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name pp-rechtspraak
description The first CLI for Dutch court decisions with rich local narrowing for long-tail legal keywords, an appeal-chain walker Trigger phrases: `look up Dutch court decision`, `find a rechtspraak ECLI`, `narrow Dutch case search by keyword`, `exclude term from rechtspraak results`, `walk the appeal chain`, `Dutch case law search`, `use rechtspraak`, `run rechtspraak`.
author markvandeven
license Apache-2.0
argument-hint <command> [args] | install cli|mcp
allowed-tools Read Bash
metadata
openclaw
requires
bins
rechtspraak-pp-cli

Rechtspraak — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the rechtspraak-pp-cli binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:

  1. Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows: 
    npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install rechtspraak --cli-only
  2. Verify: rechtspraak-pp-cli --version
  3. Ensure the reported install directory is on $PATH for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill.

If the npx install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.4 or newer). This installs into $GOPATH/bin (default $HOME/go/bin), so add that directory to $PATH instead:

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/other/rechtspraak/cmd/rechtspraak-pp-cli@latest

If --version reports "command not found" after install, the runtime cannot see the binary directory on $PATH. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

Every Dutch ECLI from data.rechtspraak.nl, indexed locally so include/exclude/phrase/regex narrowing cuts a 1000-result topic down to a usable set — the upstream API has no free-text search, so this is the only place that workflow exists. Walks the cassation chain in one command, exports vindplaatsen as BibTeX, and exposes every command as an MCP tool — the first MCP server for Dutch case law.

When to Use This CLI

Reach for this CLI when an agent needs to research, monitor, or correlate Dutch court decisions. Strong fit for Dutch legal research, appellate workflow assistance, jurisprudence-corpus building, and any agent that needs structured access to ECLIs without parsing raw RDF/XML. Pairs naturally with tenderned and pdok-location for a full Dutch civic-data agent stack.

When Not to Use This CLI

Do not activate this CLI for requests that require creating, updating, deleting, publishing, commenting, upvoting, inviting, ordering, sending messages, booking, purchasing, or changing remote state. This printed CLI exposes read-only commands for inspection, export, sync, and analysis.

Unique Capabilities

These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.

Graph walks across decisions

  • chain — Walk the cassation, conclusie, and eerdere-aanleg graph for a Dutch court decision in both directions and print the full chain as a tree or JSON.

    Use this whenever an agent needs the full procedural history of a Dutch decision (cassation chain, A-G conclusie, lower-court rulings) in one call instead of clicking through rechtspraak.nl tabs by hand.

    rechtspraak-pp-cli chain ECLI:NL:HR:2024:1 --depth 5 --agent

  • citations — Extract the citation list (vindplaatsen) for a decision and emit as BibTeX, CSV, or JSON ready for legal-brief footnotes.

    Reach for this when an agent is drafting a Dutch legal brief and needs the citation list for a cited decision without parsing raw RDF/XML.

    rechtspraak-pp-cli citations ECLI:NL:HR:2024:1 --format bibtex

  • conclusie — Given a Hoge Raad decision ECLI, return the matching A-G conclusie (or reverse).

    When an agent reads a Hoge Raad ruling, immediately pull the Advocate-General's conclusie so the reasoning context is in scope.

    rechtspraak-pp-cli conclusie ECLI:NL:HR:2024:1 --agent

Local state that compounds

  • dossier — List every decision sharing a case number across instances, sorted chronologically.

    Use this when tracking a single Dutch case across the rechtbank, gerechtshof, and Hoge Raad — the API offers no case-file filter, only the local index does.

    rechtspraak-pp-cli dossier 22/00155 --agent

  • watch — Poll for new decisions matching a filter, dedupe against the local SQLite, and emit only the new ECLIs — cron-friendly with --quiet.

    Wire this into a cron or agent loop to receive only newly-published Dutch court decisions on your filter — no manual rechtspraak.nl refreshing.

    rechtspraak-pp-cli watch --court HR --subject belastingrecht --since 7d --quiet --agent

  • sync archive — Download the official weekly full-corpus archive and bulk-insert to the local SQLite — orders of magnitude faster than paging the Atom feed for backfills.

    Use this when bootstrapping a research corpus or rebuilding the local DB; live sync against the Atom feed is the wrong tool for backfills.

    rechtspraak-pp-cli sync archive --week 2024-W01

Agent-native plumbing

  • code — Bidirectional offline lookup against the Instanties controlled vocabulary — court code to full name and PSI URI, or fuzzy name to code.

    When an agent needs to resolve a Dutch court name, code, or PSI URI without round-tripping to the API, this is the lookup.

    rechtspraak-pp-cli code RBAMS --agent

  • mcp serve — Expose every rechtspraak command as an MCP tool — the first MCP server for Dutch case law.

    Wire this into Claude Desktop or any MCP-aware agent to give it native access to Dutch court decisions, citations, and case-files.

    rechtspraak-pp-cli mcp serve

  • ecli parse — Pure-local regex parse of an ECLI into country, court, year, and sequence — with validation — and ecli url for the deeplink.

    Use this whenever an agent needs to validate or destructure an ECLI before fetching content or chaining into another command.

    rechtspraak-pp-cli ecli parse ECLI:NL:HR:2024:1 --json

Search narrowing for long-tail legal terms

  • narrow — Read an ECLI list from stdin (or piped from search/watch/sync), fetch each decision's content from the live API (one HTTP call per ECLI, paced via the shared rate limiter), apply local include/exclude/phrase/regex filters against title+summary+body, and emit the narrowed list — the defining workflow for keyword-overlap-heavy Dutch legal research.

    Use this when a metadata-only search returns hundreds or thousands of decisions and an agent needs to narrow by phrasing — chain it after search, watch, or sync. The same vocabulary (--keyword, --exclude, --phrase, --regex) also lives on search directly for single-shot use.

    rechtspraak-pp-cli uitspraken search --subject strafrecht --court HR --from 2024-01-01 --agent | rechtspraak-pp-cli narrow --keyword huurprijs --exclude "kort geding" --phrase "huurprijswijziging" --agent

Command Reference

courts — Dutch courts (Instanties) controlled vocabulary - 79KB authoritative list

  • rechtspraak-pp-cli courts — List every Dutch rechtsprekende instantie with PSI URI, full name, afkorting code, type, and Begin/EndDate.

foreign-courts — Foreign courts (BuitenlandseInstanties) referenced by Dutch decisions

  • rechtspraak-pp-cli foreign-courts — Foreign court catalog: ECHR, CJEU, and ~5000 EU member-state courts with PSI URI, multilingual name, and country code

foreign-decisions — Non-Dutch decisions registered with LJN codes (NietNederlandseUitspraken)

  • rechtspraak-pp-cli foreign-decisions — Bridge from foreign ECLIs (CJEU, ECHR) to old Dutch LJN codes - ~173k entries

procedures — Procedure types (Proceduresoorten) controlled vocabulary

  • rechtspraak-pp-cli procedures — Procedure types (cassatie, hoger beroep, kort geding, etc.) with PSI URIs

relations — Formal relation types (FormeleRelaties) between decisions

  • rechtspraak-pp-cli relations — Relation taxonomy

subjects — Subject areas (Rechtsgebieden) controlled vocabulary - hierarchical

  • rechtspraak-pp-cli subjects — Subject-area taxonomy with PSI URIs, names, and parent-child hierarchy

uitspraken — Search and fetch Dutch court decisions (ECLI register)

  • rechtspraak-pp-cli uitspraken get — Fetch a single decision by ECLI - returns full RDF metadata plus the inhoudsindicatie summary and the uitspraak body
  • rechtspraak-pp-cli uitspraken image — Fetch an embedded image from a decision body by its imagedata identifier
  • rechtspraak-pp-cli uitspraken search — Search the ECLI index by date, court, subject, type. Per IVO 1.

Finding the right command

When you know what you want to do but not which command does it, ask the CLI directly:

rechtspraak-pp-cli which "<capability in your own words>"

which resolves a natural-language capability query to the best matching command from this CLI's curated feature index. Exit code 0 means at least one match; exit code 2 means no confident match — fall back to --help or use a narrower query.

Recipes

Iteratively narrow an over-broad result set

rechtspraak-pp-cli uitspraken search --subject strafrecht --court HR --from 2024-01-01 --keyword huurprijs --exclude "kort geding" --phrase "huurprijswijziging" --annotate-count --agent

Upstream API returns metadata-only matches; without --scan-body the --keyword/--exclude/--phrase/--regex flags filter against title+summary in-memory (no fetch). With --scan-body each candidate's body is fetched and matched as well. --annotate-count prints total/fetched/post-narrow counts after the run.

Walk the full procedural history of a Hoge Raad decision

rechtspraak-pp-cli chain ECLI:NL:HR:2024:1 --agent --select chain.ecli,chain.court,chain.date,chain.type

The response is deeply nested across instances; the dotted --select projection keeps the agent's context lean by emitting only the chain skeleton.

Daily new-decision watch with narrowing

rechtspraak-pp-cli watch --court HR --subject belastingrecht --since 1d --keyword "omkering bewijslast" --quiet --agent

Exits silently if no new decisions match both the upstream filter (HR + belastingrecht + last 24h) AND the local keyword filter — drop-in for cron + mail.

Pipe-compose narrowing across commands

rechtspraak-pp-cli uitspraken search --court HR --from 2024-01-01 --quiet | rechtspraak-pp-cli narrow --keyword belastingrecht --exclude conclusie --agent

Read ECLIs from any source, apply local filters, emit narrowed list — the same vocabulary as search but composable across pipelines.

Bibliography export for a brief

rechtspraak-pp-cli citations ECLI:NL:HR:2024:1 --format bibtex

Emits the vindplaatsen as BibTeX entries with stable keys — paste directly into a LaTeX brief.

Resolve a court name to its PSI URI

rechtspraak-pp-cli code "Rechtbank Amsterdam" --json --select code,name,psi_uri

Fully offline after first sync; useful in agent chains that need to construct a search filter.

Auth Setup

No authentication required.

Run rechtspraak-pp-cli doctor to verify setup.

Agent Mode

Add --agent to any command. Expands to: --json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes.

  • Pipeable — JSON on stdout, errors on stderr

  • Filterable — --select keeps a subset of fields. Dotted paths descend into nested structures; arrays traverse element-wise. Critical for keeping context small on verbose APIs:

    rechtspraak-pp-cli courts --agent --select id,name,status

  • Previewable — --dry-run shows the request without sending

  • Offline-friendly — sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available

  • Non-interactive — never prompts, every input is a flag

  • Read-only — do not use this CLI for create, update, delete, publish, comment, upvote, invite, order, send, or other mutating requests

Response envelope

Commands that read from the local store or the API wrap output in a provenance envelope:

{
  "meta": {"source": "live" | "local", "synced_at": "...", "reason": "..."},
  "results": <data>
}

Parse .results for data and .meta.source to know whether it's live or local. A human-readable N results (live) summary is printed to stderr only when stdout is a terminal AND no machine-format flag (--json, --csv, --compact, --quiet, --plain, --select) is set — piped/agent consumers and explicit-format runs get pure JSON on stdout.

Agent Feedback

When you (or the agent) notice something off about this CLI, record it:

rechtspraak-pp-cli feedback "the --since flag is inclusive but docs say exclusive"
rechtspraak-pp-cli feedback --stdin < notes.txt
rechtspraak-pp-cli feedback list --json --limit 10

Entries are stored locally at ~/.local/share/rechtspraak-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl. They are never POSTed unless RECHTSPRAAK_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or RECHTSPRAAK_FEEDBACK_AUTO_SEND=true. Default behavior is local-only.

Write what surprised you, not a bug report. Short, specific, one line: that is the part that compounds.

Output Delivery

Every command accepts --deliver <sink>. The output goes to the named sink in addition to (or instead of) stdout, so agents can route command results without hand-piping. Three sinks are supported:

Sink Effect
stdout Default; write to stdout only
file:<path> Atomically write output to <path> (tmp + rename)
webhook:<url> POST the output body to the URL (application/json or application/x-ndjson when --compact)

Unknown schemes are refused with a structured error naming the supported set. Webhook failures return non-zero and log the URL + HTTP status on stderr.

Named Profiles

A profile is a saved set of flag values, reused across invocations. Use it when a scheduled agent calls the same command every run with the same configuration - HeyGen's "Beacon" pattern.

rechtspraak-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
rechtspraak-pp-cli --profile briefing courts
rechtspraak-pp-cli profile list --json
rechtspraak-pp-cli profile show briefing
rechtspraak-pp-cli profile delete briefing --yes

Explicit flags always win over profile values; profile values win over defaults. agent-context lists all available profiles under available_profiles so introspecting agents discover them at runtime.

Exit Codes

Code Meaning
0 Success
2 Usage error (wrong arguments)
3 Resource not found
5 API error (upstream issue)
7 Rate limited (wait and retry)
10 Config error

Argument Parsing

Parse $ARGUMENTS:

  1. Empty, help, or --help → show rechtspraak-pp-cli --help output
  2. Starts with install → ends with mcp → MCP installation; otherwise → see Prerequisites above
  3. Anything else → Direct Use (execute as CLI command with --agent)

MCP Server Installation

Install the MCP binary from this CLI's published public-library entry or pre-built release, then register it:

claude mcp add rechtspraak-pp-mcp -- rechtspraak-pp-mcp

Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

  1. Check if installed: which rechtspraak-pp-cli If not found, offer to install (see Prerequisites at the top of this skill).
  2. Match the user query to the best command from the Unique Capabilities and Command Reference above.
  3. Execute with the --agent flag: 
    rechtspraak-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent
  4. If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help: rechtspraak-pp-cli <command> --help.