OpenKnowledge — what it is and how to install it
OpenKnowledge (OK) is a markdown-CRDT collaboration platform. It turns a
directory of .md / .mdx files into a live, multi-writer knowledge base:
agents and humans edit the same documents in real time, every change is
attributed, and a browser preview renders edits as they land.
This skill covers discovery, install, and opening OpenKnowledge files —
including single files that are not part of a project (see Opening a file
outside a project below). It does not carry the in-project read/write
runtime contract (the STOP rules for native file tools, the grounding and
linking rules, the MCP routing table) — that ships separately as the
project-local skill installed by ok init (see Working inside a project
below).
Install OpenKnowledge on a repository
Run ok init from the repository root:
npx @inkeep/open-knowledge init
# or, after a global install:
npm install -g @inkeep/open-knowledge
ok init
ok init is the one setup verb. It:
- scaffolds a
.ok/ directory (project config — content.dir defaults to .);
- wires the OpenKnowledge MCP server into the coding agents it detects on this
machine — skip with
--no-mcp;
- installs the project-local runtime skill into each detected agent's
skills dir (
<agent-dir>/skills/open-knowledge/) so agents working in this
repo get the full read/write contract. OK only writes into agent
directories that already exist — it never creates one, so nothing appears
for agents you don't use, and ok init says so when it finds none;
- ensures the project has a
.git/.
Re-run ok init any time to refresh wiring and skills to the installed CLI
version.
Share an OpenKnowledge project with collaborators
An OK project travels with its repository. To share one:
- Commit the
.ok/ directory and whichever project-local
<agent-dir>/skills/open-knowledge/ directories ok init created, along
with your .md content.
- Collaborators clone the repo and run
ok init once — that registers the
MCP server on their machine and refreshes the project skill.
- Start the editor + preview with
ok start (or open the project in OK
Desktop).
Collaboration is real-time once two writers have the project open against the
same content directory.
ok cowork — Claude Chat & Cowork
ok init's editor wiring does not reach Claude Chat or Cowork — those read a
separate Skills list inside the Claude Desktop App. Run ok cowork to
build openknowledge.skill and open Claude Desktop so the user can upload it
(Customize → Skills → + → Create skill → Upload skill).
OK Desktop
OK Desktop is the standalone macOS app (@inkeep/open-knowledge-desktop). It
bundles its own CLI, opens a project as an editor + preview window, and keeps
the project's MCP wiring and skills current on every launch. Download DMGs
from the releases page.
Opening a file outside a project
OpenKnowledge can open a single markdown file that is not part of an OK
project — a loose .md / .mdx, or a file that lives inside a regular
repo/folder which was never ok init'd. It opens in a throwaway session (a
temp project in the OS temp dir — your repo is never touched, no .ok/ is
written into it) with the same live preview you get inside a project.
Never run ok init just to view or open a file. ok init turns a repo
into a shared OpenKnowledge project; it is not a prerequisite for opening one
file. Opening a file needs no project, no .ok/, and no server already
running — each path below boots the session itself.
When asked to open or preview such a file, decide by the viewing surface you
actually have — check the tool, not the host name. Only open a browser when
you genuinely have one; never pop a browser tab on a host that has none.
- You have an in-app / built-in browser (Claude Code Desktop's Browser pane, Cursor, Codex, and similar) — this
is the default: call the
preview_url MCP tool with file set to the
absolute path (it finds, or boots on demand, the session and returns a full
url), then immediately open that url in your in-app browser. "Open it"
means navigate your browser — don't just print the URL and stop. This is also
the only way to view it in a browser when the OK Desktop app is installed
(ok open prefers the Desktop app). Get the URL from preview_url only —
never hunt for it via ok ps / ok status / ok start or a guessed
port.
- No in-app browser (a pure-stdio CLI) — run
ok open /abs/path/to/file.md: it opens the Desktop app when installed, else a
browser, and boots the session itself. Don't force a browser tab the user
didn't ask for; ok open is the right default here. If ok isn't on PATH,
npx @inkeep/open-knowledge open /abs/path/to/file.md does the same.
If the OK MCP server isn't wired into this host there is no preview_url to
call — use the ok open path above. Don't reconstruct what preview_url does
by hand (spawning ok mcp yourself, scraping ports from ok ps).
Give an absolute path. ok open prints the absolute project root it resolved
for that path, and names the enclosing project too when the resolved root sits
inside another one. Read that line rather than assuming which project you got.
To name the project yourself, pass --project <dir>. It is honored wherever it
appears: --project <dir> or --project=<dir>, before or after the path, with
or without the .md extension. If it cannot be honored the command exits
non-zero and says why, so you never need a second command to find out where it
landed, and never need to stop a server to correct it.
Re-opening the same file lands on the same session. Never construct or guess the
URL — use the one preview_url returns.
What else OK does
This skill does not enumerate OK's capabilities, and they change between releases. When asked whether OK supports something, read rather than guess:
Working inside a project — use the project-local skill, not this one
Do not use this skill to perform OpenKnowledge reads or writes. The
runtime contract — STOP rules for native file tools on in-scope markdown, the
preview-attach handshake, grounding and linking rules, the MCP tool routing
table — lives in a separate project-local skill installed into each detected
agent's skills dir (<agent-dir>/skills/open-knowledge/SKILL.md) whenever
ok init runs.
If the user is editing markdown inside a project that has a .ok/ directory
and this discovery skill is the only OpenKnowledge skill loaded, the
project-local skill is missing (the repo was never ok init'd, or the skill
directory was not committed). Advise the user to run ok init to install it.
Learn more
- Run
ok --help for the full command list.