What is Open Knowledge Format (OKF)?

Open Knowledge Format (OKF) is a vendor-neutral, filesystem-based standard for packaging knowledge as plain markdown files with YAML frontmatter. It is designed to be authored by humans and consumed directly by AI agents without any SDK, API, or proprietary tooling.

Key Concepts

• Bundle — A directory of markdown files that encodes a domain of knowledge. Every file is a self-contained "concept" document with YAML frontmatter for metadata.
• Concept Document — A markdown file with a ----delimited YAML header containing fields like title, description, tags, version, and okf_version. The body is plain markdown.
• Directory as Graph — Subdirectories encode relationships between concepts. Relative markdown links create cross-references, forming a lightweight knowledge graph.
• Portability — A bundle is a directory. It lives in git, ships as a tarball, mounts anywhere, and works with any markdown renderer.

History

OKF was launched by Google Cloud Platform's Knowledge Catalog team in June 2026 as an open standard. The specification (v0.1) was published on GitHub and quickly gained adoption across the AI agent ecosystem — including Claude Code, Cursor, OpenCode (Nous Research), and Codex CLI. Before OKF, each agent framework had its own ad-hoc knowledge format; OKF unified them under a single, simple standard.

Why It Matters

• Agent-native discovery — AI agents can clone or mount a bundle directory and read concept files directly into context. No parsing library, no API call.
• Version control — Git works naturally on bundles: PRs, diffs, blame, and code review all apply to knowledge.
• No vendor lock-in — OKF does not require Google Cloud or any specific service. Any tool that reads markdown can consume OKF.
• Composability — Bundles link to each other, inherit concepts, and form rich, interconnected knowledge graphs across repositories.
• Ecosystem growth — BundleDex indexes hundreds of OKF bundles, with tools like OKFy (document conversion) and the Open Knowledge CLI powering creation and validation.

Minimal Example

---
title: Getting Started
description: A quick tutorial
tags: [tutorial, quickstart]
okf_version: "0.1"
---

## Getting Started

This concept document teaches the basics of [topic].

- Bullet lists organize steps
- `code blocks` show commands
- [Cross-links](./related-concept.md) connect ideas