Docs · Getting Started
Getting started
From source to running loop in a few commands. OpenLegal is local-first: nothing here requires an account, a cloud service, or a model credential.
1 · Get the source
The canonical repository for OpenLegal is github.com/M4G3LL4N0/obviouslybad (verified as the project’s configured git remote). It is currently private while the public open-source release is prepared — once published, the link below resolves publicly. Clone it wherever you keep code:
If you already have the project installed locally, skip the clone and cd into your existing copy.
2 · Install
Use a virtual environment. Python ≥ 3.10 is required. Dependencies come from the package metadata (click, fastapi, uvicorn, watchdog, pydantic).
No credentials required
Local-only mode is the default. External model providers are off until you explicitly configure and verify them — so a fresh install is immediately usable and immediately private.
3 · Verify the installation
doctordiagnoses your environment, roots, API, and provider state — WHAT / WHY / HOW, secrets never printed.healthprints a JSON health report: Python, package, CLI, repository state, filesystem, API, privacy, models, audit.statusis a read-only view of matters, models, and privacy state.
4 · Run the engine
run is human-gated by design: it plans first, and --live executes with the same gates in place. The synthetic benchmark stays off your real data, and real-matter onboarding follows the conservative checklist in the repository’s user guide.
5 · Launch the application (optional)
This starts the backend application (FastAPI) plus the operations console. To run just the API explicitly: