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ECFiler

Filing preparation and locally-controlled CM/ECF automation for federal courts, powered by Claude API.

Try the App | API Docs

ECFiler is an open-source tool for preparing and filing documents on CM/ECF. The hosted app prepares, validates, and stages filings — the human files. The CLI additionally automates the mechanical filing steps with Playwright (CM/ECF has no filing API), running entirely on your own machine with your credentials in your OS keyring — no server ever sees a court password. Every filing requires explicit attorney confirmation before submission, and every filing action is recorded in an append-only, hash-chained attestation log.

Features

  • Smart Filing — drop a PDF, AI extracts case, court, party, event type. Zero form-filling.
  • 207 federal courts — 97 district, 94 bankruptcy, 16 appellate
  • 7 safety gates — PDF validation, redaction scan, event code verification, completeness check, attorney CONFIRM, typed YES at the CM/ECF confirmation screen, receipt capture
  • Web UI + CLI + API — three interfaces, same engine
  • Claude AI — document analysis, event code matching, redaction scanning, filing validation
  • Certificate of Service — auto-generated with PDF export
  • Pre-flight checks — catches errors before the browser even starts
  • Filing history — SQLite audit log of all filings

Quick Start

Option A: Try it now (hosted)

Visit https://www.ecfiler.com — drop a PDF and go. No install needed.

Option B: Self-host

git clone https://github.com/jackson-jpeg/ecfiler.git && cd ecfiler
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

# With Docker
docker compose up

# Or without Docker
python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[web,dev]"
ecfiler serve

Open http://localhost:8000.

Option B: Smart CLI

# One command — AI reads the document, you just confirm
ecfiler smart ./motion_to_dismiss.pdf

Option C: Full CLI

ecfiler                              # Interactive TUI menu
ecfiler smart motion.pdf             # AI-powered filing (zero forms)
ecfiler smart motion.pdf --dry-run   # Test without submitting
ecfiler validate brief.pdf           # Check PDF meets CM/ECF requirements
ecfiler convert scanned.pdf          # Convert to PDF/A with OCR
ecfiler courts --search california   # Find courts
ecfiler courts --type appellate      # List appellate courts
ecfiler setup                        # Store PACER credentials
ecfiler check                        # Verify setup (API key, browser, etc.)
ecfiler history                      # View past filings
ecfiler history --search "01234"     # Search filing history
ecfiler save-template mtd --court nysd --event-code 12 --event-desc "Motion to Dismiss"
ecfiler quick mtd 1:24-cv-01234 brief.pdf   # Quick file from template
ecfiler demo                         # Demo walkthrough (no account needed)
ecfiler serve                        # Start web UI + API server
ecfiler serve --port 8080            # Custom port

Setup

1. Verify installation

ecfiler check

This runs diagnostics on your setup: config file, API key, PACER credentials, Playwright/Chromium, PDF tools, court data.

2. PACER Credentials

ecfiler setup

Stores your PACER password in the system keyring (never in plaintext).

3. Configuration

Edit ~/.ecfiler/config.toml (created on first run):

[general]
default_court = "nysd"
claude_model = "claude-sonnet-4-20250514"
dry_run = false

[pacer]
username = "your@email.com"

[attorney]
name = "Jane Smith"
bar_number = "JS1234"

[pdf]
redaction_check = true

4. Optional: PDF/A Conversion

pip install 'ecfiler[pdf-convert]'
apt install ghostscript tesseract-ocr  # Linux
brew install ghostscript tesseract     # macOS

How It Works

  1. Select court — choose from 207 federal courts
  2. Enter case number — looked up on PACER
  3. Describe your filing — Claude suggests the right event code
  4. Select documents — PDF validation + redaction scanning
  5. Pre-flight checks — catches errors before browser starts
  6. Review — full summary, type CONFIRM to proceed
  7. File (CLI, local) — Playwright submits to CM/ECF from your machine, captures the receipt and NEF; the hosted app instead stages a validated package for you to file

Safety

ECFiler never auto-submits. The attorney must:

  • Type CONFIRM at the review screen
  • Type YES at the final CM/ECF confirmation
  • Both gates must pass for any filing to be submitted

Additional protections:

  • Pre-flight checks block filings with missing/invalid data
  • PDF validation blocks invalid documents
  • Claude scans for unredacted personal identifiers (Rule 5.2)
  • Claude validates event code matches document content
  • Sealed/restricted hard-fail: a sealed document can never silently file publicly (see docs/sealed-document-policy.md); the hosted service refuses sealed content entirely
  • Browser retry with error recovery for transient failures
  • All filings logged to SQLite audit trail + append-only hash-chained attestation records (ecfiler audit verify)
  • Screenshots captured at every step; audit traces start only after login so credential entry is never captured
  • All court-facing traffic identifies itself with an honest ECFiler User-Agent, is rate-limited, and bulk operations honor the AO's 6pm–6am CT guidance

API

Start the server with ecfiler serve, then visit http://localhost:8000/docs for interactive API documentation.

Endpoint Method Description
/ GET Web UI
/api/file POST Smart filing — upload PDF, get filing preview
/api/file/multi POST Multi-document smart filing
/api/filing/stage POST Stage a validated filing package (the human files)
/api/filing/stage/{code} GET Fetch a staged package (used by ecfiler stage-pull)
/api/validate POST PDF validation
/api/redaction-scan POST Rule 5.2 scanning
/api/certificate-of-service POST Generate certificate of service
/api/certificate-of-service/pdf POST Download CoS as PDF
/api/courts GET List/search courts
/api/courts/{id}/events GET Event codes per court
/api/nature-of-suit GET JS-44 nature of suit codes
/api/nature-of-suit/categories GET NOS categories
/api/history GET Filing history
/api/health GET Health check

Supported Courts

Type Count Examples
District 97 S.D.N.Y. (nysd), C.D. Cal. (cacd), N.D. Ill. (ilnd)
Bankruptcy 94 S.D.N.Y. (nysb), C.D. Cal. (cacb), D. Del. (deb)
Appellate 16 2nd Cir. (ca2), 9th Cir. (ca9), D.C. Cir. (cadc)

Development

python -m pytest tests/ -v     # Run the test suite (~400 tests)
ecfiler check                  # Verify dev setup

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development guidelines.

License

MIT