CLI & web app

Install the ok CLI and run the Open Knowledge web app in your browser — on Linux or an Intel Mac.

On macOS, use the desktop app for the smoothest experience. On Linux or an Intel Mac, install the ok CLI from npm and run the same editor as a local web app in your browser.

Prerequisites

Node.js 24+. Open Knowledge requires Node.js 24 or higher.
git. Open Knowledge initializes a git repo for your project (used for the timeline and recovery features). On macOS it comes with the Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install); on Linux, install it from git-scm.com or your package manager.

Install

Install the Open Knowledge CLI globally to put ok on your PATH:

npm install -g @inkeep/open-knowledge

Run ok init in any folder to turn it into an Open Knowledge project. It scaffolds a .ok/ directory and registers the Open Knowledge MCP server with the AI editors it detects on your machine (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex).

cd my-project
ok init

Once you have initialized your project, launch the app in your browser:

ok start --open

Editing a single file

If you don't have a project initialized, you can still open a file directly in the editor.

ok open <path-to-your-file.md>

This opens your file directly in the WYSIWYG/source editor without any of the version history or open with AI frills.

Clone from GitHub

You can pull repositories directly from GitHub and open them with Open Knowledge:

ok clone <owner/repo>

ok clone accepts a full https://github.com/... URL or the owner/repo shorthand. It clones the repository, initializes Open Knowledge if it isn't already, and opens the editor.

Pin a branch with -b <branch>:

ok clone <owner/repo> -b <branch>

If the branch no longer exists, ok clone falls back to the repository's default branch.

A public repo clones without authentication. For a private repo, sign in first:

ok auth login

If you're already logged in with the gh CLI, you can skip this step.

Manage local servers

Each project runs its own local server. These commands let you see and stop them:

Command	What it does
`ok status`	Show whether a server and UI are running for the current project
`ok ps`	List every running Open Knowledge server on your machine
`ok stop`	Stop the server for the current directory (or pass a port, a path, pid or `all` to stop all servers).
`ok clean`	Remove stale lock files left behind by a crash (never touches live servers)

Commands that run for you

The rest of the CLI exists mostly for tooling and automation. Your AI editor spawns ok mcp to talk to the knowledge base; ok repair-skills refreshes bundled editor skills automatically during ok start; and ok diagnose / ok bug-report produce support bundles when something goes wrong. Run ok --help if you want to see an overview of all commands.