cross-case library filtering.
- Deliberately NOT linked to the existing case_law table — that one
has UNIQUE(case_number) which would force parsing the free-text
citation into a structured key. A backfill pass into case_law is
a later follow-up once the UI stabilizes.
- db.py gains 4 helpers: create_case_precedent, list_case_precedents,
delete_case_precedent, search_precedent_library. The last uses
DISTINCT ON (citation) for the cross-case typeahead so each
precedent appears once even if reused across many cases.
MCP tools (legal_mcp/tools/precedents.py)
- precedent_attach, precedent_list, precedent_remove,
precedent_search_library — registered in server.py.
FastAPI (web/app.py)
- POST /api/cases/{n}/precedents — create, with PrecedentCreateRequest
- POST /api/cases/{n}/precedents/upload-pdf — one-shot PDF upload to
a dedicated documents/precedents/ subdirectory, creates a
documents row with doc_type="precedent_archive" and no text
extraction (archive only)
- GET /api/cases/{n}/precedents — list
- DELETE /api/precedents/{id} — uses path param since precedent_id
is a UUID (slash-safe, unlike case numbers)
- GET /api/precedents/search?q=...&practice_area=... — library
typeahead
Block-writer integration into _build_precedents_context is a deferred
follow-up — Phase 1 surfaces the feature in the compose UI only.
Plan: ~/.claude/plans/woolly-cooking-graham.md
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Wires a new case-deletion path across the three layers that needed it:
- db.delete_case(case_id) — single SQL DELETE; documents, chunks, and
qa_results cascade via existing schema FKs, audit_log nullifies.
- cases_tools.case_delete(case_number, remove_files=False) — MCP tool
wrapper. File tree on disk is kept by default (audit trail); pass
remove_files=True for a hard delete.
- DELETE /api/cases?case_number=... — FastAPI endpoint taking the case
number as a QUERY param rather than a path segment. Case numbers
like "1000/0426" can't be passed through a path parameter because
FastAPI routing decodes %2F before matching, so a query param is
the only shape that works for historical data.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Closes the loop so דפנה's positions (written inline in the UI and
saved to analysis-and-research.md) automatically become binding
direction for the legal-writer agent — no manual copy-paste,
no bypass.
Backend:
- research_md.extract_chair_directions(path) returns a compact dict
with status (missing/empty/partial/complete), filled_count,
empty_count, and a reduced list of threshold_claims + issues each
with {id, number, title, direction}. Designed to be directly usable
as direction_doc by the writer.
- New MCP tool: drafting.get_chair_directions(case_number) wraps the
helper, resolves the case research file path via config.find_case_dir,
returns formatted JSON.
- Registered in server.py as mcp__legal-ai__get_chair_directions.
legal-writer agent update:
- Adds get_chair_directions to the tools list.
- New mandatory "שלב 1ב" before any block writing: call
get_chair_directions, branch on status.
- missing → halt, report "legal-analyst לא רץ עדיין"
- empty → halt, instruct Dafna to fill positions via the UI URL
- partial → halt unless user confirms; write only filled sections
- complete → proceed
- New "שלב 1ג" constructs an internal direction_doc from the
received chair rulings before writing block י.
- Block י section expanded with 5 binding rules:
1. Open each discussion with Dafna's ruling as the thesis
2. Frame the reasoning in her style (use get_style_guide phrases)
3. Match her tone (decisive vs nuanced)
4. Must NOT contradict her position — if she disagreed with your
own inclination, her position rules
5. Use legal_questions from the analysis file as the analytical
structure (principle question first, concrete application second)
- New bullet section for block יא: summarize each chair ruling
briefly, state final outcome, close with the signed date formula.
Verified all four status paths (missing/empty/partial/complete) via
local test. Now Dafna's workflow is fully end-to-end: she reads the
analyst report in the UI, fills "עמדת ועדת הערר" in each card, hits
blur to auto-save, then triggers legal-writer — which picks up her
positions as direction without any file shuffle.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
New architecture: MCP provides context, Claude Code writes.
New functions:
- get_block_context(case_id, block_id) → returns full context package
(prompt, source docs, claims, direction, precedents, style guide)
WITHOUT calling Anthropic API
- save_block_content(case_id, block_id, content) → saves block to DB
New MCP tools: get_block_context, save_block_content
The old write_block (API-based) still works as fallback.
The new flow uses Claude Code's own model (Opus 4.6, 1M context)
which has no separate API billing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Add expected_outcome field to cases (rejection/partial/full/betterment_levy)
- New lessons.py module with golden ratios, templates, and drafting guidance per outcome type
- Style analyzer now uses Opus with full decision text (no truncation), with multi-pass fallback for large corpora
- Drafting tool provides outcome-specific templates, section guidance, and ratio comments
- Improved JSON extraction with bracket-matching fallback
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Ezer Mishpati - AI legal decision drafting system with:
- MCP server (FastMCP) with document processing pipeline
- Web upload interface (FastAPI) for file upload and classification
- pgvector-based semantic search
- Hebrew legal document chunking and embedding
