Clio MCP is the connector that lets Claude read your Clio data: matters, contacts, tasks, and billing. There’s no official version yet, but the free open-source clio-mcp server does the job today, and setup takes about 20 minutes.
Here’s why you want it. Clio knows everything about your caseload. Your matters, your contacts, your tasks, your unbilled time. And your AI knows none of it.
That gap costs you every day. “Which matters have deadlines this week” means logging into Clio, clicking through filters, and scanning a list. “How much unbilled time is sitting on the Ramirez file” means another login, another report. Your practice management system is a database you can only talk to with your mouse.
I fixed this at my own firms with MCPs, the connectors that let Claude read your real systems. I’ve written about what MCPs are and which ones to connect first. This article is the Clio-specific version: one open-source server, one API key, about 20 minutes.
The tool: clio-mcp by Yellen Legal
There’s no official Clio connector for Claude yet. What exists instead is clio-mcp, an open-source MCP server built by Yellen Legal that talks to Clio’s API and exposes it to Claude.
Free. Open source. You hold the keys, and you can read every line of what it does before you run it. I connected my own Claude to Clio this way using Claude Code, and the whole thing took one sitting.
Here’s the setup.
Step 1: Get a Clio API key
Log into Clio, then go to the Clio developer portal. Create a new application. Clio will ask for a name and a callback URL; the clio-mcp README tells you exactly what to enter.
When the application is created, Clio gives you credentials. Copy them somewhere safe. Not a sticky note, not a shared doc. A password manager. This key can read your case data, and we’ll come back to what that means in the security section.
Step 2: Install the clio-mcp server
Go to the GitHub repo and follow the README. It’s a clone-and-install, the standard pattern for open-source MCP servers. If the commands look foreign, paste the README into Claude and ask it to walk you through each one. That is not a joke. It’s how half my staff got their first MCP running.
Step 3: Add it to Claude’s config
Claude finds MCP servers through a config file. In Claude Code it’s a one-line add command; in Claude Desktop it’s a JSON file where you paste an entry pointing at the clio-mcp server and your API credentials. The repo README has the exact block to copy.
This is the step where people get nervous because it looks like programming. It isn’t. You’re filling in two blanks: where the server lives and what your credentials are.
Step 4: Restart and test
Restart Claude. Then ask it: “List my open matters.”
If the setup worked, Claude calls Clio and answers. If it didn’t, the error message plus the README plus Claude itself will get you unstuck. Most failures are a typo in the config path or a credential pasted with a trailing space.
What you can actually do once connected
The test query is a party trick. The daily value looks like this:
- “Pull up everything on the Nguyen matter”
- “Find the contact info for the adjuster on the Patel file”
- “Create a task on the Brooks matter: draft discovery responses, due Friday”
- “How much unbilled time is on my open matters right now?”
- “Which matters have had no activity in 30 days?”
That last one deserves a pause. Stale matters are where malpractice claims and bar complaints are born, and no partner reviews the full matter list weekly. Claude will, in one sentence, every Monday if you want. That standing Monday check is a small taste of what AI agents do across a whole firm.
A field note from my team
My AI manager got a Clio Manage connector working for us by logging in directly through the site, and Clio Grow is next on his list. In our conversations, Clio has been receptive about making a public connector, so a native one may come. Until then, the open-source route works today, and switching later costs nothing.
One more thing we learned the hard way: if both an MCP and a Zapier connection exist for a tool, connect both. The MCP wins for conversational lookups and judgment calls. Zapier wins for triggered automations that fire at 2 AM without anyone asking. Different actions, different strengths.
| Clio MCP | Zapier + Clio | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Conversational lookups, ad hoc questions | Triggered automations that run unattended |
| Runs when | You ask | An event fires |
| Cost | Free, open source | Zapier plan |
| Setup | About 20 minutes, one API key | About 10 minutes per Zap |
Security: treat the API key like a client file
Because it is one, functionally. Whoever holds that key can read whatever the key’s scopes allow. So:
- Use the narrowest API scopes Clio offers for what you need. Least privilege, same principle as file permissions.
- Start read-only if possible. Lookups deliver most of the value anyway, and you can add write access once you trust the setup.
- Store the key in a password manager, never in a shared doc or an email thread.
- Revoke keys the day a staff member leaves. Put it on the offboarding checklist now, not after.
- Your confidentiality duties apply. This is a vendor touching client data, and your state bar treats it that way.
None of this is exotic. It’s the same hygiene you’d apply to a Clio login, applied to a key.
20 minutes, then plain English forever
That’s the trade. One setup session, and from then on your practice management system answers questions instead of making you click for them. And once Claude can read the matter, drafting the paperwork from it is the natural next step; that’s legal document automation, which sits in the automation stage of the roadmap.
Your next action: open developers.clio.com, create the application, and grab the key. That’s the only step Claude can’t do for you.