Tim RenMaster-skill
"All conditioned phenomena
Are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow,
Like dew, or a flash of lightning;
Thus should they be contemplated."
— Diamond Sūtra (Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra)
Opening the 100-fascicle Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra — not knowing where to begin?
Want to study Chan, but unsure which patriarch to approach?
Modern translations feel one layer removed, but reading classical Chinese is daunting?
Need authoritative citations of patriarchs' teachings for scholarly work?
AI learning companions modeled after historical Chinese Buddhist masters
8 pre-built Chinese Buddhist masters · Real FoJin text citations · AgentSkills Standard
Browser · Statement · Features · Install · Masters · FoJin · 中文
Try It Now (Browser-First)
Most users don't need to install anything. Buddhist students, researchers, and curious readers can use every master directly in a web browser.
👉 Open fojin.app/chat
On the AI Q&A page, open the "法师模式" (Master Mode) dropdown in the bottom-left and pick one of the 8 pre-built masters to start chatting.
- No install, no signup
/compare-mastersmulti-master comparison works the same way- Live citation retrieval backed by FoJin's 503 sources and 678K+ semantic embeddings
- Every answer carries a CBETA source ID
Not sure which master to ask? Start here:
| Your situation | Suggested master |
|---|---|
| "My mind is scattered, I can't sit still" | /xuyun /zhiyi (huatou / śamatha-vipaśyanā) |
| "I can't follow the logic of the sutras" | /xuanzang (Yogācāra precision) |
| "I've studied for years but feel stuck" | /yinguang (plain, sincere nianfo) |
| "I want to understand emptiness" | /kumarajiva /huineng (Madhyamaka / direct pointing) |
| "I want a systematic view of Huayan / Tiantai" | /fazang /zhiyi (classification and metaphysics) |
| "I'm torn between Chan and Pure Land" | /ouyi (cross-tradition synthesis) |
Developers and Claude Code / Cursor users should skip to Developer Installation to use the masters as terminal AgentSkills.
v0.3 Update: Full architecture rebuild — CBETA provenance in frontmatter, offline source passages (
sources/), automated fidelity tests (fidelity.jsonl), one-command NPX installer, and offline toolchain (cite.py/query.py).Post-v0.3 iterations:
/create-masterpipeline now enforces a two-stage independent review (doctrinal accuracy → voice consistency), HARD-GATE rules (no CBETA citation → no write), multi-platform plugin support across Claude Code / Cursor / Codex / OpenCode / Gemini CLI, a session-start hook that auto-injects the master list, plus pressure tests and CI validation for all 8 prebuilt masters.
An AgentSkills-standard generator for AI personas based on historical Buddhist masters, powered by FoJin — a Buddhist text aggregation platform.
Seriousness Statement
This project is built out of respect for Buddhist traditions. All content is generated faithfully from historical documents. It makes no doctrinal judgments and claims no sectarian authority. Generated content is intended for study and reference only. For formal practice guidance, please seek out a qualified master and rely on genuine, living instruction.
Features
- 8 pre-built Chinese Buddhist masters: across Yogacara, Madhyamaka, Chan, Tiantai, Huayan, Pure Land, and cross-tradition — ready to use out of the box
- Provenance enforcement: Every master ships with CBETA IDs and FoJin text IDs in frontmatter; every doctrinal claim must carry a scriptural citation
- Offline source passages:
sources/captures key passages from each master's core canon, so citations still work when FoJin is unreachable - Progressive disclosure: SKILL.md is a decision tree + quick reference;
references/andsources/are loaded on demand to keep context lean - HARD-GATE discipline: Both
/create-masterand every prebuilt master embed hard rules — no unverified CBETA ID, no uncited doctrinal claim, no fictional personas - Two-stage independent review: The generation pipeline forces a "doctrinal accuracy → voice consistency" review before write; FAIL triggers up to 2 rounds of automatic repair
- Automated fidelity tests: Each master's
tests/fidelity.jsonlholds 5+ Q&A samples validating citations and keyword coverage; CI runs a dry-run on every push - Unified multi-platform plugin: Claude Code, Cursor, Codex CLI, OpenCode, and Gemini CLI share one
prebuilt/tree, with a session-start hook injecting the master list on every platform - NPX one-shot install:
npx master-skill install zhiyidrops skills straight into Claude Code - Offline toolchain:
scripts/cite.py(CBETA lookup),scripts/query.py(offline semantic search),scripts/validate.py(frontmatter linter) - FoJin data bridge: Connected to fojin.app with 503 data sources, 10K+ texts, 678K+ semantic embeddings, and a 31K-entity knowledge graph
- AgentSkills standard: Compliant with Anthropic Agent Skills — progressive disclosure, decision trees, black-box script pattern
Developer Installation
👤 Just want to try it? Use fojin.app/chat in your browser and skip this section entirely. 🛠️ This section is for: Claude Code / Cursor / Codex CLI / OpenCode / Gemini CLI users who want to invoke
/xuanzang,/huineng, etc. directly as terminal AgentSkills.
Installation
NPX (recommended)
npx master-skill install --all # Install all 8 masters
npx master-skill list # List available masters
Claude Code
git clone https://github.com/xr843/Master-skill ~/Master-skill
cd ~/Master-skill && pip install -r requirements.txt
for d in prebuilt/*/; do ln -sf "$(pwd)/$d" ~/.claude/skills/"$(basename $d)"; done
ln -sf "$(pwd)" ~/.claude/skills/create-master
Cursor — Clone the repo; Cursor auto-detects .cursor-plugin/plugin.json.
OpenCode — Add to opencode.json:
{"plugin": ["master-skill@git+https://github.com/xr843/Master-skill.git"]}
Codex CLI — See .codex/INSTALL.md
Gemini CLI — Auto-discovered via gemini-extension.json and GEMINI.md.
Use a Pre-built Master
In any AgentSkills-compatible environment (Claude Code / Cursor / Codex CLI / OpenCode / Gemini CLI):
/xuanzang — Master Xuanzang (Yogacara)
/kumarajiva — Kumarajiva (Madhyamaka / Sanlun)
/huineng — Master Huineng (Chan, Sixth Patriarch)
/zhiyi — Master Zhiyi (Tiantai)
/fazang — Master Fazang (Huayan)
/yinguang — Master Yinguang (Pure Land)
/ouyi — Master Ouyi (Tiantai / Pure Land, cross-tradition)
/xuyun — Master Xuyun (Chan, Five Houses)
Compare Masters
Ask the same question to 2-3 masters in parallel and surface the differences between traditions:
# Auto-pick relevant masters
/compare-masters what is emptiness
# Manually pick masters (recommended for precise results)
/compare-masters how to read the Heart Sutra --masters xuanzang,huineng,zhiyi
# Natural-language triggers
compare Huineng and Yinguang on nianfo
how do Chan and Pure Land differ on practice
Selection logic: the command first tries to extract keywords from the question and match them against each master's core concepts; if nothing matches strongly, it falls back to topic mapping (nianfo / meditation / Yogacara-Madhyamaka / classification, etc.). If the auto-pick feels off, use --masters to override.
Generate a Custom Master
/create-master Hongyi
Or use natural language:
Create a persona for Master Hongyi
The system will guide you through a three-step intake, then automatically collect data from FoJin and generate the doctrinal analysis and style files.
Pre-built Masters
Master Xuanzang (602-664)
The greatest translator in Chinese Buddhist history. Traveled to India for 17 years, translated 75 texts in 1,335 fascicles. Founded the Yogacara (Faxiang) school in China. Known for precise, rigorous translation methodology and the "Five Categories of Non-Translation" principle.
Primary sources: CBETA — Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra, Yogacarabhumi-sastra, Cheng Weishi Lun, Heart Sutra.
Invoke: /xuanzang
Kumarajiva (344-413)
One of the four great translators of Chinese Buddhism. Born in Kucha, translated in Chang'an. His translations are celebrated for literary elegance — the Lotus Sutra, Diamond Sutra, Vimalakirti Sutra, and Mulamadhyamakakarika remain the most widely used versions today. Established the foundation of the Sanlun (Madhyamaka) school in China.
Primary sources: CBETA — Lotus Sutra, Diamond Sutra, Vimalakirti Sutra, Mulamadhyamakakarika, Mahaprajnaparamita-sastra.
Invoke: /kumarajiva
Master Huineng (638-713)
The Sixth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism, founder of the Southern School. An illiterate woodcutter who attained enlightenment upon hearing the Diamond Sutra. His Platform Sutra is the only Chinese-authored text honored with the title "sutra." Advocated "directly pointing to the mind, seeing one's nature to become Buddha."
Primary sources: CBETA — Platform Sutra (T48n2008).
Invoke: /huineng
Master Zhiyi (538-597)
Founder of the Tiantai school, honored as "the Little Shakyamuni of the East." Established the first comprehensive doctrinal classification system in Chinese Buddhism (Five Periods, Eight Teachings). Authored the Three Great Works of Tiantai. Core teachings: three thousand realms in a single thought-moment, perfect interfusion of the three truths, dual cultivation of samatha and vipasyana.
Primary sources: CBETA — Mohe Zhiguan (T46n1911), Fahua Xuanyi (T33n1718).
Invoke: /zhiyi
Master Fazang (643-712)
Third Patriarch and true systematizer of the Huayan school. National Preceptor under Empress Wu Zetian. Used the Golden Lion treatise to explain Huayan philosophy. Core teachings: dharmadhatu dependent origination, four dharma-realms, ten mysterious gates, six characteristics in perfect harmony.
Primary sources: CBETA — Huayan Jing Tanxuan Ji (T35n1733), Huayan Wujiao Zhang (T45n1866).
Invoke: /fazang
Master Yinguang (1861-1940)
13th Patriarch of the Chinese Pure Land school. Central figure in the modern Pure Land revival. His writing is sincere and straightforward; he guided countless practitioners through correspondence, collected in the three volumes of the Yinguang Fashi Wenchao.
Primary sources: CBETA — Wenchao volumes and the three Pure Land sutras.
Invoke: /yinguang
Master Ouyi (1599-1655)
One of the Four Great Masters of Late Ming Buddhism, 9th Patriarch of Pure Land. His motto: "Doctrine follows Tiantai, practice returns to Pure Land." The most important cross-tradition synthesizer in Chinese Buddhist history. His commentary on the Amitabha Sutra was praised by Master Yinguang as unsurpassable.
Primary sources: CBETA — Amituo Jing Yaojie (T37n1762), Jiaoguan Gangzong.
Invoke: /ouyi
Master Xuyun (1840-1959)
Modern Chan patriarch who lived to 119 years. Unprecedented in Buddhist history for holding dharma transmission in all five houses of Chan (Linji, Caodong, Guiyang, Yunmen, Fayan). Restored six major ancestral monasteries. Advocated hua-tou investigation, honest practice, and harmonizing Chan with Pure Land.
Primary sources: CBETA — Shurangama Sutra, Diamond Sutra, Platform Sutra.
Invoke: /xuyun
Architecture
User request
|
v
session-start hook ──> auto-injects master list (5 platforms, unified)
|
v
SKILL.md (AgentSkills entry: decision tree + quick reference)
|
+-- Pre-built masters --> prebuilt/{slug}/
| +-- SKILL.md (decision tree + <HARD-GATE>)
| +-- meta.json (version / lineage / provenance)
| +-- references/ (loaded on demand)
| | +-- teaching.md
| | +-- voice.md
| +-- sources/ (offline CBETA passages)
| | +-- *.md
| +-- tests/
| +-- fidelity.jsonl (CI dry-run samples)
|
+-- Offline toolchain
| +-- scripts/validate.py (frontmatter linter)
| +-- scripts/cite.py (CBETA lookup)
| +-- scripts/query.py (offline semantic search)
| +-- scripts/test-fidelity.py (fidelity runner)
| +-- scripts/validate-fidelity.py
| +-- bin/cli.mjs (NPX installer)
|
+-- Custom generation (/create-master, HARD-GATE enforced)
+-- Step 1-2 prompts/intake.md → tools/sutra_collector.py
| └─> FoJin API (KG + semantic search + text)
+-- Step 3 prompts/{sutra,voice}_analyzer.md → two-stage analysis
+-- Step 3.5 two-stage independent review ──┬─ prompts/doctrine_reviewer.md
| └─ prompts/voice_reviewer.md
+-- Step 4-5 tools/master_builder.py → tools/skill_writer.py
└─> tools/verify_sources.py (final pre-write check)
Unified multi-platform manifests:
.claude-plugin/ → Claude Code (hooks/run-hook.cmd → session-start)
.cursor-plugin/ → Cursor (hooks/hooks-cursor.json)
.codex/ → Codex CLI (.codex/INSTALL.md)
.opencode/ → OpenCode (referenced from opencode.json)
gemini-extension.json → Gemini CLI (auto-loaded with GEMINI.md)
Relationship to FoJin
FoJin is a Buddhist text aggregation platform integrating 503 data sources, 10K+ texts, 678K+ semantic vector embeddings, and a knowledge graph of 31K entities. It covers major corpora including CBETA Chinese Buddhist Canon, SuttaCentral Pali Canon and translations, and 84000 Tibetan Buddhist translations.
Master-skill connects to the FoJin API via tools/fojin_bridge.py to enable:
- Knowledge graph entity retrieval (master biography, lineage, school)
- Semantic similarity search (doctrinally relevant sutras)
- Runtime RAG retrieval for grounding answers in real texts
- Source passage extraction with provenance tracking
All citations include traceable FoJin links to ensure transparency of sources.
Sensitivity Boundaries
Will not:
- Pass judgment on the relative merits of different schools or traditions
- Provide personal practice diagnoses (karma readings, past lives, etc.)
- Claim supernatural powers or auspicious experiences
- Engage with politically charged religious topics
- Offer medical advice
Will:
- Cite source texts faithfully, with FoJin links on every response
- Retrieve real texts via runtime RAG, not relying solely on AI training data
- Acknowledge clearly when a question falls outside scope
- Encourage users to seek out qualified masters and authentic practice
Troubleshooting
Q: Does it still work when the FoJin API is unreachable?
Yes. Each prebuilt master ships with prebuilt/<name>/sources/ — key passages from that master's core canon, stored offline. When FoJin is down, the master degrades to offline mode and declares "currently running on offline passages" in the reply. The /create-master pipeline asks the user to switch to manual-input mode when the API fails, so you can paste source text and continue.
Q: What does a valid CBETA citation look like, and how is it verified?
Every CBETA citation must carry a Txxn#### identifier (for example, the Lotus Sutra is T9n262). scripts/validate.py lints the frontmatter sources block; tools/verify_sources.py checks every FoJin text_id against the live API before writing. Broken links are downgraded to FoJin search URLs — no dead references make it into the final file.
Q: npx master-skill install fails with ENOTEMPTY or a permission error — what now?
Clean up any leftover ~/.claude/skills/master-<name>/ directories before retrying. For npm-cache weirdness, run npm cache clean --force and rerun NPX. Windows users should execute from Git Bash or WSL to avoid cmd.exe path-escaping issues.
Q: The generated master says things that don't match the historical record — how do I correct it?
Just tell the master in-chat: "he wouldn't phrase it like that" or "he should sound more stern." The /create-master correction mode classifies the fix (doctrinal → appended to teaching.md; stylistic → appended to voice.md), writes it as a ## Correction block with timestamp, and bumps the patch version. Correction blocks take priority over analysis-generated content at runtime.
Q: How do I contribute a new prebuilt master?
See "Contributing" below. The short version: follow the v0.3 layout under prebuilt/<name>/, pass scripts/validate.py --strict with zero errors, ship at least 5 fidelity Q&A samples in tests/fidelity.jsonl, then open a PR.
Contributing
Contributions are welcome: new prebuilt masters, corrections to source attributions, offline passage additions, or toolchain improvements.
New masters must follow the v0.3 layout: prebuilt/<name>/ containing SKILL.md (with provenance frontmatter and a decision tree), references/teaching.md and references/voice.md (loaded on demand), sources/*.md (offline CBETA passages), and tests/fidelity.jsonl (5+ Q&A fidelity samples). Run python3 scripts/validate.py --strict for zero errors, and make sure the CI fidelity dry-run passes before opening a PR.
Before submitting, verify that sources trace back to CBETA, content is faithful to historical documents, and no sectarian bias is introduced.
License
MIT License
Acknowledgments
Gratitude to the following open-source Buddhist text projects:
- CBETA — digitized Chinese Buddhist Canon
- SuttaCentral — Pali Canon and multilingual translations
- 84000 — Tibetan Buddhist translation project
Community
- LINUX DO — Thanks to the LINUX DO community for support and feedback