Dhamma.Gift — Pāli Canon — MCP server
Lets your agent search the Pāli Canon and read suttas with Russian and English translations. Handy when you need a citation or a passage by keyword.
claude mcp add --transport http pali-canon https://api.dhamma.gift/mcpWhat Dhamma.Gift — Pāli Canon does
The server lives at https://api.dhamma.gift/mcp. Once it is registered, the agent can run searches across the canon and pull up individual texts. Content comes from SuttaCentral Bilara plus DhammaGift translations, with search backed by SQLite/FTS5.
Reader routes use clean URLs such as /dn22, and segment links like /dn22:12.1 jump straight to a passage. Nothing has to be built locally for the hosted endpoint, so setup is a single client command.
Under the hood sits dhammagift/dg-node, a Fastify backend that serves the index, the reader and static files. The repository also keeps an older Express implementation and its build scripts, but production does not use them. Running your own copy means rebuilding the search index whenever source texts or translations change on disk.
What it helps with
- find a sutta by quote or keyword
- check a passage against the Russian or English translation
- link to one specific segment of a text
- read canon texts without leaving the chat
- trace where a term appears in the canon
Example prompts for the agent
- Search the Pāli Canon for suttas mentioning kacchapa and show the Russian translations
- Open
dn22and summarise what it covers - Give me the link to segment
dn22:10.5and its translation
How to install Dhamma.Gift — Pāli Canon
Platform CLI: remote server
claude mcp add --transport http pali-canon https://api.dhamma.gift/mcpPlatform CLI: remote server
codex mcp add dhammagift-pali-canon --url https://api.dhamma.gift/mcpConfig file
{
"mcpServers": {
"dhammagift-pali-canon": {
"url": "https://api.dhamma.gift/mcp"
}
}
}Config file
{
"servers": {
"dhammagift-pali-canon": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://api.dhamma.gift/mcp"
}
}
}Platform CLI: remote server
gemini mcp add -t http dhammagift-pali-canon https://api.dhamma.gift/mcpStep by step, with commands for each platform: How to add an MCP server to Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI and more
Questions about Dhamma.Gift — Pāli Canon
How do I install Dhamma.Gift — Pāli Canon in Claude Code?
Run claude mcp add --transport http pali-canon https://api.dhamma.gift/mcp. That registers the hosted HTTP MCP server; no local build step is involved.
What does Dhamma.Gift — Pāli Canon do?
It gives the agent search over the Pāli Canon and access to individual suttas. Translations come from SuttaCentral Bilara and DhammaGift.
Do I need to run the dg-node backend myself?
No. The MCP endpoint at https://api.dhamma.gift/mcp is already hosted, so adding it to your client is enough. A local instance only matters if you work with your own texts and offline mirrors.
