bible-tui

A fast, dependency-free terminal Bible reader with Vim-style keys.

• Read and navigate with arrows or Vim keys, jump to John 3:16 with autocomplete, and use a Vim-style : command line.
• Search within a chapter, or fuzzy-find across the whole Bible with a live preview.
• Compare two versions side by side, with verses lined up.
• Mark and highlight verses in six colors. They're saved and show in every version.
• Bring any version, in any language: each one is a SQLite file. The public-domain KJV and ASV are included.

Highlight verses in six colors	Jump back to any highlight or mark
Switch versions and keep your place	Any language works

_{The Portuguese screenshot shows the Bíblia Livre (BLIVRE), copyright © 2018 Diego Santos, Mario Sérgio, and Marco Teles, from eBible.org, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Not bundled with bible-tui.}

See all features → Each one has a short animation.

Install

bible-tui runs on macOS and Linux. Install it with Homebrew, which brings its own Python:

brew install codysechelski/tap/bible-tui

Or with pipx, using Python 3.9 or newer:

pipx install bible-tui

Then run bible-tui. You can also run it from a clone with ./bible-tui. pip install bible-tui works too, but pipx keeps it in its own environment.

bible-tui checks for new releases once a day and tells you in the footer. Run :update to install the new version and restart where you were. To turn the check off, set "check_for_updates": false (see update checks).

Usage

bible-tui                         # open the default version
bible-tui asv                     # open a version by abbreviation
bible-tui ~/my.sqlite             # open a database file directly
bible-tui --bibles-dir ~/Bibles   # search an extra folder (repeatable)
bible-tui --list-versions
bible-tui --paths                 # show the config, state, and Bible folders in use

Every action also works without Vim keys. The full list is in docs/keybindings.md.

Adding versions

Each version is one SQLite file. Copy a database into ~/.config/bible-tui/bibles/ and it appears in the version picker. To make one from a published Bible (USFM, USX, OSIS, and others), use bible-tui-bible-converter. See docs/adding-bibles.md for the steps, and docs/bible-databases.md for the schema.

Configuration

config.json lives in the app home: ~/.bible-tui if that folder exists, otherwise ~/.config/bible-tui (or $BIBLE_TUI_HOME).

{
  "default_version": "KJV",
  "bibles_dirs": ["~/Bibles"],
  "book_order": "bible",
  "nerd_font": false,
  "remember_split": false,
  "remember_position": false,
  "yank_format": "{text}"
}

Every setting is described in docs/configuration.md.

Development

python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -t .
python3 -m py_compile bible_tui/*.py tests/*.py

Releases are automatic from Conventional Commits on main: fix: releases a patch and feat: a minor version. See CONTRIBUTING.md to get involved, and ROADMAP.md for what's planned.

Bible texts

The bundled KJV and ASV come from eBible.org and are in the public domain. Sources and notes are in docs/bible-databases.md.

Licence

bible-tui is released under the MIT License. The bundled Bible texts are in the public domain.