Quickstart

Install the desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux)

Download the installer for your platform:

git --version

Create a new project

• Open the OpenKnowledge app. On first launch, approve the Connect your AI tools to OpenKnowledge dialog — it wires up your AI editors and makes sure the ok command is available in your terminal. If you skip it, re-open it later from File → Set up OpenKnowledge integrations….
• You'll then land on the launcher. To follow this guide, choose Create new project — or pick a starter pack from the or use a starter pack line beneath the cards (for example Knowledge base) to scaffold ready-made folders and templates up front and skip the Initialize step below. The count at the end of that line opens the full set of packs.
• Type a name for your project (for example, Team Wiki).
• Optionally click Browse to change where the project is saved, then click Create.

Initialize a knowledge base

From your newly created project, select Knowledge base from the landing page, leave Project root selected, and click Initialize.

Open the knowledge base in your AI agent

With no documents open, you will see a screen with an input box and a button labeled Ask followed by an agent's name. When an in-app agent is available, that is the default, so the conversation stays inside OpenKnowledge; on a machine where none is set up yet the button falls back to a Terminal CLI, and then to an external app. Type what you want to learn about in the input box and click the button; it hands your project to the agent with your prompt as the starter. Use the chevron beside the button to pick a different agent instead — another in-app agent, a Terminal CLI, or an external app such as Claude, Codex, or Cursor — and the pick is remembered next time. Your agent may take a few seconds to load the project.

Not sure what to write? Paste this into the input box (or use a topic of your choice):

Watch your agent work

An in-app agent works in OpenKnowledge's Agents panel, which opens beside the editor. If you handed the project to an external app instead — Cursor, Codex, or Claude Desktop — that agent opens the OpenKnowledge editor in an embedded window.

You will see your agent's icon in the top right of the editor window. Click on the icon to see the agent's activity across files in the knowledge base.

If the agent icon is greyed out, your agent may not have started writing yet. Wait a few seconds and check again.

Explore the knowledge base

The editor's sidebar shows every doc in your knowledge base. Each doc has:

• A WYSIWYG body and a source-mode toggle
• A frontmatter panel for properties

When viewing a document, check out the right side pane for:

• An outline of the document's structure
• A list of incoming and outgoing links to other docs
• A graph view of the document's links in the knowledge base
• A timeline of recent edits with per-burst diffs and selective rollback

Right-click anywhere in the sidebar (empty space, a folder, or a file) to create, reveal, rename, hide, delete (to your system's trash), and Open with AI. The full feature tour is under Features.

Install the CLI and open the editor

Install the CLI from npm, initialize a project, and start the editor in your browser:

# Install the CLI globally
npm install -g @inkeep/open-knowledge

# Create (or enter) a project folder, then initialize a knowledge base.
# `ok init` scaffolds .ok/ and wires up Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, OpenClaw, Pi, Antigravity, LM Studio, and Hermes.
mkdir my-knowledge-base && cd my-knowledge-base
ok init

# Serve the editor and open it in your browser.
ok start

Open the knowledge base in your AI agent

The quickest route is inside the editor: the empty state's Ask button (or, with a document open, the bottom Ask AI field) hands your prompt to an in-app agent when one is available, so you can chat without leaving OpenKnowledge. To use an external editor instead, ok init already registered OpenKnowledge with the AI editors it could configure, so your agent can use the OpenKnowledge tools right away — open your project there, or right-click the project in the sidebar, choose Open with AI ▸, and pick one. If a tool's MCP entry didn't appear, see registration outcomes.

In the agent's chat window, add the following to get started or use a topic of your choice:

Watch your agent work

You will see your agent's icon in the top right of the editor window. Click on the icon to see the agent's activity across files in the knowledge base.

If the agent icon is greyed out, your agent may not have started writing yet. Wait a few seconds and check again.

Explore the knowledge base

The editor's sidebar shows every doc in your knowledge base. Each doc has:

• A WYSIWYG body and a source-mode toggle
• A frontmatter panel for properties

When viewing a document, check out the right side pane for:

• An outline of the document's structure
• A list of incoming and outgoing links to other docs
• A graph view of the document's links in the knowledge base
• A timeline of recent edits with per-burst diffs and selective rollback

Right-click anywhere in the sidebar (empty space, a folder, or a file) to create, reveal, rename, hide, delete, and Open with AI. The full feature tour is under Features.