GetBible MCP

Read-only Model Context Protocol access to all nine GetBible API contracts over both standard MCP transports:

• Streamable HTTP at the official endpoint https://mcp.getbible.net/, or another host's MCP URL
• stdio for developers who install the package and let an AI client launch it locally

Both transports expose exactly the same tools, resources, prompts, validation, and scripture-cache integrity rules. Scripture tools default to upstream v3; select api_version: "v2" explicitly for upstream v2. Dictionary, commentary and bookmark operations use v1.

Connect to the official endpoint

GetBible's official MCP endpoint is https://mcp.getbible.net/. Add that exact URL to your AI application's remote MCP connections and select Streamable HTTP. The domain root is the protocol endpoint; do not append /mcp or an API version.

One connection provides Bible retrieval, reference lookup, full-text search, dictionaries, commentaries and public bookmarks across all supported API versions. Your client can discover tools, read the complete API contracts and use the integration-planning prompt. All operations are read-only; select upstream versions through tool arguments.

Public access is free and needs no account or token. It uses the same default anonymous traffic limits as GetBible search. Excess traffic receives HTTP 429; honor Retry-After and reduce your request rate. To request a token for MCP or another GetBible endpoint, contact the GetBible administrators. See the access policy for limits and client guide for connection and token instructions.

You can also connect to a privately operated instance using the URL supplied by its operator. The Python library supports configurable endpoint URLs and local stdio clients.

API coverage

Service	Versions	Capabilities	Upstream contracts
api	v2, v3	Translation, book and chapter data; catalogs; checksums; v2 text indexes	v2, v3
query	v2, v3	Resolve individual, ranged and grouped scripture references	v2, v3
search	v2, v3	Full-text search, filters, ranking, pagination and reference lookup; GET and read-only POST	v2, v3
dictionaries	v1	Catalogs, metadata, word indexes, definitions, Strong's entries and checksums	v1
commentaries	v1	Catalogs, metadata, book/chapter commentary, introductions and checksums	v1
bookmarks	v1	Public topics, verse associations, localized names and checksums	v1

The package includes the complete upstream OpenAPI documents. Agents can discover services, inspect an operation's exact parameters and response schemas, then execute that operation. This covers the whole API surface without requiring a separate MCP tool for every HTTP route. Native upstream JSON is preserved, including v3 verse tokens, spans, paragraph markers and additional fields.

What the two transports mean

Transport	Who runs the server?	How a client connects	Best use
Streamable HTTP	GetBible or another service operator	https://mcp.getbible.net/ or the operator's MCP URL	Remote MCP clients
stdio	The developer installs this package locally	Client launches getbible-mcp --transport stdio	Desktop tools, private environments, local process control

stdio does not create a public endpoint. The MCP host starts the command as a child process and exchanges JSON-RPC messages over standard input and output. That local process still reads scripture from the public GetBible API.

Streamable HTTP connects to a remote MCP service using the same package and tool contract. The host chooses its endpoint path, including / or a named path such as /mcp. Use the supplied URL exactly; upstream API versions remain tool arguments.

Public API access and translation rights

Public access requires no account or token by default. Traffic limits, HTTP errors and upstream availability still apply; an integration must handle them instead of assuming every request succeeds. Administrators issue tokens for approved access to individual endpoints.

Use the translation catalog for copyright and rich translation metadata; query/search and chapter results carry compact metadata. Preserve and honor each translation's rights, and each study module's provenance and license. This repository's GPL license applies to the MCP software and does not relicense upstream content.

Correct API use is conditioned on honoring the hash-validation cycle described below. An integration that keeps cached scripture without revalidating its hashes is not complying with the GetBible API usage agreement.

MCP capabilities

Tools

Tool	Purpose
list_translations	Discover translations, copyright information, metadata, scope, and catalog hashes.
list_books	Discover numbered and localized book names and hashes.
list_chapters	Discover chapters and chapter hashes.
get_scripture	Retrieve a complete translation, book, or chapter with a consistency-checked hash.
query_verses	Resolve selected/grouped verses, retaining native version-specific data.
search_verses	Search scripture with the upstream filters and pagination.
get_hash	Read one translation, book, or chapter .sha value.
get_hash_manifest	Read bulk checksum data for scheduled cache sweeps.
check_for_updates	Compare stored hashes and receive exact invalidation actions.
discover_apis	Discover services, supported versions and authoritative contracts.
describe_api_operation	List operations or inspect exact inputs, outputs and documented errors.
call_api_operation	Execute any operation in the supported contracts, including text, checksums and read-only search POST.

All tools are read-only, non-destructive, and idempotent. Scripture tools default to api_version: "v3"; use "v2" explicitly for v2 data. Generic operation tools require a service and version, because operation IDs and parameter names differ across contracts. HTTP POST search is a read operation and does not change server data.

For check_for_updates, specify api_version in each watched item so one batch can safely check several versions.

Resources

• getbible://docs/api — complete integration guide
• getbible://docs/cache-policy
• getbible://docs/usage-policy
• getbible://openapi/{service}/{version} — complete contracts, for example getbible://openapi/search/v3

Prompt

• design_getbible_integration

Mandatory scripture-cache integrity

The MCP server keeps no upstream result cache and recommends using query and search results directly. A downstream application choosing to cache an eligible response must:

1. Include service, API version and all request inputs in the cache key; retain source HTTP freshness.
2. Never retain data beyond 30 days (2,592,000 seconds); honor shorter HTTP freshness, Age, Expires, no-cache and no-store. An unchanged hash does not grant an indefinite lifetime.
3. Invalidate the changed scope and every cached descendant.
4. Validate the published checksum where available and fetch replacements into temporary storage.
5. Atomically replace the stale record.

get_scripture checks the matching .sha value before and after retrieving JSON. If a build changes mid-request, it retries once instead of returning mismatched data and hash. Scripture .sha files contain SHA-1 values; dictionary, commentary and bookmark manifests use SHA-256. Query results have no chapter-hash envelope. Search query.sha describes the source translation, not the result payload. Query/search TTL comes from HTTP headers, not a promised JSON field.

See site/v2/cache-policy.md.

Quick local stdio setup

Clone the repository and build an isolated environment:

git clone https://github.com/getbible/mcp.git getbible-mcp
cd getbible-mcp
python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/python -m pip install --upgrade pip
.venv/bin/python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
.venv/bin/python -m pip install --no-deps .

Configure the MCP client with the absolute executable path:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "getbible": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/getbible-mcp/.venv/bin/getbible-mcp",
      "args": ["--transport", "stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Do not wrap or embed Python inside a shell configuration. The client launches the installed Python entry point directly.

See docs/CLIENTS.md for stdio, remote, and Inspector examples.

Python, JavaScript and PHP applications can connect to the same MCP endpoint using a compatible client. This project ships one Python server package; npm/Composer server packages are not required. Ordinary applications can also call the existing REST endpoints directly. The MCP endpoint uses versioned JSON-RPC discovery and tool requests. The documentation under site/v2/ describes MCP package 2.0 and covers every supported upstream API version.

Python library interface

getbible_mcp.create_app(settings=None, api_client=None, *, path="/mcp") returns a standalone ASGI application. getbible_mcp.create_runtime(..., streamable_http_path="/mcp") returns the application, MCP server, client and settings for consumers needing the individual components. Importing the package does not create a default client or server.

The factory default is /mcp; the host can select / or another supported exact path. Clients use the complete endpoint URL published by that host, without appending an API version or assuming a suffix.

The embedding application owns the ASGI lifespan. If mounting the returned application in a parent, the parent must enter the child's app.router.lifespan_context(app) so MCP startup and HTTP client cleanup run correctly. See architecture for package boundaries and configuration for settings. API infrastructure setup is outside this package.

Downloadable packages, TestPyPI, and PyPI

Every successful test workflow run builds and smoke-tests one wheel and one source distribution. GitHub keeps them for 30 days in the run's Artifacts section under the name python-package-distributions. This includes runs started manually from Actions → test → Run workflow, so a package can be downloaded and tested without publishing anything.

The separate publish-testpypi workflow is manually triggered and publishes validated artifacts to TestPyPI. Production publishing runs after a new package version reaches main; it validates the exact revision, publishes the verified artifact to PyPI, and creates its GitHub tag/release. Manual dispatch retries incomplete publication without re-uploading an existing PyPI version.

TestPyPI uses Trusted Publishing. Production PyPI reads the project or account token only from the PYPI_MCP_TOKEN GitHub Actions secret in the protected pypi environment. See docs/PUBLISHING.md for the download, TestPyPI, secret setup, and production release procedures.

sync-openapi checks all nine upstream contracts daily and on demand. Changed contracts receive a coordinated patch-version bump and full validation before the workflow creates or updates one pull request. Review and merge that PR to release the update automatically. Unchanged contracts do nothing. The generic tools gain newly described API operations and schemas from the contracts; unsupported semantics fail validation and require a reviewed implementation change. The workflow does not auto-merge or rewrite curated convenience tools.

Development

python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/python -m pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
.venv/bin/python -m pip install --no-deps -e .
chmod +x scripts/check
./scripts/check

The suite covers all bundled contracts, request validation and serialization, version-preserving responses, HTTP freshness, hash-consistent reads, MCP schema discovery, both transports, static documents, CLI behavior and release packaging. Tests use local fixtures and mock HTTP transports.

Repository layout

src/getbible_mcp/       Python MCP implementation
site/                   Guides and all nine exact OpenAPI snapshots
docs/                   Package architecture, clients, configuration and publishing
tests/                  Unit and protocol integration tests

Documentation

• Architecture
• Client connections
• Package configuration and updates
• Security model
• Testing
• Publishing to PyPI
• MCP Registry publishing

Versioning

Package release 2.0.1 uses the stable official Python MCP SDK 2.2.0 and a host-selected HTTP endpoint. Package versions and upstream API versions are independent. Scripture tools default to v3; v2 remains fully available through explicit version selection. Never mix upstream v2 and v3 payloads under one cache key.

The nine packaged contracts and static snapshots are reviewed release inputs. Use .venv/bin/python scripts/refresh_contracts.py --check to check upstream drift, or --write to refresh the packaged and static copies together. Run the full checks before committing an API contract update. Do not handwrite reduced OpenAPI substitutes. The nine files under site/contracts/ are the complete static API catalog.

License

The GetBible MCP software is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later. Scripture translations remain governed by the copyright information returned for each translation; the software license does not relicense scripture content.