# local-bible-library

An owned, verifiable Bible study library on your own disk, with tools for the terminal and for Claude (via MCP).

Commercial Bible software rents you a library that its servers can revoke, alter, or lock. This project builds the opposite: open-licensed sources downloaded straight from their publishers, kept byte-for-byte as published, proven unchanged by hash, and indexed so that scripts and AI assistants can query them without ever being able to change them.

## Principles

1. **Sources are never modified.** Every download is hashed, recorded in a committed manifest, and locked read-only. Nothing (no script, no LLM, no import step) writes into a source after ingest. New upstream releases go into a new version directory; old ones are kept.
2. **Download, don't distribute.** This repository holds code, recipes and manifests only. `lbl ingest` fetches each source from its publisher. No source data is redistributed here.
3. **Everything derived is rebuildable and labeled.** The search index is a cache built from the library. Every row records where it came from and whether it is verbatim source text, a deterministic parse, or machine output (OCR, LLM).
4. **Reference, not interpretation.** The tools surface texts, lexicons, commentaries and data. AI is used as a clerk that fetches and cites, never as an authority.

## Status

Early. See the [milestones](https://github.com/justinsovine/local-bible-library/milestones) for the roadmap.

| Milestone | Scope |
|---|---|
| M0 Foundation | Integrity layer (`ingest`, `verify`, locks), repo conventions |
| M1 Core data | STEPBible-Data, OpenBible, BSB; build the SQLite index |
| M2 Access | CLI and MCP server |
| M3 Library | Public-domain commentaries, modern open resources, church fathers |
| M4 Notes | Verse-referenced Markdown notes indexed alongside sources |
| M5 Readers and local models | Ezra, STEPBible desktop, LM Studio, semantic search |
| M6 Language growth | Vocabulary, reader's editions, guided morphology |

## Quick start

Requires [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/) and git.

```sh
uv sync
uv run lbl status          # recipes and what is ingested
uv run lbl ingest <id>     # fetch, hash, lock, write manifest
uv run lbl verify          # prove library/ matches the manifests
```

Commit the new file under `manifests/` after every ingest. A manifest only protects anything once it is in git history.

## Studying

```sh
uv run lbl build                       # verify, then rebuild the index (about 10 seconds)
uv run lbl verify-db                   # re-derive every index row from its source line
uv run lbl passage John 1:1-5 -i       # text, original language, word by word
uv run lbl word G26                    # lexicon, occurrences, renderings, forms
uv run lbl word reshit                 # by transliteration or lemma
uv run lbl search "living water"       # translation, lexicon and original text
uv run lbl xrefs Rom 8:28              # cross-references ranked by votes
uv run lbl commentary John 3:16 -m RWP # what each commentary says (--list for modules)
uv run lbl fathers John 1:1            # church fathers on a passage, oldest first
uv run lbl notes John 1:1              # unfoldingWord translation notes on each Greek/Hebrew phrase
uv run lbl dict Bethel                 # Easton, ISBE, Smith, Nave, Abbott-Smith, ... (--list)
uv run lbl quote "In the beginning was the Word"   # exact, normalized or not found
uv run lbl sql "SELECT ..."            # read-only SQL; see docs/SCHEMA.md
```

Every command takes `--json`, and every result carries a citation: `source@version:file:line`.

## With Claude (MCP)

`.mcp.json` registers a read-only MCP server named `bible` (`uv run lbl mcp`). Claude Code asks once to enable it. It provides the tools `passage`, `word`, `search`, `xrefs`, `commentary`, `commentary_modules`, `church_fathers`, `translation_notes`, `dictionary`, `dictionary_modules`, `check_quote`, `sql`, `schema` and `sources`, and the prompts `/passage_guide` and `/word_study`. The server instructs Claude to quote only tool output, cite every quotation, confirm quotes with `check_quote`, and keep interpretation separate and labeled.

## Layout

```
sources/<id>.toml              recipe: where a source comes from, its license   (committed)
manifests/<id>/<version>.toml  what was ingested: every file's SHA-256           (committed)
library/<id>/<version>/        the source itself, as published, locked          (never committed)
build/                         derived index, rebuildable                       (never committed)
notes/                         your study notes, a separate private repo        (never committed here)
src/lbl/                       the tooling
docs/                          INTEGRITY.md, SOURCES.md
```

## Licenses

The code in this repository is MIT licensed. Each source keeps its own license, recorded in its recipe and manifest; check it before you share anything built from it.