An MCP Server for searching and citing content from the Pāli Tipiṭaka. Gives AI agents (such as Claude or Cursor) the ability to look up suttas
An MCP Server for searching and citing content from the Pāli Tipiṭaka. Gives AI agents (such as Claude or Cursor) the ability to look up suttas, quote the teachings, and compare translations across languages. Exposed over MCP by the tripitaka mcp mcp server, that capability becomes something an assistant can invoke while it works, not something you go and do afterwards.
Everything the assistant can do here goes through one of these:
search_hybrid — (Recommended for concept search) Combined keyword + semantic via RRF — best when looking for "discourses about X"search_by_keyword — Trigram keyword search — best for the top few matches of an exact word (appamāda, ānāpānassati)survey_corpus — Exhaustive corpus survey — exact total + per-pitaka breakdown + the matched word-forms, for "how many times / every place X appears" (coveragesearch_semantic — Pure vector similarity — usually you want search_hybrid insteadget_sutta — Fetch a sutta by ID (e.g. mn1, dn22, dhp1-20) with cross-reference URLs. Whole sutta by default; for long ones use mode="outline" (table of contentsopen_sutta_viewer — Interactive sutta viewer (MCP Apps) — renders the sutta inline in the chat as Pāli + English side by side, with the cited segment highlightedget_reference — Generate a properly formatted academic citation with all source URLscompare_translations — Compare renderings of a single segment across editionslist_structure — Show the Tipiṭaka structure with segment-count coverage per nikāyalist_editions — List Thai/English translation editions currently loadedget_word_definition — Pāli dictionary lookup (PTS, DPPN, and the Payutto Thai dictionary)parse_pali_word — Strip Pāli suffixes to recover the root form when get_word_definition misses (bhikkhūnaṁ → bhikkhu)Being a remote server, there is no local install. You register the endpoint with your client, authorise it once, and the tools appear.
You will need one environment variable: YOUR_NPX_PATH. Keep credentials in your client's env block or a secrets manager rather than in a file you might commit.
Among the knowledge and memory options, the useful question is rarely "what can it do" but "what does it cost you to run" — permissions, credentials, and how much of your context its toolset consumes. Tripitaka MCP's toolset — search_hybrid, search_by_keyword, survey_corpus and 9 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by dhamma-seeker; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
This entry was verified against Tripitaka MCP's own documentation before publication; SyncDev keeps the directory reviewed rather than auto-generated.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| search_hybrid | **(Recommended for concept search)** Combined keyword + semantic via RRF — best when looking for "discourses about X". |
| search_by_keyword | Trigram keyword search — best for the top few matches of an exact word (appamāda, ānāpānassati). |
| survey_corpus | **Exhaustive** corpus survey — exact total + per-pitaka breakdown + the matched word-forms, for "how many times / every place X appears" (coverage, not just best matches). mode=thorough adds concept-level semantic recall |
| search_semantic | Pure vector similarity — usually you want search_hybrid instead. |
| get_sutta | Fetch a sutta by ID (e.g. mn1, dn22, dhp1-20) with cross-reference URLs. Whole sutta by default; for long ones use mode="outline" (table of contents, no text), around="<segment_id>"+window (context around a hit), or segm |
| open_sutta_viewer | **Interactive sutta viewer (MCP Apps)** — renders the sutta inline in the chat as Pāli + English side by side, with the cited segment highlighted. The calling model can attach an AI translation of the displayed segments |
| get_reference | Generate a properly formatted academic citation with all source URLs. |
| compare_translations | Compare renderings of a single segment across editions. |
| list_structure | Show the Tipiṭaka structure with segment-count coverage per nikāya. |
| list_editions | List Thai/English translation editions currently loaded. |
| get_word_definition | Pāli dictionary lookup (PTS, DPPN, and the Payutto Thai dictionary). |
| parse_pali_word | Strip Pāli suffixes to recover the root form when get_word_definition misses (bhikkhūnaṁ → bhikkhu). |
{
"mcpServers": {
"tripitaka": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "bridge"],
"env": {
"YOUR_NPX_PATH": "your-value"
}
}
}
}Add to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop.
| Variable | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| YOUR_NPX_PATH | Filesystem location the server is allowed to use. | Optional |
A knowledge graph your assistant keeps between sessions — entities, relations and observations that persist.
Kill hallucinated APIs — version-accurate, up-to-date library documentation injected straight into context.
Your workspace, on speaking terms with AI — search, read and write Notion pages and databases.
A structured scratchpad for hard problems — stepwise reasoning with revisions, branches and visible logic.
Symbol-level code navigation, refactoring and memory for coding agents — the IDE brain your assistant has been missing.
Chat with your second brain — search, read and write vault notes through the Local REST API.