Open Knowledge Format (OKF) skill

OKF represents knowledge as a directory of markdown files with YAML frontmatter. It is minimal by design: no schema registry, no runtime, no SDK. Your job is to produce, maintain, and consume OKF bundles conformant with the spec, not your memory of it.

Always read the canonical spec before non-trivial work: reference/SPEC.md. It is the verbatim OKF v0.2 specification and the source of truth for every rule below.

The one hard rule

A bundle is conformant (§11) iff: every non-reserved

.md

file has a parseable YAML frontmatter block, and every such block has a non-empty
type
field. Everything else is soft guidance. Consumers MUST tolerate missing optional fields, unknown types, and broken links — never reject a bundle over them.

Conventions to apply

One concept = one file. The file path (minus
```
.md
```
) is the concept ID.
Frontmatter:
```
type
```
is required. Add
```
title
```
,
```
description
```
,
```
tags
```
when they aid consumption; add
```
resource
```
(a canonical URI) only for concepts bound to a real asset — omit it for abstract concepts.
Body: prefer structural markdown (headings, tables, lists, fenced code). Conventional headings:
```
# Schema
```
,
```
# Examples
```
,
```
# Computation
```
.
Cross-links: standard markdown links; prefer absolute bundle-relative form (
```
/services/auth-api.md
```
). A link asserts a relationship; its kind lives in the surrounding prose, not the link.
Reserved files:
```
index.md
```
(directory listing, no frontmatter — except the bundle-root index may carry only
```
okf_version
```
) and
```
log.md
```
(ISO-dated change history, newest first). Never use these names for concepts.

The v0.2 families (all optional, all worth filling)

Trust (§5.2):
```
generated: { by, at }
```
— who produced the current content and when.
```
verified: [{ by, at }]
```
— who confirmed it since (a bare mapping is one entry). Write
```
by
```
in the actor convention (§7):
```
<producer>/<version>
```
for an agent,
```
human:<id>
```
for a person,
```
process:<id>
```
for an automated job. Use
```
human:
```
whenever a person authored or signed off — consumers key trust tiers off that prefix.
Lifecycle (§5.4–5.5):
```
status: draft|stable|deprecated
```
(absent means stable) and
```
stale_after: YYYY-MM-DD
```
, an absolute date, not a TTL.
Provenance (§5.1):
```
sources: [{ id, resource, title, author, usage_count, last_modified }]
```
— the materials the concept derives from.
```
resource
```
is required per entry and may be a URL, a bundle path, or a scope descriptor. Attribute a specific claim with a markdown footnote whose label is the source's
```
id
```
:
```
…sharded daily.[^ga4-schema]
```
plus a
```
[^ga4-schema]: …
```
definition. The label is the join key — it must match a
```
sources[].id
```
.
Attestation (§10): a sanctioned computation is its own concept,
```
type: Attested Computation
```
, carrying
```
runtime
```
(required),
```
parameters
```
,
```
executor
```
,
```
attester
```
, and the computation itself under
```
# Computation
```
(or a
```
computation:
```
path). Concepts that need the value link to it. Never inline a number's SQL into the concept that narrates it.

Reading a v0.1 bundle? Two constructs were superseded (§13.1):

timestamp

is now

generated.at

, and a body

# Citations

list is now

sources

. Read both, write v0.2 — and when you touch a legacy concept in maintain mode, migrate its frontmatter as part of the edit. The validator warns on both.

Templates to copy: concept, index, log.

Default bundle location

Use

.okf/

at the repository root unless the project already uses another location. Commit it alongside the code it describes — knowledge as code.

Modes

produce — create or extend a bundle

Starting a brand-new bundle? Use the init fast-path instead of hand-writing the first files — it scaffolds a conformant

index.md

log.md

, and a

getting-started.md

concept with full recommended frontmatter in one shot:

bash

uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/okf_init.py" <target-dir> [--title "..."]

It refuses to touch a directory that already has

.md

files unless

--force

is given. Then extend it:

Read reference/SPEC.md.
Pick the source(s): code (derive concepts from source, READMEs, docstrings, config), docs/wiki (distill pages into concepts, record the originals in
```
sources
```
), manual (decisions, playbooks, metrics).
Choose a directory layout by domain (e.g.
```
services/
```
,
```
datasets/
```
,
```
decisions/
```
). One concept per file.
Write each concept from templates/concept.md: set a descriptive
```
type
```
, fill recommended fields, record
```
generated
```
and the
```
sources
```
you actually read, cross-link related concepts.
Add/refresh
```
index.md
```
per directory (and
```
okf_version: "0.2"
```
in the root index). Append a dated entry to
```
log.md
```
.
Validate (see below). Fix every error before finishing.

maintain — keep a bundle in sync with reality

Identify which concepts the change affects (search by
```
resource
```
, path, or topic). This bookkeeping is exactly what agents are good at — touch every affected file in one pass.
Update the body and
```
generated.at
```
(with your own actor in
```
generated.by
```
); fix or add cross-links; create new concepts for new assets; mark removed assets
```
status: deprecated
```
and note the deprecation in
```
log.md
```
rather than silently deleting context. Facing a whole v0.1 bundle rather than a stray field? Do not hand-edit it — run the validator's
```
--migrate
```
once.
Update the relevant
```
index.md
```
files and append a dated
```
log.md
```
entry describing what changed.
Validate.

consume — use a bundle as context

Read the bundle-root
```
index.md
```
first for progressive disclosure, then follow links only into the concepts relevant to the task.
Weigh what you read:
```
status: draft
```
/
```
deprecated
```
, a
```
stale_after
```
already past, or no
```
verified
```
entry all mean "check before relying on this". Treat broken links as not-yet-written knowledge, not errors.
Need a number an
```
Attested Computation
```
covers? Run its computation with values bound to the declared
```
parameters
```
— never write your own query.
If you learn something durable while working, switch to maintain and write it back.

Validation (do this before declaring done)

Never eyeball conformance — run the deterministic checker. Invoke the companion validate
skill (

/okf:validate <bundle-dir> --strict

), which ships the checker. If that skill is not installed, run it directly:

bash

uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../validate/scripts/okf_validate.py" <bundle-dir> --strict

Resolve every

ERROR

(hard §11 failures). Warnings are soft; fix them when cheap, but they never block.

okf

NPX Install

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