Setting up the MCP Server takes about five minutes. This guide covers connecting LegalStep.ai to Claude, Microsoft Copilot and the Word & Excel add-ins — and what to do if a connection won't cooperate. Once you're connected, the User Guide covers everything you can ask it to do.
LegalStep.ai connects your AI tool to your firm's Actionstep practice management system, so you can work with your matters in plain conversation.
Instead of clicking through screens, you simply ask — in everyday language — to look something up, summarise a matter, record time, or open a new file. It works with the AI tools your firm already uses, including Claude and Microsoft Copilot, and inside Word and Excel, where it can drop matter details straight into a document or spreadsheet you're working on.
There is nothing to install inside Actionstep and nothing about your existing matters changes. The server sits alongside Actionstep and reads from it — and writes to it — on request.
Everyone connects with their own Actionstep sign-in, so anything created through the assistant — a time entry, a file note, a new matter — is recorded under that person's own name, exactly as if they'd done it in Actionstep themselves.
Connecting Claude takes about five minutes. Your firm gets its own dedicated, secure server, set up through LegalCollect — these are the steps to link it to Claude.
LegalCollect sends you a secure, one-time link containing your server's web address, your Client ID, and your Client Secret. Open it and save all three somewhere safe before you close the page — the link only works once. If your firm hasn't set this up yet, register your interest or get in touch with LegalCollect.
Open claude.ai in a browser. In the left-hand menu, click Customize, then Connectors.
Click the + in the Connectors column and choose Add custom connector. Give it a name (for example, "Actionstep") and paste in your server's web address. Open Advanced settings and enter the Client ID and Client Secret from step 1, then click Add.
Your new connector now appears in the list, but it isn't linked yet. Click Connect. As long as the Client ID and Client Secret were entered correctly, it connects and the list of available actions loads.
Clicking Connect takes you to a secure Actionstep sign-in as part of the same flow. Sign in with your own Actionstep login and approve access. Everyone on your team does this individually, so every action you take is recorded in Actionstep under your own name. If the sign-in doesn't open on its own, start a new chat and type "Connect to Actionstep."
Try asking "What can I do with the LegalStep.ai server?" to see what's available. To check you're signed in correctly, ask "Which Actionstep account am I connected as?" — it should show your own name and email. From there, you're ready to go.
Keep your Client ID and Secret safe. They're the keys to your firm's connection. The setup link only opens once, so store the details somewhere secure as soon as you receive them. If you lose them, LegalCollect can re-issue a fresh link.
The server works with other AI tools too — including Microsoft Copilot and the Word and Excel add-ins. The approach is the same everywhere: add the connector with your details, authorise it, then connect to Actionstep.
As above, LegalCollect provides a secure, one-time link with your server's web address, Client ID, and Client Secret. Save all three before closing the page.
Find the connectors (or agents) list in your tool and add a new connector using the details you were given. In Microsoft Copilot, add it from the agents/connectors list. In Word or Excel, open the connectors list from the add-in panel. Enter the server's web address and, where prompted, the Client ID and Client Secret. If your firm has already added it for everyone, you can skip this step.
When prompted, sign in to authorise the connection. The list of available actions appears once this succeeds.
Ask your assistant to "Connect to Actionstep." A secure Actionstep sign-in window opens — sign in with your own Actionstep login and approve access. Each person connects individually, so your work is recorded under your own name.
Ask "Is the Actionstep connection working?" Your assistant will confirm the connection is live and show which Actionstep account you're signed in as. You're done.
Using it in Word or Excel? The server works the same way there. Enable it from the connectors list in the add-in panel, and the same actions are available while you draft a letter or build a spreadsheet.
Firm-wide reporting answers questions across the whole practice — KPI targets, the trust ledger, and what every matter has billed and is still owed. It needs a one-time setup that the ordinary connector doesn't, because it works from your firm's own nightly Actionstep data export rather than from live API calls.
Three things are needed, and they only have to be done once:
This is an Actionstep-side setting, on Actionstep's own Data Exporter setup page. Turning it on produces a password-protected export of your firm's data each day. Give that password to LegalCollect — it is stored in your firm's own key vault, never in the application's settings.
Reporting fetches the export under a designated Actionstep login rather than under any individual's account. LegalCollect needs that login's numeric Actionstep user id — which is not the same as its contact id, and the two are easy to confuse. Your Actionstep administrator can confirm which is which.
Once the password and the user id are in place, LegalCollect switches the feature on for your server. The refresh then runs by itself every night, around 3am AEST, and there is nothing to schedule or maintain at your end.
Until all three are done, the two reporting actions simply say the feature isn't configured and name what's missing. Everything else on your server keeps working exactly as normal in the meantime. Once it is switched on, the User Guide covers what you can ask it.
Reporting data is a nightly copy, not a live read. That's what makes it able to answer questions Actionstep's API can't — but it also means today's time entries and receipts aren't in it until tomorrow. Every reporting answer states the date the data was taken.
The Document Merger is an optional add-on that lets you generate your firm's precedent documents from your Actionstep templates — on the matter, through the assistant.
It needs a one-time setup that the normal connector doesn't: your Microsoft 365 administrator approves our app and grants it read access to a SharePoint library of your templates. Until that's done, the feature simply reports that it isn't configured, and everything else keeps working as normal.
The Document Merger Setup Guide covers every step — the Microsoft 365 admin tasks, keeping your template library up to date, and how to generate documents once it's switched on.
Setting up document generation? Follow the dedicated Document Merger Setup Guide — it has the admin-consent and SharePoint steps in order.
The most common hiccups and how to clear them.
Everyone now signs in with their own Actionstep account, so your work is recorded under your own name. Moving to this needs a one-time reconnect: open your connector settings, remove the Actionstep connector and add it again, then sign in to Actionstep once more. After this, your sign-in carries across restarts and updates — you won't need to keep reconnecting.
Ask your assistant to "Connect to Actionstep" and sign in again. The sign-in can occasionally time out — reconnecting fixes it.
Give it a minute, then ask "Is the Actionstep connection working?" The connection sometimes needs a moment to settle after sign-in.
Open your connector settings, then remove and re-add the server. This refreshes the list. A new release can add actions, or change what an existing action accepts — either way the change only reaches you when you reconnect, because the list is read once at that moment. The total currently stands at 71. v1.17.0 changes the email action rather than adding one, so until you reconnect once, in each place you use it, that place still has the old version and can’t search or page through a matter’s emails. If the list still doesn’t appear at all, LegalCollect may need to re-share the connection details.
Firm-wide reporting needs Actionstep’s Data Exporter switched on, its password given to LegalCollect, and a nominated service login — see Turning on firm-wide reporting. The message names whichever of those is still outstanding. Nothing else on your server is affected while it’s off.
They are. Reporting works from a copy taken overnight, so anything recorded today appears tomorrow — ask about the matter itself for that, since those tools read Actionstep live. Every reporting answer states the date its data was taken. If that date is more than a day or two behind, contact LegalCollect: a failed refresh keeps the previous copy serving and alerts them automatically, so they may already be onto it.
Reach out to whoever set up the server at your firm, or contact LegalCollect — they can check the connection from their end.