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:

bash

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.

open-knowledge-discovery

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content