Scripture Study

AI-assisted scripture study for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A suite of Go-based tools and AI agent instructions that enable deep, cross-referenced study of the standard works, General Conference talks, manuals, and more — powered by MCP servers and an AI agent of your choice.

"Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection." — D&C 130:18-19

Quick Start

Prerequisites

Requirement	Why
Go 1.21+ (with CGO support)	Build all tools. Windows: install mingw-w64 for the C compiler needed by the legacy gospel-mcp's SQLite/FTS5 (the active gospel-engine-v2 client does not require CGO).
An AI coding agent	GitHub Copilot (VS Code), Cursor, Claude Code, OpenCode, Windsurf, etc.
LM Studio or an OpenAI-compatible embeddings API	Only required if you build the legacy gospel-vec for fully local semantic search. Default: `http://localhost:1234/v1` with `text-embedding-qwen3-embedding-4b`. The active gospel-engine-v2 uses the hosted backend and does not need this.

Model recommendation: We use GitHub Copilot with Claude Opus 4.6 for study sessions. Any capable model will work, but Opus-class models handle the cross-referencing depth and source-verification discipline best.

Step 1 — Clone the Workspace

git clone https://github.com/cpuchip/scripture-study.git
cd scripture-study

Step 2 — Clone Companion Repos

Several components live in separate git repos but are designed to be cloned into this workspace. The .gitignore already ignores these directories.

# Brain — local second brain (capture, classify, search)
git clone https://github.com/cpuchip/brain.git scripts/brain

# Brain App — Flutter mobile/desktop app
git clone https://github.com/cpuchip/brain-app.git scripts/brain-app

# Chip Voice — TTS engine (markdown → audio, podcast → transcript)
git clone https://github.com/cpuchip/chip-voice.git scripts/chip-voice

# Teaching — interactive teaching content
git clone https://github.com/cpuchip/teaching.git teaching

About private-brain: The private-brain/ directory holds your personal brain data — the actual thoughts, journal entries, and captures that brain.exe manages. This folder is gitignored from scripture-study. You can either create your own private repo and clone it there, or just let brain.exe create the directory when you first use it. No public template repo exists — it's your personal data from the start.

All companion repos are optional. The core study workflow (gospel content + MCP servers + agents) works without them.

Step 3 — Download Gospel Content

This repository does not contain Church content. The gospel-library/ folder is in .gitignore. The downloader fetches content from the Church's public Gospel Library API (the same API the official apps use).

# Interactive TUI — select what to download
go run .\scripts\gospel-library\cmd\gospel-downloader

# Or grab standard works + latest conference in one shot
go run .\scripts\gospel-library\cmd\gospel-downloader --standard

See scripts/gospel-library/README.md for details.

Step 4 — Build the MCP Servers

Build each server from its directory:

# gospel-engine-v2 — thin client to hosted PG + pgvector backend at engine.ibeco.me
cd scripts/gospel-engine
go build -o gospel-mcp.exe ./cmd/gospel-mcp
cd ../..

# webster-mcp — Webster 1828 + modern dictionary
cd scripts/webster-mcp
go build -o webster-mcp.exe ./cmd/...
cd ../..

# yt-mcp — YouTube transcript download & processing
cd scripts/yt-mcp
go build -o yt-mcp.exe .
cd ../..

# search-mcp — web search
cd scripts/search-mcp
go build -o search-mcp.exe .
cd ../..

# byu-citations — BYU Scripture Citation Index
cd scripts/byu-citations
go build -o byu-citations.exe .
cd ../..

# becoming — personal transformation tracking
cd scripts/becoming/cmd/mcp
go build -o becoming-mcp.exe .
cd ../../../..

Legacy fallbacks (not registered in mcp.json by default; build only if you want to run a fully local gospel backend):

# gospel-mcp — local FTS5-only (legacy, superseded by gospel-engine-v2)
cd scripts/gospel-mcp
go build -tags "fts5" -o gospel-mcp.exe ./cmd/gospel-mcp
./gospel-mcp.exe index --root ../../
cd ../..

# gospel-vec — local semantic/vector (legacy, superseded by gospel-engine-v2)
cd scripts/gospel-vec
go build -o gospel-vec.exe .
./gospel-vec.exe index
cd ../..

Step 5 — Configure MCP Servers

Create .vscode/mcp.json (already in .gitignore) pointing to your built executables. Example:

{
  "servers": {
    "gospel-engine-v2": {
      "command": "<repo>/scripts/gospel-engine/gospel-mcp.exe",
      "env": {
        "GOSPEL_ENGINE_URL": "https://engine.ibeco.me",
        "GOSPEL_ENGINE_TOKEN": "<your-token>",
        "GOSPEL_AUTO_UPDATE": "true"
      },
      "type": "stdio"
    },
    "webster": {
      "command": "<repo>/scripts/webster-mcp/webster-mcp.exe",
      "args": ["-dict", "<repo>/scripts/webster-mcp/data/webster1828.json.gz"],
      "type": "stdio"
    },
    "yt": {
      "command": "<repo>/scripts/yt-mcp/yt-mcp.exe",
      "args": ["serve"],
      "env": {
        "YT_DIR": "<repo>/yt",
        "YT_STUDY_DIR": "<repo>/study/yt",
        "YT_COOKIE_FILE": "<repo>/yt/cookies.txt"
      },
      "type": "stdio"
    },
    "search": {
      "command": "<repo>/scripts/search-mcp/search-mcp.exe",
      "type": "stdio"
    },
    "byu-citations": {
      "command": "<repo>/scripts/byu-citations/byu-citations.exe",
      "type": "stdio"
    },
    "becoming": {
      "command": "<repo>/scripts/becoming/mcp.exe",
      "env": { "BECOMING_URL": "https://your-instance", "BECOMING_TOKEN": "your-token" },
      "type": "stdio"
    },
    "exa-search": {
      "url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?tools=web_search_exa",
      "type": "http"
    }
  }
}

Replace <repo> with your absolute path. Non-VS Code agents: translate to your tool's MCP config format.

Step 6 — Start Studying

Open the workspace in your AI agent. The .github/copilot-instructions.md file (and the agents/skills below) automatically provide context about the project structure, study patterns, and source-verification discipline.

MCP Servers

Server	Tech	Purpose	MCP Tools
gospel-engine-v2	Go thin client → hosted PG + pgvector at `engine.ibeco.me`	Combined keyword + semantic search over scriptures, talks, manuals, books	`gospel_search` (modes: keyword/semantic/combined), `gospel_get`, `gospel_list`
webster	Go	Webster 1828 dictionary + Free Dictionary (modern)	`webster_define`, `modern_define`, `define`, `webster_search`, `webster_search_definitions`
yt	Go + yt-dlp	YouTube transcript download & processing	`yt_download`, `yt_get`, `yt_search`, `yt_list`
search	Go	Web search via DuckDuckGo	`web_search`, `news_search`, `instant_answer`
byu-citations	Go	BYU Scripture Citation Index — who cited a verse in conference	`byu_citations`, `byu_citations_bulk`, `byu_citations_books`
becoming	Go (relay to ibeco.me)	Practices, journal, memorization, tasks, notes, brain	`get_today`, `log_practice`, `brain_search`, `create_task`, etc.
exa-search (remote)	Hosted at `mcp.exa.ai`	Neural web search with content extraction	`web_search_exa`
session-journal	Go (CLI, not MCP)	Session journaling — captures discoveries, carry-forward items	CLI: `read`, `carry`, `write`

Legacy (kept on disk as fallback, not registered in .vscode/mcp.json):

scripts/gospel-mcp/ — local FTS5-only. Superseded by gospel-engine-v2.
scripts/gospel-vec/ — local chromem-go vector. Superseded by gospel-engine-v2.
scripts/gospel-engine/ (the v1 source, not the v2 client) — local combined backend. Superseded by hosted v2.

Legacy: gospel-vec Environment Variables

If you build the legacy gospel-vec server, it defaults to LM Studio at localhost:1234. Override with:

Variable	Default	Description
`GOSPEL_VEC_EMBEDDING_URL`	`http://localhost:1234/v1`	Embeddings API endpoint
`GOSPEL_VEC_EMBEDDING_MODEL`	`text-embedding-qwen3-embedding-4b`	Embedding model name
`GOSPEL_VEC_CHAT_URL`	`http://localhost:1234/v1`	Chat endpoint (for summaries)
`GOSPEL_VEC_CHAT_MODEL`	(auto-detected)	Chat model name
`GOSPEL_VEC_DATA_DIR`	`./data`	Storage directory

Works with any OpenAI-compatible embeddings API (LM Studio, Ollama, OpenAI, etc.).

Companion Repos

This workspace is a multi-repo project. The main scripture-study repo contains the core study workflow, agents, and MCP servers. Companion repos handle separate concerns:

Repo	Clone Location	Purpose	Required?
brain	`scripts/brain/`	Local second brain — capture, classify, store, search (Go + SQLite + chromem-go)	Optional
brain-app	`scripts/brain-app/`	Flutter mobile/desktop app for the brain ecosystem	Optional
chip-voice	`scripts/chip-voice/`	TTS engine — markdown to audio, podcast to transcript (Python + Qwen3-TTS/Kokoro)	Optional
teaching	`teaching/`	Interactive teaching content — episode scripts and web presentations	Optional
private-brain	`private-brain/`	Personal brain data — create your own private repo or let brain.exe generate it	Optional

Brain / Becoming Ecosystem

The brain ecosystem spans three components:

brain.exe (scripts/brain/) — Local brain. Captures thoughts via Discord DM, web UI, or relay. Classifies with AI (LM Studio or Copilot SDK). Stores in SQLite with semantic vector search.
ibeco.me (scripts/becoming/) — Cloud hub deployed via Dokploy. Connects to brain.exe via WebSocket relay. Provides web UI, practices, journaling, and becoming features. Part of this repo.
brain-app (scripts/brain-app/) — Flutter app (Android, Windows; iOS/Mac planned). Connects to brain.exe directly or through the ibeco.me relay.
private-brain (private-brain/) — Your personal brain data (markdown files with YAML front matter). Created by brain.exe on first use, or bring your own private repo. Gitignored from scripture-study.

See each component's README for setup: brain, brain-app, chip-voice.

AI Agent Framework

This project ships with a complete agent framework under .github/. Designed for GitHub Copilot in VS Code, but adaptable to other tools.

Agents (14)

Agent	Purpose
`study`	Deep scripture study — phased writing with externalized memory and critical analysis
`lesson`	Lesson planning — phased preparation with scratch files and pedagogy framework
`talk`	Sacrament meeting talk preparation
`review`	Conference talk analysis for teaching patterns
`eval`	YouTube video evaluation — phased evaluation with charitable critical analysis
`journal`	Personal reflection, journaling, becoming
`plan`	Planning — from idea to spec with critical analysis and creation cycle review
`podcast`	Transform studies into shareable podcast/video notes
`story`	Weave studies into narrative — emotional arc, pacing, contrast
`dev`	MCP server and tool development
`ux`	UI/UX expert — design patterns, interaction flows, visual quality
`sabbath`	Structured reflection after completed cycles — ending, seeing, declaring
`teaching`	Teaching preparation — from study to shareable content with honesty guardrails and the Ben Test
`debug`	Systematic debugging — Agans' 9 rules applied to code, tools, and intellectual problems

Skills (13)

Skill	Purpose
`source-verification`	Read-before-quoting discipline, cite count rule, pre-publish checklist
`scripture-linking`	Link format conventions for scriptures and conference talks
`webster-analysis`	Webster 1828 word study for Restoration-era vocabulary
`deep-reading`	Methodology for close reading of scripture texts
`wide-search`	Broad discovery patterns across the corpus
`quote-log`	Scratch file format for tracking verified quotes
`critical-analysis`	Stress-testing arguments before committing to a narrative
`becoming`	Personal transformation — applying what we learn
`ben-test`	Calibrated self-assessment — do we practice what we've written?
`publish-and-commit`	Study to public HTML pipeline
`playwright-cli`	Browser automation for web testing
`dokploy`	Deployment status and management
`byu-citations`	BYU Scripture Citation Index lookups

Prompts (5)

new-study, new-lesson, new-eval, expound, study-plan

Using a Different AI Agent

The .github/ instructions are written for GitHub Copilot in VS Code. If you use a different tool:

Claude Code / Cursor / Windsurf — Translate .github/copilot-instructions.md into your tool's system prompt or project instructions format. Agent files and skills will need adapting.
OpenCode / other CLI agents — Extract core principles and MCP tool descriptions into your agent's config.
Key things to preserve: source-verification discipline (read before quoting), scripture linking conventions, the session memory architecture at .mind/.

Session Memory & Specification

The .spec/ directory contains the project's covenant and planning documents. The .mind/ directory holds persistent memory:

.mind/
├── identity.md            # Who we are together
├── preferences.yaml       # Personal context
├── active.md              # Current state — what's in flight
├── decisions.md           # Settled questions
└── principles.md          # Enduring insights

.spec/
├── covenant.yaml              # Bilateral commitment governing collaboration
├── journal/                   # Session journal entries (YAML)
├── learnings/                 # Named failures → learning entries
├── sabbath/                   # Sabbath reflection records
├── proposals/                 # Feature/workstream proposals
├── scratch/                   # Research provenance — permanent working notes
└── prompts/                   # Reusable system prompts

This architecture ensures agents arrive with context rather than as strangers. See .github/copilot-instructions.md for the session start/end protocol.

Project Structure

scripture-study/
├── intent.yaml                  # Root intent — purpose, values, constraints
├── .github/                     # AI agent framework
│   ├── copilot-instructions.md  # Core principles, project structure, session protocol
│   ├── agents/                  # 14 specialized agents
│   ├── skills/                  # 13 domain skills
│   └── prompts/                 # 5 reusable prompts
├── .spec/                       # Memory, covenant, proposals, journal
│
├── gospel-library/              # Downloaded Church content (NOT in git)
│   └── eng/
│       ├── scriptures/          # Standard works (ot, nt, bofm, dc-testament, pgp)
│       ├── general-conference/  # Conference talks 1971–present
│       └── manual/              # Come Follow Me, handbooks, etc.
│
├── study/                       # Study notes and analysis
│   ├── {topic}.md               # Topic-based studies
│   ├── .scratch/                # Research provenance for studies
│   ├── talks/                   # Conference talk analysis
│   └── yt/                      # YouTube video evaluations
├── lessons/                     # Lesson preparation
├── callings/                    # Calling-specific work
├── journal/                     # Personal journal entries
├── becoming/                    # Personal transformation notes
├── books/                       # Additional texts (Lectures on Faith, etc.)
├── docs/                        # Templates, reflections, work-with-AI guide
│
├── public/                      # Published HTML for sharing
│
├── scripts/                     # All Go tools & companion repos
│   ├── gospel-library/          # Content downloader (TUI)
│   ├── gospel-mcp/              # Full-text search MCP server
│   ├── gospel-vec/              # Semantic search MCP server
│   ├── webster-mcp/             # Webster 1828 dictionary MCP server
│   ├── yt-mcp/                  # YouTube transcript MCP server
│   ├── search-mcp/              # Web search MCP server
│   ├── byu-citations/           # BYU Scripture Citation Index MCP server
│   ├── becoming/                # ibeco.me — cloud hub + becoming (Go + Vue 3)
│   ├── session-journal/         # Session journaling CLI
│   ├── publish/                 # Study → public/ HTML converter
│   ├── brain/                   # brain.exe (separate repo — clone into here)
│   ├── brain-app/               # Flutter app (separate repo — clone into here)
│   └── chip-voice/              # TTS engine (separate repo — clone into here)
│
├── teaching/                    # Teaching content (separate repo — clone into here)
├── private-brain/               # Personal brain data (separate repo — fork & clone)
│
├── go.work                      # Go workspace (all modules)
└── README.md

Templates

Template	File	Purpose
Study	`docs/study_template.md`	Personal scripture study sessions
Talk	`docs/talk_template.md`	Sacrament meeting talks
Lesson	`docs/lesson_template.md`	Sunday School / RS / EQ lessons
Evaluation	`docs/yt_evaluation_template.md`	YouTube video evaluation

Publishing

go run .\scripts\publish\cmd\main.go

Converts working markdown from study/, lessons/, etc. into polished HTML in public/.

Copyright

Gospel Library content is © The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This repository does not include or redistribute Church content — it provides tools to download from the Church's public API for personal study.

Original content (templates, study notes, scripts) is released under the MIT License.

"Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection." — D&C 130:18

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Repository files navigation

Scripture Study

Quick Start

Prerequisites

Step 1 — Clone the Workspace

Step 2 — Clone Companion Repos

Step 3 — Download Gospel Content

Step 4 — Build the MCP Servers

Step 5 — Configure MCP Servers

Step 6 — Start Studying

MCP Servers

Legacy: gospel-vec Environment Variables

Companion Repos

Brain / Becoming Ecosystem

AI Agent Framework

Agents (14)

Skills (13)

Prompts (5)

Using a Different AI Agent

Session Memory & Specification

Project Structure

Templates

Publishing

Copyright

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Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 628 Commits
.claude/skills/playwright-cli		.claude/skills/playwright-cli
.github		.github
.mind		.mind
.spec		.spec
becoming		becoming
callings		callings
docs		docs
experiments/lm-studio		experiments/lm-studio
games		games
journal		journal
lessons		lessons
projects		projects
public		public
scripts		scripts
study		study
.dockerignore		.dockerignore
.gitignore		.gitignore
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
go.work		go.work
go.work.sum		go.work.sum
intent.yaml		intent.yaml
rebuild.ps1		rebuild.ps1
reindex-scriptures.ps1		reindex-scriptures.ps1
webster1828.json.gz		webster1828.json.gz

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Scripture Study

Quick Start

Prerequisites

Step 1 — Clone the Workspace

Step 2 — Clone Companion Repos

Step 3 — Download Gospel Content

Step 4 — Build the MCP Servers

Step 5 — Configure MCP Servers

Step 6 — Start Studying

MCP Servers

Legacy: gospel-vec Environment Variables

Companion Repos

Brain / Becoming Ecosystem

AI Agent Framework

Agents (14)

Skills (13)

Prompts (5)

Using a Different AI Agent

Session Memory & Specification

Project Structure

Templates

Publishing

Copyright

About

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License

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