Currency and the connector

Law changes underneath you, and an instrument drafted confidently on law that has shifted is the most expensive kind of error — polished, authoritative-looking, and wrong (Loper Bright ending Chevron deference in 2024; Seven County narrowing NEPA review in 2025 are the live reminders). OSED’s defense is the doctrinal-currency discipline, backed by a thin regulatory connector.

The classification

Every statute, regulation, or doctrine an instrument relies on is classified — and OSED relies only on CURRENT, flagging the rest:

• CURRENT — confirmed in force and not narrowed in a way that matters here.
• CHANGED — still exists but narrowed, amended, or stayed; explain how and whether it still supports the instrument.
• DEAD — overruled, vacated, or superseded; do not rely on it.
• UNVERIFIED — currency could not be confirmed from available sources.

When in doubt, flag rather than assume. “I could not confirm this is current” is always a safe output; “this is the law” about something unchecked is never. Full discipline: ../../doctrinal-currency.md.

The connector tools

The osed-regulatory MCP server feeds this check with evidence, never a conclusion. Each tool returns a uniform envelope — found, result, source_url, source_api, retrieved_at, and a source_current_as_of freshness signal; found: false is explicit, never an empty guess.

Keyless (work immediately):

• find_agency_actions — Federal Register: did the agency act, and when? (evidence a document published on a date, not proof a duty was met or missed).
• find_rule_changes — Federal Register: did this rule change? — later amendments, corrections, and agency-announced stays for a CFR title/part (does not capture judicial vacaturs).
• get_current_regulation — eCFR: does the rule exist now? (eCFR is the unofficial daily edition; the legally operative text is the annual GPO CFR — tagged accordingly).
• get_uscode_section — GovInfo: the statutory-duty text (a deadline may live in uncodified notes or public law, and a relative deadline needs the enactment date).

Keyed (free API keys, both optional):

• verify_citation — CourtListener: the case half of the check. Returns whether a citation resolves to a real published case; it does not flag overruling (Chevron still returns Published), so the CURRENT/CHANGED/DEAD judgment stays yours. Needs COURTLISTENER_API_KEY.
• find_rulemaking_documents — Regulations.gov: a docket/delay timeline. Posting and comment-period dates are raw evidence of activity — never read a comment-period close as a missed deadline. Needs REGULATIONS_GOV_API_KEY.

Keyless degradation, and the snapshot caveat

Without the keys (or without python3), the skills degrade safely — they flag authorities UNVERIFIED rather than guessing, and the setup step prints a visible message so you know the connector is unavailable. And the bundled docs/doctrinal-currency.md anchors are a snapshot as of the installed plugin version: run /plugin marketplace update to refresh them, and re-verify any authority in primary sources before relying on it. A stamp records that a human checked; it is never a substitute for checking. See ../../../CONNECTORS.md for the full data-source map and the connector’s known limits.