okf

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 v0.1 specification and the source of truth for every rule below.

The one hard rule

A bundle is conformant (§9) 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, timestamp (ISO 8601) 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, # Citations.
• 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.

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:

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:

1. Read reference/SPEC.md.
2. Pick the source(s): code (derive concepts from source, READMEs, docstrings, config), docs/wiki (distill pages into concepts, link the originals under # Citations), manual (decisions, playbooks, metrics).
3. Choose a directory layout by domain (e.g. services/, datasets/, decisions/). One concept per file.
4. Write each concept from templates/concept.md: set a descriptive type, fill recommended fields, cross-link related concepts.
5. Add/refresh index.md per directory (and okf_version: "0.1" in the root index). Append a dated entry to log.md.
6. Validate (see below). Fix every error before finishing.

maintain — keep a bundle in sync with reality

1. 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.
2. Update the body and timestamp; fix or add cross-links; create new concepts for new assets; mark removed assets (**Deprecation**) rather than silently deleting context.
3. Update the relevant index.md files and append a dated log.md entry describing what changed.
4. Validate.

consume — use a bundle as context

1. Read the bundle-root index.md first for progressive disclosure, then follow links only into the concepts relevant to the task.
2. Treat broken links as not-yet-written knowledge, not errors.
3. 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:

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

Resolve every ERROR (hard §9 failures). Warnings are soft; fix them when cheap, but they never block.