daizo-mcp

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server plus CLI for fast Buddhist text search and retrieval. Supports CBETA (Chinese), Pāli Tipitaka (romanized), GRETIL (Sanskrit TEI), and SAT (online). Implemented in Rust for speed and reliability.

See also: 日本語 README | 繁體中文 README

Highlights

• Direct ID Access: Instant retrieval when you know the text ID (fastest path!)
• Fast regex/content search with line numbers (CBETA/Tipitaka/GRETIL)
• Title search across CBETA, Tipitaka, and GRETIL indices
• Precise context fetching by line number or character range
• Optional SAT online search with smart caching
• One-shot bootstrap and index build

Install

Prerequisite: Git must be installed.

Quick bootstrap:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sinryo/daizo-mcp/main/scripts/bootstrap.sh | bash -s -- --yes --write-path

Manual:

cargo build --release
scripts/install.sh --prefix "$HOME/.daizo" --write-path

Use With MCP Clients

Claude Code CLI:

claude mcp add daizo "$HOME/.daizo/bin/daizo-mcp"

Codex CLI (~/.codex/config.toml):

[mcp_servers.daizo]
command = "/Users/you/.daizo/bin/daizo-mcp"

CLI Examples

Direct ID Access (Fastest!)

When you know the text ID, skip search entirely:

# CBETA: Taisho number (T + 4-digit number)
daizo-cli cbeta-fetch --id T0001      # 長阿含經
daizo-cli cbeta-fetch --id T0262      # 妙法蓮華經 (Lotus Sutra)
daizo-cli cbeta-fetch --id T0235      # 金剛般若波羅蜜經 (Diamond Sutra)

# Tipitaka: Nikāya codes (DN, MN, SN, AN, KN)
daizo-cli tipitaka-fetch --id DN1     # Brahmajāla Sutta
daizo-cli tipitaka-fetch --id MN1     # Mūlapariyāya Sutta
daizo-cli tipitaka-fetch --id SN1     # First Saṃyutta

# GRETIL: Sanskrit text names
daizo-cli gretil-fetch --id saddharmapuNDarIka         # Lotus Sutra (Sanskrit)
daizo-cli gretil-fetch --id vajracchedikA              # Diamond Sutra (Sanskrit)
daizo-cli gretil-fetch --id prajJApAramitAhRdayasUtra  # Heart Sutra (Sanskrit)

Search

# Title search
daizo-cli cbeta-title-search --query "楞伽經" --json
daizo-cli tipitaka-title-search --query "dn 1" --json

# Content search (with line numbers)
daizo-cli cbeta-search --query "阿弥陀" --max-results 10
daizo-cli tipitaka-search --query "nibbana|vipassana" --max-results 15
daizo-cli gretil-search --query "yoga" --max-results 10

Fetch with Context

# Fetch by ID with options
daizo-cli cbeta-fetch --id T0858 --part 1 --max-chars 4000 --json
daizo-cli tipitaka-fetch --id s0101m.mul --max-chars 2000 --json
daizo-cli gretil-fetch --id buddhacarita --max-chars 4000 --json

# Context around a line (after search)
daizo-cli cbeta-fetch --id T0858 --line-number 342 --context-before 10 --context-after 200
daizo-cli tipitaka-fetch --id s0305m.mul --line-number 158 --context-before 5 --context-after 100

Admin

daizo-cli init                      # first-time setup (downloads data, builds indexes)
daizo-cli doctor --verbose          # diagnose install and data
daizo-cli index-rebuild --source all
daizo-cli uninstall --purge         # remove binaries and data/cache
daizo-cli update --yes              # reinstall this CLI

MCP Tools

Search:

• cbeta_title_search, cbeta_search
• tipitaka_title_search, tipitaka_search
• gretil_title_search, gretil_search
• sat_search

Fetch:

• cbeta_fetch (supports lineNumber, contextBefore, contextAfter)
• tipitaka_fetch (supports lineNumber, contextBefore, contextAfter)
• gretil_fetch (supports lineNumber, contextBefore, contextAfter)
• sat_fetch, sat_pipeline

Low-Token Guide (AI clients)

Fastest: Direct ID Access

When the text ID is known, skip search entirely:

Corpus	ID Format	Example
CBETA	T + 4-digit number	cbeta_fetch({id: "T0262"})
Tipitaka	DN, MN, SN, AN, KN + number	tipitaka_fetch({id: "DN1"})
GRETIL	Sanskrit text name	gretil_fetch({id: "saddharmapuNDarIka"})

Common IDs Reference

CBETA (Chinese Canon):

• T0001 = 長阿含經 (Dīrghāgama)
• T0099 = 雜阿含經 (Saṃyuktāgama)
• T0262 = 妙法蓮華經 (Lotus Sutra)
• T0235 = 金剛般若波羅蜜經 (Diamond Sutra)
• T0251 = 般若波羅蜜多心經 (Heart Sutra)

Tipitaka (Pāli Canon):

• DN1-DN34 = Dīghanikāya (長部)
• MN1-MN152 = Majjhimanikāya (中部)
• SN = Saṃyuttanikāya (相応部)
• AN = Aṅguttaranikāya (増支部)

GRETIL (Sanskrit):

• saddharmapuNDarIka = Lotus Sutra
• vajracchedikA = Diamond Sutra
• prajJApAramitAhRdayasUtra = Heart Sutra
• buddhacarita = Buddhacarita (Aśvaghoṣa)

Standard Flow (when ID unknown)

1. Use *_search → read _meta.fetchSuggestions
2. Call *_fetch with { id, lineNumber, contextBefore:1, contextAfter:3 }
3. Use *_pipeline only when you need a multi-file summary; set autoFetch=false by default

Tool descriptions mention these hints; initialize also exposes a prompts.low-token-guide entry for clients.

Tip: Control number of suggestions via DAIZO_HINT_TOP (default 1).

Data Sources

• CBETA: https://github.com/cbeta-org/xml-p5
• Tipitaka (romanized): https://github.com/VipassanaTech/tipitaka-xml
• GRETIL (Sanskrit TEI): https://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/
• SAT (online): wrap7/detail endpoints

Directories and Env

• DAIZO_DIR (default: ~/.daizo)
  • data: xml-p5/, tipitaka-xml/romn/, GRETIL/
  • cache: cache/
  • binaries: bin/
• DAIZO_DEBUG=1 enables minimal MCP debug log
• Highlight envs: DAIZO_HL_PREFIX, DAIZO_HL_SUFFIX, DAIZO_SNIPPET_PREFIX, DAIZO_SNIPPET_SUFFIX
• Repo policy envs (for robots/rate-limits):
  • DAIZO_REPO_MIN_DELAY_MS, DAIZO_REPO_USER_AGENT, DAIZO_REPO_RESPECT_ROBOTS

Scripts

Script	Purpose
scripts/bootstrap.sh	One-liner installer: checks deps → clones repo → runs install.sh → auto-registers MCP
scripts/install.sh	Main installer: builds → installs binaries → downloads GRETIL → rebuilds indexes
scripts/link-binaries.sh	Dev helper: creates symlinks to release binaries in repo root
scripts/release.sh	Release helper: version bump → tag → GitHub release

Release Helper Examples

# Auto (bump → commit → tag → push → GitHub release with auto-notes)
scripts/release.sh 0.3.3 --all

# CHANGELOG notes instead of auto-notes
scripts/release.sh 0.3.3 --push --release

# Dry run
scripts/release.sh 0.3.3 --all --dry-run

License

MIT OR Apache-2.0 © 2025 Shinryo Taniguchi

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome. Please include daizo-cli doctor --verbose output with bug reports.