PracticePanther MCP

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for PracticePanther — cloud-based legal practice management software for solo and small-to-mid law firms.

Talk to PracticePanther from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client. Read matters (cases), client accounts, contacts, time entries (billable hours), invoices, activities, tasks, calendar events — and create new records. Built against PracticePanther's public OAuth 2 + REST + OData API.

No existing MCP for PracticePanther — this is the first.

What you can do with it

You:   "List open matters for account 'Acme Corp' and show last week's time entries."
Claude: *find_accounts → find_matters (odata filter status=open) → find_time_entries*

You:   "Log 2.5 hours on matter 4421 for Sarah Lee today — research on the deposition brief."
Claude: *create_time_entry with matterId=4421, userId=<Sarah's>, date=today, hours=2.5,
        description="Research: deposition brief", billable=true*

You:   "Show all unpaid invoices over 60 days old across the firm."
Claude: *find_invoices (status=sent/overdue, startDate=2024-04-01) → summary*

You:   "Book a hearing for matter 7788 on Friday May 30 at 2pm — judge Miller, courthouse 5."
Claude: *create_event with matterId=7788, startsAt, attendees, location*

Why this exists

PracticePanther's web UI is fine for solo use but doesn't expose firm-wide rollups (which matters are bleeding hours, which clients are slow-paying, who's about to blow a statute).
Logging billable hours from the UI requires click-through per entry — Claude can batch-log 10 entries in a single conversation.
The legal vertical has had Clio MCP servers for over a year; solo and small firms on PracticePanther had nothing equivalent.
For solo/small-firm attorneys, automating "what did I bill this week?" / "what's overdue?" / "log these 6 hours" is the most concrete, recurring time-save.

Install

pip install -e .

Authenticate (one-time)

PracticePanther uses OAuth 2 authorization-code flow. The included helper script runs the full flow locally and prints the env vars to set:

practicepanther-mcp-auth --client-id <your_client_id> --client-secret <your_client_secret>

This opens your browser, walks you through PracticePanther login, captures the redirect on http://localhost:8765/callback, exchanges the code for tokens, and prints:

export PRACTICEPANTHER_ACCESS_TOKEN="..."
export PRACTICEPANTHER_REFRESH_TOKEN="..."
export PRACTICEPANTHER_CLIENT_ID="..."
export PRACTICEPANTHER_CLIENT_SECRET="..."

To register an OAuth app, contact PracticePanther support or your account manager — they issue client_id + client_secret per integration.

Configure

Once you have tokens, set them in your shell (or paste into the Claude Desktop config below):

export PRACTICEPANTHER_ACCESS_TOKEN="..."
export PRACTICEPANTHER_REFRESH_TOKEN="..."
export PRACTICEPANTHER_CLIENT_ID="..."
export PRACTICEPANTHER_CLIENT_SECRET="..."

Refresh tokens last 60 days. The MCP client auto-refreshes the access token; when the refresh token expires, just re-run practicepanther-mcp-auth.

Use with Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "practicepanther_mcp": {
      "command": "practicepanther_mcp",
      "env": {
        "PRACTICEPANTHER_ACCESS_TOKEN": "...",
        "PRACTICEPANTHER_REFRESH_TOKEN": "...",
        "PRACTICEPANTHER_CLIENT_ID": "...",
        "PRACTICEPANTHER_CLIENT_SECRET": "..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools (25)

Tool	Type	What it does
`health_check`	Diagnostic	Verifies credentials by listing users
`find_matters`	Read	Search matters (cases) — supports OData `$filter`, `$orderby`, `$select`
`get_matter`	Read	Single matter with full detail
`create_matter`	Write	Open new matter
`update_matter`	Write	Patch matter fields
`find_accounts`	Read	Search client accounts
`get_account`	Read	Single client account
`create_account`	Write	New client account
`find_contacts`	Read	List contacts on accounts
`create_contact`	Write	New contact
`find_time_entries`	Read	The killer feature — billable hours across the firm
`get_time_entry`	Read	Single time entry
`create_time_entry`	Write	Log billable/non-billable time
`update_time_entry`	Write	Patch time entry
`find_invoices`	Read	List invoices (filter by status, matter, account, date)
`get_invoice`	Read	Single invoice with line items
`create_invoice`	Write	New invoice
`find_activities`	Read	Calls, emails, meetings
`create_activity`	Write	Log activity against matter
`find_tasks`	Read	Tasks (to-dos)
`create_task`	Write	New task
`find_events`	Read	Calendar events (hearings, deadlines)
`create_event`	Write	New calendar event
`list_users`	Reference	Firm staff (attorneys, paralegals)
`list_practice_areas`	Reference	Practice areas (Family Law, PI, etc.)
`list_expense_categories`	Reference	Expense categories

API coverage

Maps MCP tools to PracticePanther's OData-enabled REST API (/api/v2/*). The full surface is exposed via Swagger UI: https://app.practicepanther.com/swagger/ui/index.

This MCP exposes the resources a solo/small-firm attorney most often needs: matters, accounts, contacts, time entries, invoices, activities, tasks, calendar. Document management and trust accounting endpoints are intentionally out of scope for v0.1 — open an issue if you need them.

Rate limits

PracticePanther throttles at the OAuth-app level. The client auto-retries once on 401 (refreshes the access token) but does not retry on 429 — slow down if you hit rate limits.

Development

python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest
ruff check src tests
practicepanther_mcp

Need a custom MCP for your SaaS?

I build production-grade MCP servers for vertical SaaS — insurance, dental, veterinary, legal, property mgmt, home services. Typical engagement: 2-4 weeks, $25K-$120K. Source-owned, MIT-licensed, no vendor lock-in.

See sanjibani/mcp-services or email [email protected].

Ships in the sanjibani vertical-MCP portfolio — see also hawksoft-mcp, open-dental-mcp, ezyvet-mcp, jobber-mcp, mcp-vertical-template.

MIT.

Acknowledgements

PracticePanther for the public REST + OData API + OAuth flow
Built using mcp-vertical-template
Inspired by sanjibani/hawksoft-mcp and the rest of the sanjibani vertical-MCP portfolio

PracticePanther MCP