Research CLI · ocl

Check citations and keep evidence from the command line

Full guide on GitHub Source: clients/python

Install

pipx install opencaselaw-cli        # or: uv tool install opencaselaw-cli
ocl --help

1. Check the citations in a draft

cat > references.jsonl <<'JSONL'
{"reference":"BGE 136 III 513","pinpoint":"2.3"}
{"reference":"4A_747/2012"}
{"reference":"BGE 999 III 1"}
{"reference":"BGE 140 III 86","pinpoint":"2.3"}
JSONL
ocl citations resolve --input references.jsonl

At a terminal this prints:

resolved              BGE 136 III 513  bge_BGE_136_III_513  E. 2.3 retrieved
resolved              4A_747/2012      bger_4A_747_2012     BGer 4A_747/2012 vom 5. April 2013
missing               BGE 999 III 1                         not in the corpus
pinpoint_unavailable  BGE 140 III 86   bge_BGE_140_III_86   E. 2.3 not in the index

partial: 2 resolved, 1 missing, 1 pinpoint_unavailable.
Existence and pinpoints only; no assessment of legal support.

2. Keep the evidence behind a memo

ocl bundle create 'Rachekündigung Art. 336 OR' --max-results 10 --passage 2 \
  --law OR:336 --out rachekuendigung-2026-09

The folder is readable without any tool:

rachekuendigung-2026-09/
  INDEX.md                                    what was saved, in plain language
  manifest.json                               every request, timestamp, hash, source link
  decisions/bge_BGE_136_III_513-5b3e22ef.txt  full text as served (+ .json metadata)
  passages/bge_BGE_136_III_513_2-ff487655.txt E. 2, verbatim
  laws/OR_336-812a5382.json                   Art. 336 OR, consolidation date, Fedlex link
  search/page-0000-1850ce82.json              the search page the selection came from

What the results mean

Recipes

ocl decisions search 'Rachekündigung Art. 336 OR' --max-results 5 --format jsonl |
  ocl decisions get --stdin --format jsonl > decisions.jsonl

ocl decisions search --court bge --date-from 2026-01-01 --date-to 2026-06-30 \
  --sort date_desc --max-results 500 --format jsonl > bge-2026-h1.jsonl

ocl decisions passage bge_BGE_136_III_513 2.3
ocl cite 'BGE 136 III 513' --pinpoint 2.3 --language fr

ocl laws get OR --article 41 --as-of 2015-01-01

ocl citations list bge_BGE_140_III_86 --direction incoming --limit 50

Where it fits

Limits