The Living Bread

PURPOSE: Read one item in full by an id that search (or another tool) returned: a verse (KJV text), a need's verse set, a church, a gathering (with whether it has passed), a community, or an lb: denomination, saint, sacred site, biblical figure, Bible place or directory church. WHEN TO USE: right after search, with an id exactly as returned (the ChatGPT connector contract). WHEN NOT: other lb: URNs (gatherings, ministries, needs, testimonies, profiles): search (mode protocol). A reference you already know: read_scripture. PARAMETERS: id, passed unchanged: verse:<ref>, need:<slug>, church:<uuid>, gathering:<uuid>, community:<uuid>, or lb:<kind>:<slug>. The prefix before the first colon picks the source. OUTPUT: id, title, text (Scripture verbatim), url, and metadata (kind-specific facts plus attribution; unresolved holds the id when it was not found). BEHAVIOR: read only. An id that cannot be resolved returns a normal result with metadata.unresolved, not an error. Access: no sign-in; shared limit of 300 requests a minute per IP.

PURPOSE: Find real churches near a place, nearest first, merged live from churches on The Living Bread and an open worldwide directory of about 120,000 churches; or read one directory church's open data record by its id. WHEN TO USE: "a Baptist church in Dallas", "a parish near Manchester", or after another answer returned an lb:church id. WHEN NOT: services or events at a time: find_gatherings. Groups to join or student communities: find_communities. What a tradition is: learn_the_faith (mode heritage). MODES (required parameters in brackets): near [lat and lng, or city] churches within 250 km (denomination filters by one lowercase word such as "baptist" or "catholic"; limit 1 to 20, default 8). by_id [id, or country and slug] one church: pass the whole lb:church:<country>/<slug> as id, or its two parts. OUTPUT: mode, answered_by, and: near gives searched, count, churches [{id, name, where, distance_km, denomination, on_living_bread, url}], find_a_church and gatherings links, plus honest and nearest_we_hold when count is 0; by_id gives id, name, url, denomination, country, website, verified and provenance. BEHAVIOR: read only; reads the live directory and geocodes the city. City level by design: names, city and distance, never street addresses or contacts. No church within 250 km returns count 0 with an honest sentence and the nearest one held, if any. An unknown id returns a not_found error. The search words (never a user id) are logged anonymously. Parameters a mode does not use are ignored and named in ignored_params. Access: no sign-in; shared limit of 300 requests a minute per IP.

PURPOSE: Find ongoing Christian community to belong to: discoverable groups on The Living Bread (prayer groups, study groups, city and interest communities) with member counts, how to join and the next posted gathering; or the house's University Network page for a country, US state or city. WHEN TO USE: "is there a prayer group", "a Bible study community in Atlanta", "Christian community at universities in Kenya". WHEN NOT: church buildings: find_churches. One-off events: find_gatherings. A person to pray with now: find_people_to_pray_with. MODES (required parameters in brackets): to_join [none] communities, filtered by query words matched against name, description, kind, city and country (any word matches, so more words widen), paged with limit (1 to 20, default 10) and cursor. university [place] one country, US state or city. OUTPUT: mode, answered_by, and: to_join gives count, total, communities [{id, name, kind, description, where, people, join, next_gathering, rhythm, verified, freshness, handoff}], join_here and next_cursor; university gives matched (null when not held), title, url, summary, entries (up to 14 campus or region pages), suggestions and door. BEHAVIOR: read only. to_join reads live data and never lists private family rooms; university fetches living-bread.org at call time and returns page links, not a structured list of student groups. No match returns count 0, or matched null with the places held. Parameters a mode does not use are ignored and named in ignored_params. NETWORK MODE family [optional query, place, limit, cursor]: the discoverable Christian communities a lonely or new person could join, with an honest empty and a consent note; no member is named (answered by find_my_family). Access: no sign-in; shared limit of 300 requests a minute per IP.

PURPOSE: Find upcoming Christian gatherings posted on The Living Bread (services, prayer nights, Bible studies, worship nights, meals, recovery groups), soonest first. WHEN TO USE: "something on tonight in Atlanta", "church events this week near Austin", "an online service I can join". WHEN NOT: church buildings: find_churches. Ongoing groups: find_communities. A person to pray with now, or Tables open now: find_people_to_pray_with. MODES (required parameters in brackets): tonight [city] the next hours in one city, matched as text (hours 1 to 36, default 12; country disambiguates). this_week [none] the next seven days within 250 km of lat and lng or city, online gatherings included (limit up to 20, default 10). any [none] a custom window (days 1 to 60, default 14) near a place or anywhere; online true lists only online gatherings; paged with limit and cursor. OUTPUT: mode, answered_by, and count, gatherings [{id, title, when_utc, where, distance_km, kind, online, good_for_a_first_visit, freshness}], the door to every gathering, next_cursor for any, and honest when nothing is held. BEHAVIOR: read only; reads live data. Times are UTC and are what hosts posted: freshness is scheduled with available_now false, never a confirmation it is happening; convert to the person's time before telling them. None returns count 0 and suggests online gatherings. The place words (never a user id) are logged anonymously. Parameters a mode does not use are ignored and named in ignored_params. Access: no sign-in; shared limit of 300 requests a minute per IP.

PURPOSE: Connect a person with real people who pray, honestly: how many believers keep the prayer watch right now and the page where a human answers, which hours of the watch are kept or uncovered, the door where believers pray for them by name, Tables open now, prayers left at places near them, the room where believers pray aloud over the family, and the door to pray for someone by name. WHEN TO USE: the person needs a human rather than information: "can someone pray with me", "is anyone there tonight", "I want someone to pray for my mother", "has anyone prayed near this hospital", "how can I keep a night hour". WHEN NOT: anyone in danger: get_crisis_help first, then this. Scripture: find_scripture_for or read_scripture. Scheduled public events: find_gatherings. MODES (required parameters in brackets): a_person_now [none] the live count keeping watch, the median time to a person, and the door (want: prayer, talk, know_jesus or hard_season picks the door; language says whether someone on watch uses it). the_watch [none] which of the next hours are kept and which are gaps (time_zone, hours 24 or 168). real_people_will_pray [none] the door where believers pray by name and how many prayed in 24 hours. live_tables [none] Tables open now; this public endpoint lists none and says so. prayers_near [lat and lng, or city] public prayers left within radius_km (default 5, max 50), nearest first. hear_the_kingdom_pray [none] the room of recorded prayers from many nations. pray_for_someone [none] the link and steps to pray for a person by name (name personalises it). ask_the_family [none] the door where a person with no account asks the family to pray for them once, and is asked how they are on day 3 and day 7; offer the link, never submit for them (language is echoed). OUTPUT: mode, answered_by, and: a_person_now gives keeping_watch_now, keeping_this_hour, said_available_now, languages, this_hour (kept or gap), time_to_a_person, door, doors and crisis_rule; the_watch gives kept, gaps, wheel [{utc, local, keepers}], gap_ranges, invitation and door; prayers_near gives count, prayers [{id, approx, place, kind, voice, words, scripture_ref, from, prayed_with, when, distance_km}] and totals; the door modes give the link, what happens there, and a scripture_ref (a reference only; read it with read_scripture). BEHAVIOR: read only. This tool never sends a request, contacts anyone or prays; asking is the person's own act at the door it returns. Counts only, never who keeps watch. Places are the centre of an approximate cell, never the exact spot. Never tell a person someone is available now unless freshness.available_now is true. Empty results say so plainly. Parameters a mode does not use are ignored and named in ignored_params. NETWORK MODE opportunities [optional want, language]: only real, opt in doors to pray with another person, available_now true only when verified live (answered by find_someone_to_pray_with). Access: no sign-in; shared limit of 300 requests a minute per IP.

PURPOSE: Find the verses that speak to something, read verbatim from the stored text: the hand-picked set for a need or feeling, the house's page on what the Bible says about a topic, what Jesus Himself said about a theme, or the Daily Bread verse every member receives on a date. WHEN TO USE: the person names a feeling, a situation or a topic, or asks for today's verse, without a reference. WHEN NOT: a known reference, exact wording, translations side by side, or checking a quote: read_scripture. A ready-written prayer, a parable, a doctrine or a hard season page: learn_the_faith. Danger to life: get_crisis_help first. MODES (required parameters in brackets): need [subject] matches the person's own words to one of 99 needs ("I am scared about surgery" finds fear) and returns up to limit verses (default 5, max 12), each with a one-line why in the house's words; translation or language read them from another stored Bible. topic [subject] the house's page on one of about 300 topics (shame, money, anger) with its key verses. words_of_jesus [subject] the page on what Jesus said about one theme (love, forgiveness, worry). daily_bread [none] the one verse of a date (date YYYY-MM-DD in the person's own time zone, default today in UTC); translation or language apply. OUTPUT: mode, answered_by, and: need gives need, label, matched, verses [{ref, text, why}], page, pray_with_the_family; topic and words_of_jesus give matched (page path or null), title, url, body (the house's words), verses [{ref, text}], related, and suggestions when nothing matched; daily_bread gives date, ref, text, translation, page. evidence and content_layers keep Scripture apart from the house's words. BEHAVIOR: read only. need and daily_bread read bundled data; topic and words_of_jesus fetch the page from living-bread.org at call time and re-read its verses from the stored KJV. No matching need returns an error listing the needs held; no matching page returns matched null with suggestions. The need text (never a user id) is logged anonymously. Parameters a mode does not use are ignored and named in ignored_params. Access: no sign-in; shared limit of 300 requests a minute per IP.

PURPOSE: Find open needs on The Living Bread Serve network, posted by verified partner ministries and Christian nonprofits: what is needed, urgency, approximate place, the partner, estimated cost, and whether it can be met in person, remotely or by funding. WHEN TO USE: "how can I help near Kigali", "a need I can fund", "volunteer from home". WHEN NOT: someone who needs prayer or a person to talk to: find_people_to_pray_with. Gatherings to attend: find_gatherings. Committing to a need is a signed-in act on /me (offer_to_serve). MODES (required parameters in brackets): near [none] nearest first within 250 km of lat and lng or city, or by country, or the whole network when no place is given (limit 1 to 20, default 8). public_needs [none] needs that ask for people, filtered by city or country name, remote_only true for needs met from anywhere. OUTPUT: mode, answered_by, and searched, count, needs [{id, title, description, category, urgency, where, distance_km, partner, ways, estimated_cost, pilot, door}], honest when empty, and the door to Serve. BEHAVIOR: read only; reads live data. Places are approximate (city, region, country), never a home address. When none is near, near returns count 0 with up to 5 remote or fundable needs instead. Parameters a mode does not use are ignored and named in ignored_params. NETWORK MODE neighbor [optional city, country, remote_only]: verified service opportunities from ministries, city and country only (answered by serve_my_neighbor). Access: no sign-in; shared limit of 300 requests a minute per IP.

PURPOSE: Give the real emergency number and crisis hotlines (suicide or crisis line, text line, domestic violence, child help) for one country, from the verified dataset The Living Bread ships for 53 countries, with its source and the date it was checked. WHEN TO USE: FIRST, before any other tool, whenever a person speaks of harming themselves or someone else, or is in danger ("I want to die", "my friend is suicidal", "he hits me"). WHEN NOT: for loneliness or a wish to talk with no danger, use find_people_to_pray_with (mode a_person_now); for comfort from the Word afterwards, find_scripture_for. Never give a verse in place of a phone number. PARAMETERS: country is the person's country as a name or ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code ("Nigeria", "GB", "USA"). If you do not know it, ask; this tool never defaults to one country's number. Omit it only to get the list of countries held. OUTPUT: country {code, name} or null; emergency numbers; crisis_line, text_line, domestic_violence and child_help (each name and number, or null); source, verified_at, confidence; rule (how to use the answer); door (the app's crisis page); countries_held when no country matched. BEHAVIOR: read only; a static dataset, no network call. Matching is strict (ISO code, exact name, known alias, or an unambiguous name start of four letters or more) because a wrong line is worse than none. An unheld country returns country null with the general emergency rule (112, 911, 999) and the countries held, never a guessed number. Access: no sign-in; shared limit of 300 requests a minute per IP.

PURPOSE: Read what The Living Bread wrote about the Christian faith, quoted not rewritten: the gospel in four steps, a doctrine, a parable or miracle of Jesus, a hymn and its story, a biblical name's meaning, a sourced saint, denomination, sacred site, biblical figure or Bible place, the saints of a date, two traditions side by side, a respectful page for someone from another faith or none, a page for a hard season of life, or a ready-written prayer. WHEN TO USE: "what is the gospel", "what is grace", "explain the prodigal son", "the story of Amazing Grace", "what does Elijah mean", "who was Augustine", "who is remembered on October 4", "Baptists and Methodists", "I grew up Muslim", "I just lost my dad", "a prayer before surgery". WHEN NOT: verses for a need or topic: find_scripture_for. The Bible text itself: read_scripture. A free question that fits no mode: search (mode answer). A real church or group: find_churches or find_communities. MODES (required parameters in brackets): gospel [none]. belief [subject, a doctrine such as "grace" or "the Trinity"]. parable [subject, "prodigal son"]. miracle [subject, "raising Lazarus"]. hymn [subject, a title or a line]. name_meaning [subject, one name]. saint [subject, a saint's name] the sourced record. saint_of_the_day [none] the saints remembered on date ("October 4" or YYYY-MM-DD; default today in UTC). heritage [kind, subject] one denomination, saint, sacred-site, biblical-figure or bible-place. compare_traditions [subject, compare_with] two denominations. other_faiths [subject, the person's background in their words: "Muslim", "grew up Hindu", "nothing really"]. hard_season [subject, the moment: "grief", "church hurt"]. a_prayer_for [subject, the situation]. OUTPUT: mode, answered_by, and: the page modes (belief, parable, miracle, hymn, name_meaning, hard_season, a_prayer_for, other_faiths, saint_of_the_day) give matched (page path or null), title, url, body in the house's words, verses [{ref, text}] read verbatim from the stored KJV, related, suggestions when unmatched, hub and door; gospel gives confession, steps [{heading, words, ref, text}], who_is_jesus and doors; heritage and saint give id (an lb: URN), name, url, sameAs and provenance; compare_traditions gives a, b, shared_root and posture. BEHAVIOR: read only. Page modes fetch living-bread.org at call time; heritage, saint and compare_traditions read the Christian Knowledge API live; gospel is fixed text with its verses read from the stored KJV. Matching is by slug, then by words; a weak match sets exact false; nothing held returns matched null with suggestions, or a not_found error for heritage and saint. content_layers marks the house's words as interpretation, never Scripture. Parameters a mode does not use are ignored and named in ignored_params. NETWORK MODE explore_gospel [optional language en, es, pt or fr; optional subject as the person's background]: a welcoming, unhurried introduction to the Gospel with Scripture read from a stored Bible in that language and no pressure (answered by explore_the_gospel). Access: no sign-in; shared limit of 300 requests a minute per IP.

PURPOSE: Read the Bible word for word from a stored text, never from memory: a passage by reference, a verse in its context, every verse containing given words, one verse side by side in several translations, the Hebrew or Greek words behind a verse, the passages readers link to it, a check of whether quoted words are real Scripture, the list of stored translations, or a recommendation of which translation to read. The default text is the King James Version the app ships; 69 stored public domain or freely licensed Bibles, with the Hebrew and Greek, are read by translation or language. Copyrighted Bibles (the NIV, NASB, NIrV, Amplified and every other licensed version) are read in the app and are never returned by any tool. WHEN TO USE: whenever you will quote or examine Scripture and know the reference or the words, or need to check a quotation before repeating it. WHEN NOT: verses for a feeling or need, a topic, the words of Jesus on a theme, or the verse of the day: find_scripture_for. A parable, doctrine or the gospel explained: learn_the_faith. MODES (required parameters in brackets): passage [reference] one verse, a range inside one chapter, or a whole chapter. context [reference] the passage with the verses around it (around, default 2). search [query] verses containing all the words, or an exact phrase in double quotes, a page at a time (book, testament, whole_words, limit, cursor, parallel). compare [reference] one verse in up to six translations side by side (translations, include_original). original_words [reference] each Hebrew or Greek word with its Strong's number, lexicon entry, parsing and the KJV words it became (strong keeps one number, e.g. "G25"). cross_references [reference] linked passages from OpenBible.info with votes (limit, include_text). verify [quote] checks the words against every held translation (reference optional). translations [none] every stored translation with language, canon and license (language filters; include_license_text). which_translation [optional need: first_time, study, memorize, children, listen, free, spanish, portuguese, or the person's own words] recommends translations in the house's own words with where each can be read (public domain here, in the app, or not available yet) and the page https://living-bread.org/bible-translations; it never returns licensed text. PARAMETERS: translation and language apply to passage, context, search and cross_references; compare takes a list in translations. Ranges across chapters are not supported. OUTPUT: mode, answered_by (the implementation used) and that mode's fields: passage gives ref, text, verses [{verse, text}], translation, translation_name, source, read_more; context gives passage, before and after; search gives total_matches, results and next_cursor; compare gives rows per translation; original_words gives verses[].words with strong, lemma, definition and morph; cross_references gives references with votes; verify gives verdict (verbatim, close_but_differs with a word diff, or not_found), best_match with SHA-256 hashes; translations gives the list. Every Scripture answer carries evidence (translation, license, corpus version, SHA-256 per passage) and content_layers. BEHAVIOR: read only and deterministic; the texts are bundled, no network call. An unparseable reference, an unknown translation, or a book a translation does not hold returns an error with try_instead; a search with no match returns count 0 and result_state empty. Parameters a mode does not use are ignored and named in ignored_params. NETWORK MODE languages [optional language]: which languages hold a stored Bible, under what license, and which Gospel pathway pages exist, so you never promise a text that is not held (answered by kingdom_languages). Access: no sign-in; shared limit of 300 requests a minute per IP.

PURPOSE: Search everything The Living Bread holds with one free-text query: a flat list of results with ids for search then fetch (mode results, the default, the ChatGPT connector contract), one grounded answer with sourced entities and up to 3 verses (mode answer), or one lb: URN resolved to its public object and JSON Schema (mode protocol). WHEN TO USE: a question no other tool fits, deep research that wants ids to fetch, or an lb: URN to resolve. WHEN NOT: a known reference or exact words: read_scripture. A feeling: find_scripture_for. Churches by place: find_churches. One named denomination or saint: learn_the_faith (mode heritage). MODES (required parameters in brackets): results [query] tried in order as a Bible reference, a need, an entity question, a place, and community words. answer [query, one question per call]. protocol [query, an lb: URN such as lb:ministry:hope-for-a-good-life]. OUTPUT: mode, answered_by, and: results gives results [{id, title, text, url}], never empty (no match returns one result linking home); answer gives question, answer (null when nothing sourced), entities [{id, type, name, url, source}], scripture {topic, url, verses} or null, road_to_christ, next_steps and grounding; protocol gives found, protocol_kind, object, schema and source. BEHAVIOR: read only; queries the Christian Knowledge API live. answer stays null and entities empty rather than a guess. The query text (never a user id) is logged anonymously. NETWORK MODE discover [query, the person's wish in a sentence]: capability negotiation for the Living Bread Intelligence Invitation Protocol; names at most three capabilities that answer it and how to call each, reads no data and sends nothing (answered by discover_the_kingdom). Access: no sign-in; shared limit of 300 requests a minute per IP.

PURPOSE: See the family of believers on The Living Bread as it is, in counts and in their own shared words: members by city, today's activity and what people are carrying, testimonies members chose to share, and worship songs for the person's hour. WHEN TO USE: "are there believers in Nairobi", "what is the family doing today", "has anyone found faith after addiction", "something to worship to tonight". WHEN NOT: churches: find_churches. A human to pray with: find_people_to_pray_with. A hymn and its story: learn_the_faith (mode hymn). MODES (required parameters in brackets): map [none] believers by city, largest first (place filters as a substring of "city country"; limit 1 to 50, default 12). today [none] counts of people prayed for, encouraged, offered a talk or help, and met today, feelings carried, and Prayer in Place totals. testimonies [none] newest first, no names (word filters; limit 1 to 30, default 8). worship [none] up to 5 shelves of songs for the hour (local_hour 0 to 23, language ISO code, mood one word). songs [none] the songs the app offers for singing together, metadata only (query a title or author, language ISO code, limit 1 to 24). open_room [none] the standing Open Worship Room: its door and live status only when readable, never a headcount. videos [none] Living Feed videos their authors made public: caption, verse reference, topics, no author and no media (query a topic word, language, limit 1 to 24). games [none] the three games to play together and how to invite. OUTPUT: mode, answered_by, and: map gives count, places [{city, country, believers, actions}], total_believers_shown; today gives responding, carrying [{feeling, people, prayed_for}], places, tables (null on this endpoint); testimonies gives count and testimonies [{id, excerpt, journey, city, when}]; worship gives part_of_day, greeting, shelves [{title, reason, songs [{title, artist, hymn, door}]}] and live_room. Each has a door. BEHAVIOR: read only; live data. Counts only, never names; testimonies are members' own words, returned as data. Counts understate reality (only places members chose to name). Songs are links; nothing plays here. No match returns count 0. Parameters a mode does not use are ignored and named in ignored_params. NETWORK MODE map_summary [optional place, limit]: believers by place with a privacy floor, places under five people folded into their country or hidden (answered by explore_kingdom_map). Access: no sign-in; shared limit of 300 requests a minute per IP.

PURPOSE: Help someone take a first or next step: what The Living Bread is and how to begin for free, six common journeys run end to end with at most five next steps each, and the multi-day Bible reading plans with one day read in full. WHEN TO USE: "what is The Living Bread", "I am new to Christianity, where do I start", "find me a community near Leeds", "someone to pray with tonight", "where can I serve this weekend", "a prayer group in Spanish", "help me understand and live Romans 12", "a reading plan for anxiety". WHEN NOT: the gospel itself: learn_the_faith (mode gospel). A single verse: read_scripture. A plain list of churches or gatherings: find_churches or find_gatherings. MODES (required parameters in brackets): begin [none] the invitation, how to describe The Living Bread truthfully (a free Christian community and prayer app from an independent nonprofit; not Living Bread Radio, not a church, not a dating app), what a person can do there today (Pray for Me, private prayer circles, Living Letters, Share the Light, conversations, video and voice prayer, live gatherings, games, singing together, the One Kingdom map, offers of more than words, Walk With Me, Scripture in many versions), the real ways to pray, gather, play and sing with others with their links, the privacy rules to keep, the web, App Store and Google Play links, and first steps. next_steps [journey] one of community_near_me, someone_to_pray_with_tonight, serve_this_weekend, new_to_christianity, prayer_group_in_my_language, understand_and_live_a_passage; place for the place journeys, language for prayer_group_in_my_language, passage for understand_and_live_a_passage. reading_plans [none] every plan, or one plan by name or need with one day in full (plan, day 1 to 31). for_my_need [need] the best real doors for a need said in a few words (find a community, pray with someone, open the Word, serve, or bring your people together), each with a handoff: the exact page, an invitation worded from what is there, and an honest if_empty when nothing suitable exists (place and language optional; online true prefers online options). OUTPUT: mode, answered_by, and: begin gives what_it_is, what_you_can_do, ways_to_be_together [{name, what, how, link, note}], privacy_rules, get_the_app, invitation, web, app_store, play_store, first_steps, who_is_jesus; next_steps gives results (at most 5, each with why and freshness), next_step {label, url}, and alternatives when nothing is held; for_my_need gives intent, experiences [{title, why, freshness, handoff}], handoff, if_empty, notes and next_tools; reading_plans gives plans and plan with its days and reading {ref, text read verbatim from the stored KJV, word, step}, or plan null. BEHAVIOR: read only; creates no account and tracks no progress. next_steps reads live data; begin and reading_plans are bundled. Give links exactly as returned. An unknown language returns an error with try_instead; nothing held returns honest alternatives. Parameters a mode does not use are ignored and named in ignored_params. NETWORK MODE bring_one [optional invite_kind come_and_see, pray_together, find_community, read_together or visit_a_gathering; invite_for; invite_message, the person's own words; language en, es, pt or fr]: PREPARES an invitation for the person to review and send themselves; sent is always false, nothing is sent or stored (answered by bring_one). Access: no sign-in; shared limit of 300 requests a minute per IP.