Supporting the Open Knowledge Format
Start a knowledge base that already follows Google's Open Knowledge Format, so any OKF tool can read it later. You get the right setup out of the box, and you're still free to write however you like.
OpenKnowledge ships a starter pack named okf that scaffolds a knowledge base conformant with Google's Open Knowledge Format (OKF) from the first commit — without enforcing anything. You get a portable, OKF-ready bundle out of the box, and you stay free to author however you like.
OKF here means Google's Open Knowledge Format — a vendor-neutral file-format spec (a directory of markdown files with YAML frontmatter), announced by Google Cloud in June 2026. Read the OKF v0.1 spec.
The point is portability from day one: a knowledge base you can hand to any tool that reads Google's Open Knowledge Format, already conformant so indexing, exporting, or sharing with an OKF-aware consumer later is never a migration project. And the discipline is pre-populated, not enforced — you get conformance without the editor linting or blocking you.
What the pack seeds
In an initialized project (ok init first), pick Open Knowledge Format in the starter-pack picker (behind Show more), or run ok seed --pack okf. It scaffolds:
| Path | Purpose | Template |
|---|---|---|
concepts/ | Durable ideas and definitions | concept |
references/ | External sources and citations | reference |
notes/ | Working notes and observations | note |
welcome.md | A real typed document (type: Document), so a strict OKF consumer has something to accept | — (seeded file) |
index.md | Reserved OKF navigation hub | — (reserved) |
log.md | Reserved OKF change history | — (reserved) |
Each of the three content folders (concepts/, references/, notes/) ships its own template, so new docs start with the right type and section skeleton already in place — you never hand-set the frontmatter. The conventions also ship as a project-local skill (okf-knowledge-base) installed alongside the seed, so your agent learns the pack's discipline without a hand-written CLAUDE.md. Like every seeded file, that SKILL.md is committed to your repo and editable; see Skills and what OpenKnowledge writes to disk.
Conformance is pre-populated, not enforced
This is the key design decision. OKF asks exactly one thing of every non-reserved document: a non-empty type in its frontmatter. Reserved index.md / log.md stay frontmatter-free, and links are standard markdown.
The pack bakes those habits into the seeded content and documents them — but it changes nothing about how OpenKnowledge itself behaves:
- OpenKnowledge's native frontmatter schema stays open-shaped.
- Nothing is linted for OKF conformance.
So three habits are all it takes to keep the KB handable to a strict OKF consumer as it grows:
- Every non-reserved doc carries a non-empty
type. index.md/log.mdstay lowercase and frontmatter-free.- Links use standard markdown (
[text](./path.md)).
OpenKnowledge also accepts [[wiki-link]] shorthand as a native superset, but nothing normalizes it to standard links — seeded content uses standard links so the bundle is conformant as-is.
Cadence
Three habits keep the bundle handable to a strict OKF consumer as it grows. The seeded templates already do the first; the rest is light discipline, not enforcement.
| When | Do |
|---|---|
| Creating a doc | Use New from template — it sets type for you |
| Reserved files | Keep index.md / log.md lowercase and frontmatter-free |
| Links | Use standard markdown links; [[wiki-link]] shorthand stays as written |
| Handing it off | Nothing special — the bundle is conformant as you go |
Further reading
- Open Knowledge Format spec — the canonical OKF v0.1 specification (Google Cloud).
STARTER_PACKSregistry — canonical source for theokfpack content.- Karpathy's LLM wiki workflow and Entity vault workflow — other starter-pack-driven workflows in OpenKnowledge.
Worldbuilding
A living encyclopedia for a story you're writing: characters, places, factions, and lore, each on its own page that links to the others. Mention someone new and the AI adds a page for them; contradict your own canon and it flags it. Built on the Worldbuilding starter pack.
Ingest meetings
Get meeting transcripts into your knowledge base as markdown, where they are searchable, linkable, and answerable. OpenKnowledge does not record meetings. You bring a recorder, OK holds the result.