# Cartographer

**Category:** 💻 Developer Tools  
**Repository:** https://github.com/BeppeTemp/cartographer  
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**Installs:** 0  
**Upvotes:** 0  
**Directory Page:** https://allmcps.com/mcp/cartographer

## Description
Governance MCP server for agent-maintained knowledge bases (OKF): git-backed writes, search, lint.

## Claude Desktop Quick Installation
Heuristic fallback — verify the package name and runner against the repository README before running it. Uses `npx` (confidence: low):

```json
"mcpServers": {
  "cartographer": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y","cartographer"]
  }
}
```

## Documentation & README

```
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██║     ███████║██████╔╝   ██║   ██║   ██║██║  ███╗██████╔╝███████║██████╔╝███████║█████╗  ██████╔╝
██║     ██╔══██║██╔══██╗   ██║   ██║   ██║██║   ██║██╔══██╗██╔══██║██╔═══╝ ██╔══██║██╔══╝  ██╔══██╗
╚██████╗██║  ██║██║  ██║   ██║   ╚██████╔╝╚██████╔╝██║  ██║██║  ██║██║     ██║  ██║███████╗██║  ██║
 ╚═════╝╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═╝  ╚═╝   ╚═╝    ╚═════╝  ╚═════╝ ╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═╝     ╚═╝  ╚═╝╚══════╝╚═╝  ╚═╝
```

> MCP governance server in **Go** for the *Agentic Wiki* — knowledge that **composes**, not that you query.

[![CI](https://github.com/BeppeTemp/cartographer/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/BeppeTemp/cartographer/actions/workflows/ci.yml)
[![Release](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/BeppeTemp/cartographer?include_prereleases)](https://github.com/BeppeTemp/cartographer/releases)
[![Go Report Card](https://goreportcard.com/badge/github.com/BeppeTemp/cartographer)](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/BeppeTemp/cartographer)
[![License](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-Apache_2.0-blue.svg)](LICENSE)
[![Go](https://img.shields.io/badge/Go-1.26+-00ADD8?logo=go)](https://go.dev/)
[![MCP](https://img.shields.io/badge/protocol-MCP-7C3AED)]()

> [!WARNING]
> **Beta software.** Cartographer is pre-1.0: the MCP tool surface, CLI and
> configuration may change between minor releases without a deprecation
> period. Breaking changes bump the **minor** version (0.x semantics) and are
> called out in the [changelog](CHANGELOG.md). Expect rough edges — bug
> reports are very welcome.

LLM agents forget everything between sessions, and stateless RAG only bolts retrieval onto that
amnesia. The alternative is a knowledge base the agent itself **builds and maintains over time** —
but letting an agent loose on a folder of files ends in broken links, lost history, and silent
corruption. **Cartographer** is the governance layer that makes the pattern safe: the agent works
the wiki exclusively through MCP tools, and the server enforces every invariant — validation,
linking, immutability gates, one git commit per write.

![Demo](docs/assets/demo.gif)

## What is it

**Cartographer** implements the _Agentic Wiki_: a persistent knowledge base of interlinked
Markdown files that an LLM agent grows and curates by talking to the server over the MCP
protocol. The agent **never touches the files directly**.

The wiki is grounded in **Karpathy's "LLM Wiki" pattern** (operating model: knowledge accretes
over time, it is not stateless RAG) on top of the **OKF** substrate (Open Knowledge Format v0.1 by
Google Cloud) — each KB is a folder of `.md` files with YAML frontmatter, self-contained and
version-controlled with git. Zero lock-in: the wiki is readable by any tool, including Obsidian and
any text editor.

Cartographer offers **two complementary profiles**:
- **Local Core** — single agent, stdio transport, local git. Captures the value of the pattern with
  minimal complexity.
- **Server** — multi-KB, HTTP + token auth, optional semantic embeddings. For shared and remote
  deployments.

## Key features

- 🔧 **Full MCP tool suite** — complete list in [`docs/control-plane.md`](docs/control-plane.md)
- 📖 **Read & navigation** — `atlas_overview`, `index_get`, `concept_read`, `map_list`,
  `graph_neighbors` (outbound links or backlinks) and `concept_list` (scoped frontmatter facets)
- 🔍 **Search** — keyword (pure-Go inverted index) plus optional hybrid semantic search via Ollama
- ✍️ **Validated writes** with optimistic concurrency (`if_match` / content-hash), including `concept_new` from KB-owned templates discovered through `template_list`, `index_patch` for curating root/Map/Journal `index.md` entries with the same bounded `concept_patch` semantics, and `concept_batch` for atomic multi-concept writes/patches across a large refactor (one commit, full rollback on any failure)
- 📎 **Concept assets** — read, write, list, and delete binary or text dossier files inside expanded concepts
- 🛡️ **Governance** — deterministic `lint` (broken link, stale claim, orphan, map contracts), `commit_gate`,
  `gate_check`, `supersede`, contradiction tracking
- 🧬 **Transactional git** — one commit per write operation; optional synchronization to a remote
  (fetch/pull-rebase before and push after every write) — git as a sync layer across multiple
  instances; agentic conflict handling (concepts flagged `degraded` + `conflicts_list` tool +
  guided skill)
- 🗂️ **Multi-KB** with `?kb=<name>` routing; bearer-token auth with scopes / RBAC
- 🔐 **Audit log** — append-only with hash-chain and Ed25519 signature
- 🧩 **Domain skills** (`SKILL.md` / agentskills.io format) with provisioning and client↔server sync, including executable scripts and binary assets
- 🔑 **Secrets via SOPS** — JSON Pointer references, scoped resolution and safe rotation; plaintext values never stored
- ⚙️ **Multi-provider configurator** — generates MCP config for Claude Code, Codex CLI, Kiro,
  OpenCode
- 📦 **OKF-compliant** — each KB is an OKF bundle and a standalone git repo, zero lock-in (just git +
  Markdown)

## Architecture

Cartographer separates a **data plane** from a **control plane**:

- **Data plane** — the KB itself: OKF Markdown files under `data/`, organized as
  **atlas → map → concept** (the KB, its thematic archives, the pages; journals are the
  chronological maps). Plain files + git: history, diff, backup, sharing for free.
- **Control plane** — the MCP tools the agent calls. The server applies every invariant (validation,
  gates, immutability) so the agent operates safely without direct filesystem access.

The interaction rests on the **MCP + Skill + Hook** triad: MCP carries data and capabilities, Skills
carry procedural know-how loaded on demand, Hooks carry deterministic 0-token automation.

```mermaid
flowchart LR
    A["🤖 Agent (LLM)<br/><i>only via MCP — never touches files</i>"]
    S["Cartographer<br/>Go MCP server<br/><i>invariants enforced server-side</i>"]
    KB[("KB<br/>Markdown + git")]
    R[("remote git")]
    A -- "MCP tools" --> S
    S -- "bounded reads" --> A
    S -- "one commit<br/>per write" --> KB
    KB -. "sync in/out" .-> R
```

## Install

```bash
# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install beppetemp/tap/cartographer

# Linux / macOS without Homebrew
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BeppeTemp/cartographer/main/install.sh | sh

# From source (Go 1.26+)
go install github.com/BeppeTemp/cartographer/cmd/cartographer@latest
```

### Agent-driven install

Give an agent this prompt to install Cartographer, mount its first KB, connect itself, and verify the setup:

```text
Set up Cartographer on this machine by following
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BeppeTemp/cartographer/main/docs/agent-install.md
My first knowledge base is at: `<git remote URL>`
```

## Quick start

The primary path is four commands: install the binary, run it as a native service, create your
first KB, and connect an agent client to it.

```bash
brew install beppetemp/tap/cartographer   # or curl install.sh, or `go install` (see Install above)
cartographer service install              # generates config, installs and starts the service
cartographer kb create <name>             # scaffolds a KB in the service's data dir
cartographer connect                      # connects an agent client (Claude Code, OpenCode, Codex, Kiro)
```

`cartographer kb create <name>` prints how to get the server to pick up the new KB
(`cartographer service restart`, or `--restart` to do it and wait for it automatically); `service
install` itself hints at `kb create` if it starts with no KB mounted yet.

Upgrades of a native local install (`brew upgrade` or `install.sh update`) repair themselves:
the new binary restarts the running service and re-synchronizes the configured providers in
place — `disconnect`/`connect` is never an upgrade step. Only already-open agent sessions need
restarting. See `docs/deployment.md` §Upgrades, schema migration, and repo growth.

`connect` with no flags in a TTY opens an interactive form (server URL, server
name, token env var, auth) instead of the flag defaults; pass `--no-input` to
force the non-interactive behavior. Once connected:

```bash
cartographer status   # drift check and client/server version check after upgrades; exit 0 in-sync / 1 drift / 2 error
cartographer sync     # re-apply after drift
```

For local stdio use (a single KB, no service, typically for development) or a manually-configured
HTTP server, see `serve --kb <path> --init` in `docs/deployment.md` — the native-service path above
covers everyday use.

## Configuration

| Environment variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `CARTOGRAPHER_KB` | — | KB path(s) (single, or multiple comma-separated) |
| `CARTOGRAPHER_DATA` | — | Directory whose subfolders are auto-discovered KBs |
| `CARTOGRAPHER_HTTP` | — | HTTP address (e.g. `:39273`). Absent = stdio only |
| `CARTOGRAPHER_AUTH` | auto | `true` / `false` / unset (auto on HTTP) |
| `CARTOGRAPHER_TOKENS` | — | Comma-separated bearer tokens |
| `CARTOGRAPHER_GIT_AUTOCOMMIT` | `true` | One git commit per write operation |
| `CARTOGRAPHER_GIT_SYNC` | `true` | fetch/pull-rebase + push on `origin` around each write |
| `CARTOGRAPHER_OLLAMA` | — | Ollama server URL for semantic search |
| `CARTOGRAPHER_OLLAMA_MODEL` | `nomic-embed-text` | Ollama embedding model |
| `CARTOGRAPHER_AUDIT_LOG` | — | Audit log file path |
| `CARTOGRAPHER_AUDIT_KEY` | — | Ed25519 key for audit signing |

Full list with CLI flags and defaults → [`docs/deployment.md`](docs/deployment.md).

## Building and testing

```bash
make build         # → bin/cartographer
make test          # Unit tests (go test ./...)
make smoke         # stdio smoke test
make smoke-http    # operator-level HTTP smoke test (creates temp KBs via curl)
make e2e           # deterministic HTTP/CLI end-to-end scenarios
```

The E2E suite drives the compiled binary through HTTP, CLI, filesystem and real
temporary git remotes. It is deterministic, requires no model credentials and
runs in CI. Full strategy → [`docs/testing.md`](docs/testing.md).

## Project structure

```
cmd/cartographer/   # single binary: server (serve), client (connect/status/sync/kb/service), TUI
internal/           # okf, kb, mcpserver, search, sqlindex, lint, gitx, audit, auth, embed,
                    # skill, sops, configurator, provisioning, agents, clientconfig, client
docs/               # full documentation (docs/index.md is the map)
test/               # deterministic HTTP smoke and cross-component E2E tests
```

Package-by-package map, with what each one owns → [`AGENTS.md`](AGENTS.md) §Code map (kept next to
the contributor instructions so there is a single copy to keep true).

## Documentation

Browsable at **[beppetemp.github.io/cartographer](https://beppetemp.github.io/cartographer/)** — same content as `docs/`, rendered.

The full index lives in [`docs/index.md`](docs/index.md). Main entry points:

- [`docs/overview.md`](docs/overview.md) — vision, guiding principles, architecture
- [`docs/data-plane.md`](docs/data-plane.md) — KB model, hierarchy, OKF
- [`docs/control-plane.md`](docs/control-plane.md) — Go server, MCP tool API
- [`docs/concurrency.md`](docs/concurrency.md) — single-writer, git sync, conflicts
- [`docs/deployment.md`](docs/deployment.md) — topologies (local service / k8s / multi-server), backup, env vars

## Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome — see [`CONTRIBUTING.md`](CONTRIBUTING.md) for the build/test loop, the
PR flow (squash-merge, conventional titles, docs updated in the same PR), and how to find your way
around the codebase. Cartographer is a personal project maintained on a best-effort basis: no
response-time SLA. For security reports, see [`SECURITY.md`](SECURITY.md).

## License

Released under the Apache License 2.0. See [`LICENSE`](LICENSE).