Bill Commons MCP server

• build_legislative_evidence_packetFree

  Compile a citation-ready evidence packet for a bill: full official record, legislative history timeline, votes with member-level detail, and hearings -- each explicitly labeled official vs. derived with source URLs. Returns a `how_to_cite` block with a one-line `cite_as` sentence, a human `permalink`, a JSON `download_url`, and a `snapshot_id` that changes if and only if a cited fact about the bill changes -- so a reader can check later whether the citation still holds. Snapshots are NOT archived; the id is a change detector, not a way to retrieve an older packet. Pass `question` to record what the packet was assembled to answer; it is echoed into the artifact so a filed packet carries its own scope.

• compare_bill_versionsFree

  Deterministic diff (unified + structured) between two versions of a bill's extracted text. Defaults to earliest vs. latest texted version if version ids are omitted. Errors if fewer than 2 versions have extracted text. Result is labeled 'derived' (computed by Bill Commons, not an official document).

• find_similar_billsFree

  Find bills with similar titles via deterministic trigram similarity, across jurisdictions. Labeled 'derived' -- not an official cross-reference or companion-bill designation.

• get_active_sessionsFree

  List legislative sessions currently flagged active, optionally filtered by jurisdiction (two-letter state code or name).

• get_bill_recordFree

  Fetch the full record for one bill: metadata, sponsors, subjects, actions, versions, and vote-event summaries. Look up by canonical bill_id (UUID), or by jurisdiction + identifier (+ optional session to disambiguate).

• get_jurisdiction_coverageFree

  Return the jurisdiction_coverage state-machine status for one state (abbreviation or name), or the full 51-jurisdiction coverage matrix if state is omitted.

• get_upcoming_hearingsFree

  List upcoming (future-dated) legislative hearings/events, optionally filtered by jurisdiction and/or bill.

• get_vote_detailsFree

  Fetch vote event(s) with member-level (yes/no/other/absent) vote records. Provide vote_event_id for one vote, or bill_id for all recorded votes on that bill.

• list_topicsFree

  List Bill Commons' curated cross-state topic trackers (e.g. artificial intelligence, youth online safety, platform accountability, cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, data privacy, local government & preemption) -- the entry point for "what subjects does Bill Commons track across all 50 states + DC" and "how do I get every bill in one". Each topic is a title/subject membership rule tuned for precision over recall, with a live bill_count and how_to_fetch_bills. This tool does not itself return bill rows -- pair it with search_legislation or the REST API's /topics/{slug} for the bills.

• search_legislationFree

  Search FULL BILL TEXT -- not just known-bill-number lookup. `q` is matched against titles, descriptions, AND ingested document text via Postgres websearch_to_tsquery (supports "quoted phrases", OR, and -exclusion, same syntax as a search engine), with a fuzzy pg_trgm title-similarity fallback when the exact query has no hits. `q` can ALSO be a bill number ("HB 123", "H.B. 123", "hb123" all match) and that fast path is tried first. Optionally filter by jurisdiction (two-letter state code or name), chamber, and status. For a curated cross-state slice of a subject (e.g. "every AI bill in the country") rather than an ad-hoc keyword search, call list_topics first -- its membership rules also match on structured subject tags this full-text search does not see.

• trace_legislative_historyFree

  Full chronological legislative history for a bill: merged timeline of actions, version publications, and votes, plus related-bill links.

• –Code scanremote-only server, no package to scann/a
• Live reliabilityremote reachable in 754ms20/20
• Tool poisoning11 tool descriptions checked15/15
• Auth qualityopen endpoint, read-only tools10/15
• Maintenancelast push 4 days ago15/15
• Maintainer identitynamespace and repository owner differ; website matches verified namespace5/10

Safety score

87/100

higher than 78% of 3,470 Web search servers

Tools

11

the typical Web search server has 5

Tools that change things

0%

typical: 0%. Fewer write tools means less an agent can break

Uptime

100%

of our recent checks; the typical remote Web search server answers 100%

Response time

134 ms

faster than 82% of 2,238 Web search servers

Bill Commons: common questions

Is Bill Commons MCP server safe?

Yes, by our scan: it is graded A (87/100). Read the Bill Commons safety report

How do I install Bill Commons?

It runs remotely at mcp.billcommons.org. Add it to Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code or Claude Desktop with the snippets above, or call it through the mcp.market gateway without installing anything.

Does Bill Commons need an API key?

Not as far as the registry entry and our scan can tell: no credentials are declared or required.

Is Bill Commons maintained?

The last commit was 44 days ago (2026-09-21). The latest release is v1.0.0.

Is Bill Commons up?

100% of our last 28 checks got an answer. We check remote servers about four times a day.

What can I use instead of Bill Commons?

Servers from other publishers that do the same job: Arxiv MCP server, Pubmed MCP server and Misakanet MCP server.

How does Bill Commons compare with other Web search MCP servers?

safety score 87/100 (higher than 78% of 3,470 Web search servers); tools 11 (the typical Web search server has 5); tools that change things 0% (typical: 0%. Fewer write tools means less an agent can break). Full comparison.