Open Knowledge Discovery

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 detected editors (Claude Code,

Cursor, Codex) — skip with --no-mcp;

• installs the project-local runtime skill at .claude/skills/open-knowledge/

and .cursor/skills/open-knowledge/ so agents working in this repo get the

full read/write contract;

• 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 the project-local

.claude/skills/open-knowledge/ (and .cursor/skills/open-knowledge/)

directories 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 ui / 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).

The path must be absolute (a file outside a project has no cwd to anchor a

relative path). Re-opening the same file lands on the same session. Never

construct or guess the URL — use the one preview_url returns.

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 at

.claude/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

• Repository: <https://github.com/inkeep/open-knowledge>
• Run ok --help for the full command list.