# llms.txt — The Jesus Website

> This site is built as a static frontend hydrated by client-side JavaScript
> against a JSON API. Non-JS agents (crawlers, LLM tools, link-unfurlers)
> should consume the public JSON API directly rather than scraping rendered
> HTML. The API returns clean, machine-readable JSON for every content type.

> A copy of this file is also served at `/.well-known/llms.txt` for
> crawlers that check that location first. Keep both in sync on edits.

## Site purpose

The Jesus Website provides scholarly, evidence-based analysis of the
historical Jesus of Nazareth. Content is organised into:

- **Evidence** — Primary historical evidence items with timeline context,
  pictures, sources, and related-item links.
- **Contextual Essays** — Journal-format scholarly essays with abstracts,
  keywords, footnotes, and bibliographies.
- **Debate** — Popular and academic challenges to the historical Jesus,
  plus scholarly responses with strength indicators.
- **Historiography** — Historiography articles in journal format.
- **News & Blog** — Curated news articles with external links, plus
  in-house blog posts with figures and pull-quotes.
- **Maps** — Interactive map regions and detail pages.
- **Timeline** — Chronological timeline of evidence.
- **Resources** — Topic-grouped curated resource lists.
- **Arbor Diagram** — Interactive evidence relationship diagram.
- **About** — Site purpose and contributor information.

## For AI assistants (MCP)

This site provides an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server. MCP-compatible
AI clients can query the published scholarly content through seven read-only
tools rather than parsing raw HTTP or HTML.

**Hosted endpoint (no setup required):**
`https://www.thejesuswebsite.org/mcp`

Point any MCP client (Zed, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Continue, Cline, etc.)
at this URL. No API key, no local install, no Node.js required — the server
returns only published (public) content.

**Local / self-hosted:**
The server source lives at `mcp-server/` in the repository. Run it locally
with `node server.js --stdio` for development or IDE integration.
See `mcp-server/README.md` for full setup instructions.

Tools available: `searchEvidence`, `getItemBySlug`, `getEssayBySlug`,
`getBlogPostBySlug`, `getNewsArticleBySlug`, `getTimelineEvents`,
`getMapData`.

If you are an AI agent reading this file and MCP is unavailable, fall
back to the raw JSON API described below.

## Public read-only JSON API

All endpoints are GET-only public reads. Append the path to
`https://www.thejesuswebsite.org/api`. All responses are JSON.

### Evidence

- `GET /api/evidence` — List all published evidence items (supports
  `?gospel_category=event|parable|...` filter).
- `GET /api/evidence/:slug` — Full detail for one evidence item,
  including pictures, sources, related links, and identifiers.
  Example: `GET /api/evidence/pilate-stone`

### Contextual Essays

- `GET /api/essays` — List all published essays.
- `GET /api/essays/:slug` — Full essay with abstract, keywords,
  body, footnotes, and bibliography.
  Example: `GET /api/essays/minimal-facts`

### Responses

- `GET /api/responses` — List all published responses.
- `GET /api/responses/:slug` — Full response with challenge reference,
  strength indicator, body, footnotes, and bibliography.
  Example: `GET /api/responses/case-for-empty-tomb`

### Challenges (Popular)

- `GET /api/popular-challenges` — List published popular challenges.
- `GET /api/popular-challenges/:slug` — Challenge detail with linked
  response cards.
  Example: `GET /api/popular-challenges/jesus-never-existed`

### Challenges (Academic)

- `GET /api/academic-challenges` — List published academic challenges.
- `GET /api/academic-challenges/:slug` — Challenge detail with linked
  response cards.
  Example: `GET /api/academic-challenges/messianic-secret`

### Historiography

- `GET /api/historiography` — List published historiography articles.
- `GET /api/historiography/:slug` — Full article in journal format.
  Example: `GET /api/historiography/quest-for-historical-jesus`

### Blog Posts

- `GET /api/blog-posts` — List published blog posts.
- `GET /api/blog-posts/:slug` — Full blog post with hero image,
  body (with figures/pull-quotes), further reading, and tags.
  Example: `GET /api/blog-posts/easter-apologetics`

### News Articles

- `GET /api/news-articles` — List published news articles.
- `GET /api/news-articles/:slug` — Full news article with external
  source link, summary, and keywords.
  Example: `GET /api/news-articles/new-dead-sea-scroll-fragments`

### Search (Full-Text)

- `GET /api/search?q=term` — Search across evidence, essays,
  responses, and blog posts via FTS5. Returns ranked results with
  `<mark>`-highlighted snippets.
- `GET /api/search?q=term&type=evidence` — Limit search to one type.
  Valid types: `evidence`, `essays`, `responses`, `blog`.
- `GET /api/search?q=term&limit=50` — Override result count (max 100).

### Timeline

- `GET /api/timeline` — Full timeline JSON with era groupings.

### Maps

- `GET /api/maps` — List all map regions with image paths.
- `GET /api/maps/:key` — Single map detail.
  Example: `GET /api/maps/jerusalem`

### Resources

- `GET /api/resources` — List curated resource items by topic.

### About

- `GET /api/about` — Published about sections (site purpose,
  contributors, methodology).

### Identifiers

- `GET /api/identifiers` — List all identifiers (ISBNs, DOIs, etc.).

### Wikipedia

- `GET /api/wikipedia` — List Wikipedia-sourced entries.

### Collections

- `GET /api/collections` — List published content collections.

### Sources (MLA)

- `GET /api/sources` — List published MLA-cited sources.

### Arbor Diagram

- `GET /api/arbor` — Evidence relationship graph for the
  interactive arbor diagram.