Running `patent-client-agents` as a stdio MCP server¶

The [mcp] extra ships a ready-to-run stdio MCP server that exposes all patent and IP tools to any MCP-speaking client — Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, CoWork, or a homegrown fastmcp Client.

Install¶

pip install 'patent-client-agents[mcp]'

This installs the runtime (fastmcp, starlette) and adds the patent-client-agents-mcp console script.

Run¶

patent-client-agents-mcp                  # default: stdio transport, no auth

patent-client-agents-mcp is a thin wrapper around patent_client_agents.mcp.server:mcp that runs via fastmcp. You can also invoke it directly:

python -m patent_client_agents.mcp.server
fastmcp run patent_client_agents.mcp.server:mcp

Claude Code configuration¶

Add one of the following blocks to your MCP config (.mcp.json at the project root or ~/.claude.json for user-scope):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "patent-client-agents": {
      "command": "patent-client-agents-mcp"
    }
  }
}

If you prefer to invoke a specific venv or Python interpreter:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "patent-client-agents": {
      "command": "/path/to/.venv/bin/patent-client-agents-mcp",
      "env": {
        "USPTO_ODP_API_KEY": "…",
        "EPO_OPS_API_KEY": "…",
        "EPO_OPS_API_SECRET": "…"
      }
    }
  }
}

The server starts with no authentication in stdio mode. Any env vars set in the env block are available to the connectors — USPTO ODP, EPO OPS, and JPO all consume credentials from env (see each connector's CATALOG.md entry).

Tools exposed¶

The server mounts ip_mcp, which composes 7 sub-servers:

Sub-server	Tools	Prefixes on signed-URL downloads
`Patents` (Google Patents)	9	`patents/`
`USPTO` (ODP — applications, PTAB, petitions, bulk)	25	`uspto/applications/`, `ptab/documents/`
`Publications` (PPUBS)	4	`publications/`
`International` (EPO OPS, CPC)	12	`epo/patents/`
`OfficeActions` (USPTO OA rejections/citations/text)	4	—
`PatentAssignments` (USPTO Assignment Center)	7	—
`MPEP`	2	—
Total	63

Downloadable artifacts mint HMAC-signed URLs when LAW_TOOLS_CORE_PUBLIC_URL is set (remote HTTP deployment). In stdio mode the tools write the bytes to a tempfile and return file_path.

Verifying¶

A one-off smoke test against the running server:

import asyncio
from fastmcp import Client
from fastmcp.client.transports import StdioTransport

async def main():
    async with Client(StdioTransport(command="patent-client-agents-mcp", args=[])) as c:
        tools = await c.list_tools()
        print(len(tools), "tools")
        result = await c.call_tool("get_mpep_section", {"section": "2106"})
        print(result.data.get("title") if result.data else None)

asyncio.run(main())

Expect 63 tools and the title 2106 … Patent Subject Matter Eligibility.

Not installed?¶

If patent-client-agents-mcp is on PATH but startup fails with ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'fastmcp', you installed patent-client-agents without the [mcp] extra. Re-install with pip install 'patent-client-agents[mcp]'.

Running patent-client-agents as a stdio MCP server¶