DocketLayer Guides

DocketLayer (DL) Guides are written for builders — developers and technical teams integrating DocketLayer into production workflows that demand reliable, real-time court data.

Each Guide covers a specific task from start to finish: setting up a Solana wallet, implementing the x402 payment handshake, configuring an MCP server for Claude or Cursor, or building a scheduled monitoring system.

The Guides are organized into four sections. Setup and Payments covers the full path from wallet creation through live x402 payment cycles. AI Agents covers MCP server configuration for Claude Desktop and Cursor. Optimization covers efficient polling patterns and batch querying for production-scale monitoring. Use Cases addresses specific professional workflows where DocketLayer operates as a continuous, automated monitoring layer.

Setup and Payments

DocketLayer's payment model is built on the x402 protocol — no API keys, no accounts to create. Every query is paid at the point of request: $0.99 in USDC on Solana, settled through a standard HTTP handshake. These guides walk through the complete setup path: creating a Solana wallet, funding it with USDC, implementing the x402 probe-pay-retry cycle, and testing against the sandbox before going to mainnet.

Setting Up a Solana Wallet for DocketLayer API Payments

How to create a wallet, fund it with USDC, and verify your balance — for both browser-based testing and programmatic agent use.

How x402 Works: Implementing the Payment Handshake

Step-by-step implementation of the x402 probe-pay-retry cycle, with working code for constructing and signing a USDC transaction on Solana.

Testing x402 Payments Without Real Funds

How to build and test x402 payment flows against DocketLayer using devnet wallets and the sandbox endpoint — no mainnet USDC required.

AI Agents

DocketLayer ships an MCP server — @docketlayer/mcp-server — that makes the full tool catalog available to any MCP-compatible AI client without additional integration work. These guides cover configuration for Claude Desktop and Cursor. Once configured, the client can query courts, fetch docket entries, and monitor cases directly in the conversation or coding session. The server handles payment automatically using a configured Solana wallet.

Using DocketLayer with Claude

Install the DocketLayer MCP server and configure it for Claude Desktop — so Claude can query court dockets and monitor cases directly in a conversation.

Using DocketLayer with Cursor

Configure the DocketLayer MCP server for Cursor so the agent can check docket status and query cases as part of a coding or research workflow.

Optimization

At production scale, how you query matters. The last_checked parameter on the monitor endpoint lets you detect docket changes without fetching full case data on every sweep. Batch querying lets you process up to 50 cases in a single request, reducing payment cycles and round-trip overhead for portfolio-wide monitoring. These guides cover both patterns.

Efficient Polling with last_checked

How to use the monitor endpoint and last_checked parameter to detect case changes without fetching the full docket on every check.

Batch Querying

Query up to 50 cases in a single request using the batch endpoint — reducing x402 payment cycles and cutting round-trip overhead for portfolio sweeps.

Use Cases

These guides address specific, recurring professional workflows where DocketLayer functions as the monitoring layer. Each guide is written for builders who have a working DocketLayer integration and are ready to apply it to a concrete operational problem: tracking adverse filings, monitoring litigation portfolios, automating compliance workflows, and building systems that persist state across runs and alert on change.