Hemilabile ligands have been applied extensively in transition metal catalysis, but preparations of these molecules typically require multistep synthesis.Here, modular assembly of diverse phosphine-amide ligands, including related axially chiral compounds, is first reported through ruthenium-catalyzed CÀ H activation of phosphines with isocyanate directed by phosphorus(III) atoms. High reactivity and regioselectivity can be obtained by using a Ru 3 (CO) 12 catalyst with a mono-N-protected amino acid ligand. This transformation significantly expands the pool of phosphine-amide ligands, some of which have shown excellent efficiency for asymmetric catalysis. More broadly, the discovery constitutes a proof of principle for facile construction of hemilabile ligands directly from the parent monodentate phosphines by CÀ H activation with ideal atom, step and redox economy. Several dinuclear ruthenium complexes were characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis revealing the key mechanistic features of this transformation.