Recently, the master constraint programme for loop quantum gravity (LQG) was proposed as a classically equivalent way to impose the infinite number of Wheeler–DeWitt constraint equations in terms of a single master equation. While the proposal has some promising abstract features, it was until now barely tested in known models. In this series of five papers we fill this gap, thereby adding confidence to the proposal. We consider a wide range of models with increasingly more complicated constraint algebras, beginning with a finite-dimensional, Abelian algebra of constraint operators which are linear in the momenta and ending with an infinite-dimensional, non-Abelian algebra of constraint operators which closes with structure functions only and which are not even polynomial in the momenta. In all these models, we apply the master constraint programme successfully; however, the full flexibility of the method must be exploited in order to complete our task. This shows that the master constraint programme has a wide range of applicability but that there are many, physically interesting subtleties that must be taken care of in doing so. In particular, as we will see, that we can possibly construct a master constraint operator for a nonlinear, that is, interacting quantum field theory underlines the strength of the background-independent formulation of LQG. In this first paper, we prepare the analysis of our test models by outlining the general framework of the master constraint programme. The models themselves will be studied in the remaining four papers. As a side result, we develop the direct integral decomposition (DID) programme for solving quantum constraints as an alternative to refined algebraic quantization (RAQ).