danepps

Legal Research Skills — Development skill for Claude Code

Development community

Claude Code and Codex CLI skills for legal scholarship: verified research memos, cite-checking, proofreading, Zotero library building, SCOTUS case prep.

How to install Legal Research Skills

This entry records only its repository, not the path inside it, so there is no exact command to give. Open danepps/legal-research-skills and copy the folder into ~/.claude/skills/, or the file into ~/.claude/agents/.

What Legal Research Skills does

Claude Code and Codex CLI skills for legal scholarship: verified research memos, cite-checking, proofreading, Zotero library building, SCOTUS case prep.

Alternatives in Development

Lex Legal — Use the @lex-legal agent to help the user with the following legal/compliance matter: $ARGUMENTS 523 ★
Legal Compliance — Legal, Privacy, And Compliance Skills 280 ★
Statistics Page Writer — Deep-research and publish a sourced statistics page journalists cite for months 195 ★

README

Legal Research Skills

Check citations, proofread drafts, find supporting authorities, build a Zotero library, and write research memos using Claude or Codex. These free add-ons give the AI detailed research instructions and tools for checking its work.

**You can install these tools through either desktop app without opening Terminal.** Claude has a guided setup conversation. Codex can install from a downloaded folder, following OpenAI's documented method, though that route has not yet been tested end to end on a fresh account. After setup, you ask for help in ordinary English.

Created by [Daniel Epps](https://law.wustl.edu/faculty-staff-directory/profile/daniel-epps/), a law professor who uses these tools in his own scholarship. [Questions or trouble getting started? Email me.](mailto:epps@wustl.edu)

Getting started

You need **only one** of these apps:

I'm starting from scratch: follow the Claude desktop guide, which walks you through setup without Terminal.
I already use Claude: follow the same guide. If the desktop app is already installed, start at step 2.
I already use Codex: follow the Codex desktop guide. You do not need the Codex command-line tool.

The add-ons are free. Using them requires access to Claude Code or Codex through your AI provider. A full cite-check can use a substantial amount of your plan, so begin with a short document.

Set up with Claude desktop

These steps are for Mac or Windows. You will need a Claude plan that includes Claude Code, such as Pro or Max; eligible Team and Enterprise accounts also work. See [Claude's getting-started guide](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/desktop-quickstart) for account requirements.