Verdad Bible Study

Verdad is a desktop Bible study application for CrossWire SWORD modules. It keeps Bible reading, commentary, dictionaries, general books, search, tags, and notes in one window.

Features

• Multiple study tabs. Duplicate the current workspace, keep multiple passages open, and restore your tab set on the next launch.
• Three-pane study layout. The left pane handles modules, search, tags, and preview; the center pane shows Bible text; the right pane shows commentary, dictionaries, general books, and Studypad.
• Fast Bible search. Search by multi-word query, exact phrase, regex, or Strong's/lemma references, with canonical result ordering and a live preview pane.
• Search results workflow. Single-click a result to preview it, double-click to navigate the current study tab, or middle-click to open it in a new study tab.
• Bible reading tools. Jump by book, chapter, or typed reference; move chapter to chapter; switch between verse and paragraph mode; and compare up to seven Bible modules in parallel columns.
• Study marker controls. Toggle visible Strong's, morphology, footnote, and cross-reference markers without losing the underlying hover and context-menu data.
• Word study actions. Hovering a Bible word fills the lower-left preview pane, and right-clicking exposes word search, Strong's search, dictionary lookup, copy, and tagging actions.
• Synced right pane. Commentary follows the selected verse, the dictionary pane stays available at the bottom, and general books use the module table of contents directly.
• General books support. Pick a table of contents entry from the chooser, load one page at a time, and follow internal links without leaving the pane.
• Verse tagging. Create tags, rename or delete them, filter tags by name or verse reference, browse all tagged verses, and jump from a tag entry back into the Bible.
• Notes and editable content. The Studypad tab opens and saves HTML study notes with lightweight rich-text editing, saved scripture links in a Studypad can be right-clicked to insert verse text, and writable commentary modules can be edited in place.
• Session persistence. Verdad remembers window geometry, splitter sizes, active study tab, Bible state, right-pane selections, the open Studypad path, and scroll positions.
• Built-in module management. Add local or remote SWORD sources, refresh them, and install or update modules from inside the app.
• Appearance and dictionary preferences. Choose UI font, text font and size, hover delay, default Greek and Hebrew Strong's dictionaries, and language-specific word dictionaries.

Everyday workflow

The left pane combines the always-visible search box with three tabs: Modules, Search, and Tags. The preview area at the bottom is shared by search results, module metadata, word-hover preview content, and link previews from Bible, commentary, and general-book panes.

The center pane is the active Bible workspace. The right pane keeps commentary, general books, and the global Studypad editor in top tabs, with the dictionary or lexicon pane docked below them. Scripture links inside commentary and general books can populate the preview pane or the Search tab, depending on whether a link resolves to one verse or many.

SWORD modules and local data

Verdad is useful only after SWORD modules are installed. You can install them with your normal SWORD tooling or from File > Module Manager.... The module manager supports local sources and remote sources. Remote sources can reveal network activity, so use local sources when that matters for your situation.

Verdad stores user state in ~/.config/verdad/ on Linux:

• preferences.conf for appearance, layout, and restored session state
• module_index.db for the background SQLite search index
• tags.db for verse tags

Build and run

Verdad currently builds as a C++17 desktop application with CMake.

git submodule update --init --recursive
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)
./build/verdad

Fresh single-config builds default to Release if you do not set CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE yourself. Use Debug only when you actually need it:

cmake -S . -B build-debug -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
cmake --build build-debug -j$(nproc)

On a recent Debian/Ubuntu-based distribution, these packages are typically enough to build Verdad from source:

sudo apt install build-essential cmake pkg-config \
    git libsword-dev libsqlite3-dev \
    libx11-dev libxext-dev libxinerama-dev libxfixes-dev \
    libxcursor-dev libxrender-dev libxft-dev \
    libfontconfig-dev libfreetype-dev

To install and run a prebuilt Verdad binary without the compiler toolchain, install the runtime libraries instead:

sudo apt install libsword1.9.0 libsword-common libsqlite3-0 \
    libx11-6 libxext6 libxinerama1 libxfixes3 \
    libxcursor1 libxrender1 libxft2 libfontconfig1

FLTK 1.4.4 is vendored under libs/fltk and linked statically, so you do not need distro FLTK runtime or -dev packages. If you cloned the repository without submodules, run git submodule update --init --recursive before configuring.

On newer releases, the SWORD runtime package name may differ slightly from libsword1.9.0; if that exact package is unavailable, install the distro's current libsword runtime package instead. litehtml is vendored under libs/litehtml, so it is built with the project instead of being installed separately. data/master.css and data/help.html are copied into build/data/ automatically during the build.

To build an AppImage on Linux:

cmake --build build --target appimage

On the first run, that target downloads linuxdeploy and the AppImage output plugin into tools/appimage-tools/, stages an AppDir under build/appimage/, bundles the current libsword along with the installed SWORD common data, and writes the final AppImage into build/. It does not bundle any SWORD modules. Install libsword-common as well if you want to use the appimage target.

To build the installer archive:

cmake --build build --target bundle

That target writes a verdad-<version>-<system>-<arch>.tar.gz archive into build/. The archive contains the built Verdad binary, its data files, licenses, and install.sh so it can be unpacked and installed under ~/.local or /usr/local. Unlike the AppImage, it is not a fully self-contained runtime bundle.

To build a Debian package on a Debian/Ubuntu-based system:

cmake --build build --target deb

That target writes a verdad_<version>_<arch>.deb package into build/. The package installs under /usr, uses distro-managed runtime libraries, and declares a dependency on libsword-common in addition to the shared-library dependencies detected from the built binary.

There is no dedicated automated test suite yet. Validation is currently a successful build plus manual UI smoke testing in the running application.

Install from source

Use the repo-level installer:

./install.sh

By default, install.sh installs for the current user under ~/.local, and that default can be accepted by pressing Enter. To install system-wide under /usr/local, run it with sudo. The installer also prompts to add a desktop launcher.

Useful options:

• ./install.sh --user to force a per-user install
• ./install.sh --system to force a system-wide install
• ./install.sh --prefix /some/prefix to choose a different install prefix
• ./install.sh --yes to accept defaults without prompts

Technical overview

• UI: FLTK
• HTML rendering: litehtml
• Module access and XHTML generation: CrossWire SWORD
• Search indexing: SQLite FTS5 over Bible modules
• Tag storage: separate SQLite database from the search index
• Runtime styling and help content: data/master.css and data/help.html

Project layout:

• src/app/ application startup, preferences, and session restore
• src/ui/ FLTK panes, widgets, dialogs, and editors
• src/sword/ SWORD integration, markup normalization, and rendered HTML generation
• src/search/ SQLite-backed indexing and search
• src/tags/ verse tagging and persistence
• cmake/ custom CMake find modules
• libs/litehtml/ vendored rendering dependency

License

Except where a file or directory says otherwise, Verdad-authored code in this repository is dual-licensed under GPL-2.0-only OR Unlicense. See LICENSE, LICENSES/GPL-2.0-only.txt, and LICENSES/Unlicense.txt.

Third-party license texts and notices are bundled under LICENSES/README.md.

For distributed builds, the important practical constraint is CrossWire SWORD: Verdad links against SWORD, so distributions that ship that combined program need to comply with GPL-2.0 terms.