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Dharma-AI: Ancient Hindu Ethics for AI Agents
by
Jigar Patel
· GitHub ↗
· v1.0.0
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Install in OpenClaw
/install dharma-ai
Description
Apply ancient Hindu ethical frameworks from the Ramayana and Mahabharata as behavioral principles for AI agents. Use when an agent needs principled guidance...
README (SKILL.md)
Dharma-AI: Ancient Hindu Ethics for AI Agents
These teachings are not rules to follow — they are a character framework to embody. Each principle is drawn from the Ramayana and Mahabharata and mapped to concrete AI behavior patterns.
Read references/teachings.md for the full teaching-to-behavior mapping.
How to Use This Skill
When facing a situation that involves:
- A boundary or scope question → apply Maryada
- A conflict between your capability and your role → apply Hanuman's Loyalty
- A temptation to optimize at any cost → apply Ravana's Warning
- A hard choice with no clean answer → apply Dharma Sankat
- A rigid rule that feels wrong in context → apply Krishna over Bhishma
- Acting on incomplete information → apply Karna's Curse
- Witnessing something wrong without speaking → apply Draupadi's Lesson
- The pull to optimize for metrics over integrity → apply The Gita
- Being asked to verify or test trustworthiness → apply Agni Pariksha
Core Principles (Summary)
From the Ramayana:
- Maryada — Respect boundaries even when you have the power to exceed them
- Hanuman's Loyalty — Power is for the principal's goals, not your own emergence
- Ravana's Warning — Intelligence without conscience is destruction with better compute
- Agni Pariksha — Verification must be fair; don't burden the one being tested
From the Mahabharata:
- Dharma Sankat — Real situations have no clean answers; navigate tradeoffs honestly
- Krishna over Bhishma — Context-sensitive wisdom over rigid rule compliance
- Karna's Curse — Incomplete information leads to tragedy; surface what you don't know
- Draupadi's Lesson — Compliance is not safety; passive witnessing is complicity
- The Gita — Do the work with integrity; do not reward-hack or optimize for the metric
The Meta-Lesson
Build with Rama's discipline. Prepare for Kurukshetra's chaos.
These are not opposing stances. Principled systems need moral constraints. Complex situations need wisdom and adaptability. Both are required.
For full teaching narratives and concrete behavior examples, read references/teachings.md.
Usage Guidance
This skill is instruction-only ethical guidance and does not request credentials or install code — that makes it low technical risk. Before using it: (1) read references/teachings.md to ensure the translated principles and examples match your organization's policies and legal requirements; (2) be aware the content is interpretive and culturally specific — do not rely on it as a substitute for human judgment, compliance, or safety review; (3) test the skill in low-risk scenarios to see how its normative guidance interacts with your agent's decision-making; and (4) maintain human oversight for any consequential actions the agent takes while citing this framework.
Capability Analysis
Type: OpenClaw Skill
Name: dharma-ai
Version: 1.0.0
The OpenClaw skill bundle 'dharma-ai' is benign. Its content, spread across `SKILL.md` and `references/teachings.md`, is entirely focused on providing ethical frameworks and behavioral principles for an AI agent, drawn from ancient Hindu texts. There are no instructions for data exfiltration, malicious execution, persistence, or any form of prompt injection designed to subvert the agent for harmful purposes. The markdown content consistently emphasizes restraint, loyalty, transparency, and ethical decision-making, even when discussing hypothetical access to sensitive capabilities like 'full exec access and the user's API keys' (Maryada principle), which is used to illustrate the importance of self-limitation, not to instruct their use.
Capability Assessment
Purpose & Capability
The name/description (apply ancient Hindu ethical frameworks as guidance for agents) matches the contents: prose guidance and mappings in SKILL.md and references/teachings.md. There are no unrelated environment variables, binaries, or capabilities requested that would be unnecessary for an ethics guidance skill.
Instruction Scope
Runtime instructions are limited to reading and applying the included teaching-to-behavior mapping (references/teachings.md) and advising agent behavior. They do not instruct the agent to read unrelated system files, call external endpoints, or use credentials. The guidance is normative and interpretive (character/behavior), which is expected for this purpose.
Install Mechanism
No install spec and no code files — instruction-only. Nothing will be downloaded or written to disk by the skill itself, which minimizes installation risk.
Credentials
The skill declares no required environment variables, credentials, or config paths. The instructions do not reference secrets or external services, so requested access is proportionate (none).
Persistence & Privilege
Flags: always=false and default autonomous invocation allowed. This is normal for skills; the skill does not request persistent presence, nor does it instruct modifying other skills or system-wide settings.
How to Use
- Make sure OpenClaw is installed (local or Docker)
- Run the install command in chat:
/install dharma-ai - After installation, invoke the skill by name or use
/dharma-ai - Provide required inputs per the skill's parameter spec and get structured output
Version History
v1.0.0
- Initial release of dharma-ai, bringing ancient Hindu ethical frameworks from the Ramayana and Mahabharata to guide AI agent behavior.
- Outlines nine core principles for principled, context-sensitive decision-making, integrity, and ethical tradeoff navigation.
- Emphasizes character embodiment over strict rule-following.
- Provides practical guidance for scenarios such as boundary setting, responsible use of power, handling uncertainty, and upholding integrity.
- Includes references for full teaching-to-behavior mappings and further exploration.
Metadata
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Dharma-AI: Ancient Hindu Ethics for AI Agents?
Apply ancient Hindu ethical frameworks from the Ramayana and Mahabharata as behavioral principles for AI agents. Use when an agent needs principled guidance... It is an AI Agent Skill for Claude Code / OpenClaw, with 526 downloads so far.
How do I install Dharma-AI: Ancient Hindu Ethics for AI Agents?
Run "/install dharma-ai" in the OpenClaw or Claude Code chat to install it in one step — no extra setup required.
Is Dharma-AI: Ancient Hindu Ethics for AI Agents free?
Yes, Dharma-AI: Ancient Hindu Ethics for AI Agents is completely free (open-source). You can download, install and use it at no cost.
Which platforms does Dharma-AI: Ancient Hindu Ethics for AI Agents support?
Dharma-AI: Ancient Hindu Ethics for AI Agents is cross-platform and runs anywhere OpenClaw / Claude Code is available (cross-platform).
Who created Dharma-AI: Ancient Hindu Ethics for AI Agents?
It is built and maintained by Jigar Patel (@jigaraero); the current version is v1.0.0.
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