# Mike — Open-Source, Self-Hostable Alternative to Harvey and Legora for Law Firms

> Self-hostable open-source legal AI: chat with documents, cite verbatim, run multi-step workflows, draft contracts.

- Org: Will Chen
- Date: 2026-04-29
- Category: repo, tool
- Source: https://github.com/willchen96/mike
- Canonical page: https://ai-tldr.dev/releases/willchen96-mike-legal/

## In short

AGPL legal-AI platform for law firms: chat-with-documents, verbatim citations, multi-step workflows, and contract drafting using your own Claude or Gemini API keys. 960 stars in two days.

## What it is

Mike is a full-stack legal AI platform built as an open-source alternative to commercial offerings like Harvey and Legora, both of which charge law firms five and six figures a year. It's a Next.js frontend on an Express backend with Supabase auth and S3-compatible storage.

## How it works

Users bring their own model API keys — Claude or Gemini — and the platform handles document ingestion (PDF conversion via LibreOffice), retrieval, verbatim citation back to source pages, multi-step research workflows, and end-to-end contract drafting and editing. Because the whole stack is self-hostable, confidential client documents never leave the firm's infrastructure.

## Why it matters

Legal AI has been gated behind expensive vendor seats and tight integrations with Thomson Reuters' case-law oligopoly. Mike doesn't solve the case-law access problem (HN's top comment correctly points out that's a Westlaw moat), but it gives small firms and in-house teams a credible drafting and document-analysis workspace without paying Harvey-tier prices or sending privileged matter to a third-party SaaS.

## Who it's for

small law firms, in-house counsel, legal-tech tinkerers

## Try it

git clone https://github.com/willchen96/mike

## Links

- [GitHub Repo](https://github.com/willchen96/mike)
- [Project Site](https://mikeoss.com/)
- [HN Discussion](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47956739)