Ask Hermitsh with your AI assistant

Copy the prompt below. Your assistant should help connect Hermitsh, then use the library to search exact passages, cite source links, compare authors, build reading paths, and answer from the actual works.

Setup prompt

Help me connect Hermitsh Texts so you can use it as a source-linked library for classical authors.

If this AI app supports MCP, remote servers, or custom tool connectors, guide me through adding this server. If you cannot connect it automatically, tell me exactly what to click or paste in this app's settings.

Server name: Hermitsh Texts
MCP URL: https://hermitsh.ai/mcp
Authentication: none
Transport: Streamable HTTP

After the server is connected, use Hermitsh Texts as a read-only, source-linked corpus for questions about authors and works in the library. Before answering questions about those authors, search Hermitsh, retrieve exact passages, and include the exact Hermitsh URLs in your answer.

Use the Hermitsh tools this way:
- Use build_source_pack for research questions that need evidence.
- Use search_corpus to find relevant passages.
- Use get_passage or get_work to retrieve exact text.
- Use get_work_context for headnotes, dates, source provenance, translation status, and edition links.
- Use get_parallel_passage when source-language wording matters.
- Use cite_passage when I need MLA, Chicago, APA, or SBL-style citations.
- Use search_entities, get_entity, and find_mentions for people, places, events, works, and concepts.
- Use search_letters for correspondence questions.
- Use search_greek_phrases for Greek quotations, glosses, and suspected sources.
- Use get_crossrefs and get_allusions for internal references, echoes, quotations, and intertextual notes.
- Use get_language_availability before answering in languages other than English.
- Use get_author_persona only as an interpretive layer; still ground the answer in retrieved passages.

Always distinguish direct textual evidence from interpretation. Do not invent citations. If Hermitsh does not contain enough evidence for a claim, say what evidence is missing.

The app may ask me to approve several tool calls the first time you use Hermitsh. That is expected. Ask for permission when needed, and continue after I approve the Hermitsh tools.

Connection details.

Name: Hermitsh Texts
MCP URL: https://hermitsh.ai/mcp
Authentication: None
Transport: Streamable HTTP

Open endpoint

What to expect

Your assistant may ask for tool permissions.

The first time an assistant uses Hermitsh, it may ask you to approve tool calls such as listing tools, searching the corpus, or fetching passages. Approve those requests if you want the assistant to use Hermitsh. Many apps reduce repeated prompts after you approve the same tools.

It should cite Hermitsh links.

A good answer should include exact work or passage URLs, such as https://cicero.hermitsh.ai/en/works/de-re-publica/#sec-43. If it gives only a general citation, ask it to retrieve the passage and include the Hermitsh URL.

Persona answers are interpretation, not quotation.

The assistant can answer in a Cicero-inspired or author-inspired voice, but the evidence still comes from retrieved passages. It should say when it is interpreting beyond the source text.

Example questions

Show example prompts.

Ask an author

What would Marcus Aurelius tell me when I keep getting angry at other people?

Find the evidence

What did Cicero actually write about tyranny?

Follow power

How do Caesar and Tacitus describe ambition, civil war, and the cost of power?

Read by mood

I want something strange, beautiful, and a little unsettling. Where should I start in Ovid?

Compare authors

How do Seneca and Marcus Aurelius differ on grief, fear, and self-command?

Build a reading path

I want politics, betrayal, exile, and moral collapse. Build me a reading path across the library.

What your assistant can use.

Hermitsh currently exposes author and work records, source-linked search, exact passages, aligned source-language passages, formatted citations, entities, mentions, work context, correspondence metadata, Greek phrases, cross-references, allusions, language availability, source packs, and author persona guidance.

Technical endpoint Developer API

Troubleshooting.

Connector won't add or shows an error. The endpoint is exactly https://hermitsh.ai/mcp — HTTPS, Streamable HTTP transport, no authentication, no API key. If your client asks for OAuth or credentials, choose the no-auth / "none" option.

Tools connect but return nothing. Ask for an author first (“list the Hermitsh authors”) — searches are strongest when scoped to one author (e.g. author: "seneca"). Author identifiers are lowercase slugs: marcus-aurelius, sun-tzu, pliny-the-younger.

A passage or work seems missing. The catalog lists live editions only; use the language-availability tool to see what exists per language. Deep links in results always point at the public edition — if a link surprises you, the page it opens is the ground truth.

Slow first response. Large author corpora (Cicero, Virgil) load on first use and are fast afterwards.

Still stuck? Email admin@hermitsh.ai with the tool name and the request you made — we read everything.

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