Tripitaka MCP

What it does

The server exposes 10 tools and 3 resources over MCP. Your AI agent can:

• Search the canon by keyword (trigram), meaning (vector), or both (RRF hybrid)
• Fetch any sutta in full with cross-reference URLs to SuttaCentral and 84000.org
• Compare translations side-by-side, segment-aligned across editions
• Resolve Pāli words against P. A. Payutto's dictionary, PTS, and DPPN — including inflected forms

Coverage

Full Tipiṭaka in Pāli at parity with SuttaCentral's bilara-data (CC0). English from Bhikkhu Sujato (Sutta) and Bhikkhu Brahmali (Vinaya).

— อิทํ เม ปุญฺญํ สพฺพสตฺตานํ เทมิ —

Try it

The hosted server is free and runs at:

https://mcp.tripitaka-mcp.com/mcp   (Streamable HTTP, MCP spec 2025-03-26)
https://mcp.tripitaka-mcp.com/sse   (legacy SSE, for older clients)

Claude Desktop

You'll need Node.js installed (any recent version). The config below routes Claude Desktop to the remote server through the mcp-remote bridge.

1. Find your absolute npx path — Claude Desktop doesn't read your shell profile, so generic npx won't resolve. Open a terminal and run:

which npx
# example output: /Users/you/.nvm/versions/node/v22.x/bin/npx

2. Open claude_desktop_config.json (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/ on macOS, %APPDATA%\Claude\ on Windows) and add the entry below. Replace YOUR_NPX_PATH with the output from step 1, and YOUR_NODE_BIN_DIR with its parent directory:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tripitaka": {
      "command": "YOUR_NPX_PATH",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.tripitaka-mcp.com/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "PATH": "YOUR_NODE_BIN_DIR:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Quit Claude Desktop completely (⌘Q / right-click tray → Quit), then reopen. The 🔌 indicator in the bottom-left should show tripitaka connected with 10 tools available.

First connection takes 5–10 seconds while npx downloads mcp-remote on demand — give Claude Desktop a moment after restart before assuming it failed. The repo's annotated example config covers stdio (local install) and both remote transports.

Try asking

Once connected, ask Claude things like:

• "What does the Buddha teach about mindfulness of breathing? Quote the relevant passages from MN 118 with citations."
• "Show me the full text of the Karaṇīyamettasutta in Pāli and English."
• "Compare how Bhikkhu Sujato and Bhikkhu Brahmali render the term sīla across the Vinaya."
• "What does the Pāli word sati mean according to the Payutto dictionary?"
• "Find suttas where the Buddha discusses anger. Cite the locus classicus."

Claude will pick the right tool, fetch the canonical Pāli (and English where available), and surface clickable links back to SuttaCentral so you can verify the source.

Optional research skill

Drop skills/tipitaka-research.md into ~/.claude/skills/ to activate a multi-step research workflow (clarify → verify coverage → search → drill → cite) tailored to scriptural research.

Read

• Source code — MIT-licensed, fork-friendly
• Topic pages — curated reference content (canon overview, places, …) served as plain markdown so AI agents can fetch and cite
• NOTICE — data licenses (some components are non-commercial, please read before redistributing)