Ironclad MCP server for Claude

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes Ironclad as a tool surface to Claude — letting Claude search the contract repository, read clause text from specific contracts, query workflow status, and pull contract metadata directly from prompts. Designed for in-house teams that want their attorneys to interact with Ironclad through Claude rather than the Ironclad UI.

What you’ll need

• Claude Code or Claude.ai with MCP-enabled access
• Ironclad admin access plus API key with read scope (write scope optional, with caveats)
• Node.js 20+ for the MCP server runtime
• Server hosting (local for development, internal hosting for team use)
• Network access from the Claude environment to your Ironclad instance

Setup

1. Provision the API key. In Ironclad admin: create a service-account API key with read access to the workflows, records, and search APIs. Document the scope; rotate per security policy.
2. Clone and configure the MCP server. The server exposes four tool surfaces:
   • search_contracts(query) — semantic search across executed contracts
   • get_contract(contract_id) — full contract metadata + extracted clause data
   • list_workflows(filter) — active workflows by status, assignee, type
   • get_workflow_history(workflow_id) — full activity log for a specific workflow
3. Deploy the server. Local for individual developer use; internal hosting (HTTPS, internal DNS) for team use. Include access logging.
4. Wire to Claude. Add the MCP server URL to Claude’s MCP configuration. Verify connection with a test query.
5. Test the four surfaces. Search for a known contract; pull its details; list active workflows; retrieve activity log. Verify outputs match Ironclad UI.

Example interactions

Once configured, attorneys can ask Claude things like:

• “What’s our standard liability cap for vendor MSAs over $500K? Find the last 10 closed and summarize the range.”
• “Show me every active workflow assigned to Sarah that’s been pending for more than 5 business days.”
• “Pull the indemnification clause from the Acme MSA and the Globex MSA, and tell me how they differ.”
• “What contracts come up for renewal in the next 60 days, and which ones have non-standard terms?”

Claude responds by issuing the appropriate MCP tool calls, retrieving the data, and synthesizing the answer.

Security and access controls

Critical considerations:

• Authentication. Every Claude session authenticates as a specific user against the MCP server, which authenticates as that user against Ironclad. No service-account-as-user.
• Read vs write. Default deployment is read-only. Write operations (creating workflows, modifying contracts) require explicit additional authorization and audit logging.
• Audit logging. Every MCP tool call is logged with timestamp, user, query, and Ironclad API call made. Critical for matter management audit trail.
• Privilege scope. The MCP server inherits Ironclad’s access controls — Claude can only see what the user can see. Don’t grant the service account broader scope than the user has.
• AI policy alignment. Ironclad data may be confidential; verify AI policy authorizes Claude access to contract data, particularly for users who have access to sensitive matters.

Where it fits

This MCP server is for the Stage 4 Optimized Legal Ops team — specifically the moment when attorneys are spending material time in Ironclad UI for queries that Claude could handle conversationally. It compresses Ironclad-UI time into Claude conversation time, which generally produces 2-5x throughput improvements on contract-data-driven workflows.

Watch-outs

• Don’t over-permission. Read-only is the right default. Write operations through MCP create production-data risks that aren’t worth the convenience for most teams.
• MCP servers expose data to Claude. Verify acceptable use. Some Ironclad data may be sensitive enough that exposing it via MCP requires legal/security review.
• Performance considerations. Large search queries returning thousands of contracts can blow out token budgets. Tune the search tool to return summarized results with drill-down via subsequent MCP calls.
• Don’t bypass Ironclad workflow. MCP makes it easy to read; resist the temptation to also write contract status changes directly. Workflow status should change through Ironclad UI with proper approval, not through Claude conversation.