mikeoss-casedotdev

Open-source Case.dev fork of Mike. This repository keeps the GitHub fork relationship with willchen96/mike while wiring Mike to Case.dev primitives for LLM routing, model selection, Skills, Vault-backed document storage, document grounding, and Case DB/Postgres-compatible persistence.

This project is developer-oriented software for legal workflows. It is not a law firm, lawyer, or substitute for professional legal advice.

Hosted Demo

Try the hosted demo at mike.casemark.dev.

The hosted demo is backed by a shared Case.dev API key and includes a lifetime $5 Case.dev usage budget per signed-in user. You can add your own Case.dev API key in Account > Models at any time; personal keys override the hosted demo key and bypass the demo budget. Clearing your key falls back to the shared demo key.

If the hosted demo is paused, the app shows a lightweight landing page instead of the workspace. Operators can pause the demo by setting MIKE_DEMO_MODE=false while leaving MIKE_DEMO_CASE_API_KEY configured in the Vercel backend project. Forks and local installs are unaffected unless they opt into demo mode.

What Is Case.dev?

Case.dev is API-first infrastructure for legal engineering: matters, vaults, models, agents, and other legal primitives exposed as composable APIs. The platform is broader than an LLM gateway. Its documented services include Matters, Agents, Vault, LLMs, OCR, Compute, Voice, Search, Legal Research, Privilege Detection, Databases, Memory, Translation, SuperDoc, Format, Payments, Skills, and AI Governance.

This fork uses Case.dev where it gives Mike a clearer primitive: document vaults instead of object-storage glue, matters instead of generic projects, a model gateway instead of one-provider assumptions, skills instead of hardcoded workflow templates, and legal research tools instead of ungrounded web search. The backend remains the authorization boundary; the browser never calls Case.dev directly.

Contents

• frontend/ - Next.js application
• backend/ - Express API, Better Auth, Case DB access, document processing, and migrations
• backend/migrations/000_one_shot_schema.sql - one-shot Case DB/Postgres schema for fresh databases

What This Fork Adds

• Case.dev LLM gateway and live model catalog
• Case Vault as canonical document storage, indexing, search, chunks, extracted text, downloads, and chat grounding
• Case Matters as the workspace primitive behind Mike's Matters UI
• Case Skills discovery and workflow import
• Read-only Case Legal research tools in chat
• Better Auth with encrypted per-user Case.dev keys
• Optional BYOK Anthropic and Gemini LLM routing for local/private installs
• Hosted demo mode with per-user usage metering

Users configure credentials in Account > Models. Case.dev is the default and required provider for Vault storage, indexing, Skills, Matters, Legal, and the Case model gateway. Optional encrypted Anthropic and Gemini keys can be added for direct BYOK LLM routing without changing document storage.

Choose Your Integration Depth

You can use this fork in several modes:

• Full Case.dev: use one Case.dev API key for LLM routing, Vault storage and RAG, Matters, Skills, Legal Research, and a Case.dev Database/Postgres connection.
• Hybrid BYOK models: use Case.dev for legal and document infrastructure, but add your own Anthropic or Gemini key in Account > Models for direct LLM routing.
• Bring your own Postgres: run the schema against any compatible PostgreSQL database instead of Case.dev Databases.
• Replace individual services: swap adapters behind the backend routes if you want your own model gateway, storage system, search index, or matter service. The main seams are backend/src/lib/caseClient.ts, backend/src/lib/storage.ts, backend/src/lib/llm/index.ts, backend/src/lib/chatTools.ts, backend/src/lib/caseMatters.ts, and the backend/src/routes/* modules.
• Case-free fork: possible, but not plug-and-play. You must provide replacement implementations for storage, text extraction, document search, model routing, legal research, skills, and matter metadata before the app is useful.

Case.dev Primitive Map

Primitive	Status in this repo	What it does here
LLMs	Wired	Runtime model catalog and chat completions through Case.dev, with optional direct Anthropic/Gemini BYOK routing.
Vault	Wired	Canonical document blob storage, ingestion, OCR/indexing pipeline, extracted text, chunks, search, downloads, and chat grounding.
Matters	Wired	User-facing Matters UI, matter metadata, primary vault linkage, work items, and activity/log surfaces. Mike still keeps local auth, ACL, and UI cache rows.
Skills	Wired	Search/preview/import Case skills into Mike workflows and make skills discoverable from chat.
Legal Research	Wired read-only	Chat tools for external legal sources, citation parsing/verification, court and docket lookup, SEC filings, patents, and trademarks. Live PACER fetches and legal drafting are intentionally disabled.
Databases	Supported	The schema runs on Case.dev Databases or any PostgreSQL-compatible database.
OCR	Used through Vault	Uploaded documents are processed through Vault ingestion. Standalone OCR APIs are not exposed in the UI yet.
Format / SuperDoc	Future candidate	Mike still has its own generated DOCX/PDF paths. Case.dev Format/SuperDoc are natural follow-ups for polished legal document generation and conversion.
Agents	Future candidate	Mike currently runs chat/workflows itself. Case.dev Agents could power long-running async legal tasks later.
Memory	Future candidate	Suitable for durable user or matter preferences; this repo does not store document contents in Memory.
Search	Future candidate	Legal Research is wired; broader Case.dev web/deep search is not a first-class UI feature yet.
Privilege Detection	Future candidate	Not exposed yet; a likely fit for review workflows.
AI Governance / Events / Usage	Adjacent	Demo metering is local today. Case.dev governance, event, and usage APIs could tighten provider policy and operations later.
Voice / Translation / Compute / Payments	Not used today	Documented Case.dev services, but outside this fork's current product surface.

Setup

Install dependencies:

npm install --prefix backend
npm install --prefix frontend

Create local env files from the examples:

cp backend/.env.example backend/.env
cp frontend/.env.local.example frontend/.env.local

The local dev helper will also create missing env files automatically on start. Generated files include safe defaults for ports and placeholders for Case.dev Database/Postgres values that must be replaced before testing auth, uploads, downloads, or vault sync.

Run backend/migrations/000_one_shot_schema.sql against a fresh Case.dev Database or PostgreSQL-compatible database.

Start both local services:

scripts/mike-dev.sh start

The helper supports start, stop, restart, status, and logs:

scripts/mike-dev.sh status
scripts/mike-dev.sh restart backend
scripts/mike-dev.sh logs frontend
scripts/mike-dev.sh stop

It writes PID and log files under .mike-dev/, which is ignored by git. status prints configured ports, URLs, env files, PID files, log files, process state, readiness checks, and any placeholder env values that still need attention.

You can also start services manually. Start the backend:

npm run dev --prefix backend

Start the frontend:

npm run dev --prefix frontend

Open http://localhost:3000.

Required Services

• Case.dev Database or another PostgreSQL-compatible database
• Better Auth tables from backend/migrations/000_one_shot_schema.sql
• Case.dev API key for LLM routing, model catalog, Skills, and Vault storage/search
• LibreOffice for DOC/DOCX to PDF conversion
• Strong backend secrets for Better Auth, download-token signing, Case key encryption, and Case.dev webhook verification

Demo Mode

Demo Mode is intended for the hosted CaseMark deployment. It is inert for forks and local installs unless the backend has both MIKE_DEMO_MODE=true and MIKE_DEMO_CASE_API_KEY.

When enabled, users without a personal Case.dev key use the shared demo key and receive a lifetime budget from MIKE_DEMO_BUDGET_USD (default $5). Every metered Case.dev call made with the demo key records usage in demo_user_usage and demo_usage_events. Users who save their own Case.dev key use that key first and are no longer charged against the hosted demo budget. By default, only LLM calls spend demo budget: the backend reserves $0.10 for each LLM request, then charges usage.cost from Case.dev or token pricing from the live Case model catalog. Vault, Legal, Skills, Matters, and metadata calls default to $0.00 in demo mode. Uploads are capped at 100 MB.

To pause only the hosted demo UI without changing code, set MIKE_DEMO_MODE=false while keeping MIKE_DEMO_CASE_API_KEY configured. The frontend reads /demo-status and shows a public paused-demo landing page when that hosted-demo kill switch is active.

Checks

npm run build --prefix backend
npm run build --prefix frontend
(cd frontend && npx tsc --noEmit)

Legacy R2 rows from pre-Case deployments can be copied into Case Vault with the legacy migration helper. It exists for old CaseMark data only; always run the dry run first and prefer fresh Case Vault storage for new deployments:

npm --prefix backend run migrate:r2-to-case -- --dry-run
npm --prefix backend run migrate:r2-to-case

New deployments do not need R2. Case Vault is the canonical binary document store for uploads, generated DOCX files, PDF renditions, downloads, and AI grounding.

Security

Do not commit real .env, .env.local, API keys, database URLs, session secrets, vault IDs, or downloaded client documents. Use GitHub private security advisories for vulnerability reports; see SECURITY.md.

For production, set CASE_WEBHOOK_SHARED_SECRET, DOWNLOAD_SIGNING_SECRET, BETTER_AUTH_SECRET, and CASE_KEY_ENCRYPTION_SECRET to non-placeholder values. Unsigned Case.dev webhooks are only available when explicitly enabled for local development with CASE_WEBHOOK_ALLOW_UNSIGNED=true. Download links are HMAC-signed, authenticated, and expire after DOWNLOAD_TOKEN_TTL_SECONDS (default seven days); keep DOWNLOAD_TOKEN_ALLOW_LEGACY=false unless you are briefly migrating old no-expiry links. Auth and expensive AI routes are rate-limited with MIKE_AUTH_* and MIKE_AI_* settings.

License

AGPL-3.0-only. See LICENSE. This fork preserves upstream attribution to willchen96/mike.