CBETA MCP — Partner Access Guide

Retrieval over the CBETA-derived collected works of four modern Chinese Buddhist masters/scholars, served over the Model Context Protocol (MCP):

key	master	corpus
yinshun	印順法師 (1906–2005)	印順法師佛學著作集（CBETA Y）
taixu	太虛大師 (1890–1947)	太虛大師全書（CBETA TX）
yanpei	演培法師 (1917–1996)	演培法師全集（CBETA YP）
lucheng	呂澂 (1896–1989)	呂澂佛學著作集（CBETA LC）

Third-party reference corpus — not Master Sheng Yen. Each result is tagged with its master (attribution) so you can compare across them and cite the right one.

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1. Endpoint & auth

Base URL	issued on onboarding (<YOUR_ENDPOINT>)
Transports	GET/POST /sse (SSE) · POST /mcp (streamable-HTTP)
Protocol	MCP 2024-11-05
Auth	Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_KEY> (or X-API-Key: <YOUR_API_KEY>)

Your API key is issued to you privately; every request must carry it (no/invalid key → 401). Connect any MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop / Code, MCP Inspector) by pointing it at the /sse URL with the Authorization header — same shape as the DDC guide §3.

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2. Tools

Tool	Purpose
retrieve ⭐	Fan one query across the requested masters; returns section-grounded Passage objects (matched snippet + section-budget context).
list_books	Work catalog per master: book_id (master:work), book_title, juan count. No args.
get_book_outline	A work's juans (table of contents) by book_id.
get_chapter	Fetch one whole juan's body by chapter_code (master:work:juan).

retrieve

arg	type	default	description
query	string	—	檢索詞（繁體佳）；一個 query 對應一個概念／面向。
authors	list of yinshun/taixu/yanpei/lucheng, or "all"	"all"	Which masters to search. Use "all" to compare across them.
k_per_author	int (1–20)	3	Hits per master. Total ≤ `k_per_author ×
min_score	number	0.30	Rerank-score floor (per master); 0.0 disables.

// retrieve
{ "query": "緣起性空", "authors": ["yinshun", "taixu"], "k_per_author": 3 }

Returns a list of Passage objects, each:

{
  "section_id": "yinshun:Y0011:2#004",
  "source": "cbeta",
  "attribution": "印順法師",
  "title": "…section label (navigation, not a citation)…",
  "snippet": "…the matched span…",
  "context": "…the matched span's section, sized to a grounding budget — the basis…",
  "citation": "《成佛之道》，卷 2，（印順法師）",
  "source_url": "https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/Y0011_002",
  "book_id": "yinshun:Y0011",
  "mid_id": "yinshun:Y0011:2",
  "score": 0.97
}

Ground answers in context; cite section_id + attribution (the master); link with source_url (the CBETA Online reader). mid_id is the juan code — pass it to get_chapter for the whole juan. title is a navigation label, never a citation.

Browse: list_books → get_book_outline → get_chapter

// list_books  → [{ "book_id": "yinshun:Y0011", "book_title": "成佛之道", "juan_count": 5 }, …]
// get_book_outline
{ "book_id": "yinshun:Y0011" }
// → juans: [{ "chapter_code": "yinshun:Y0011:1", "title": "…", "order": 1 }, …]
// get_chapter
{ "chapter_code": "yinshun:Y0011:2" }

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3. Notes & support

• Encoding: Traditional Chinese (繁體中文), UTF-8.
• Attribution: every Passage carries the master in attribution — never merge or mis-attribute across masters.
• Access: keys are issued per service; tell your onboarding contact which corpora and expected load you need. See the Partner Overview for the full MCP family.