The full upstream README, mirrored here for reference. Install config, tool schemas, adoption signals, and an original overview live on the Okf MCP listing page.
okf-mcp is a local-first consumer, validator, graph index, CLI, and MCP server for Open Knowledge Format v0.2.
It consumes an OKF bundle directory of Markdown files with YAML frontmatter. An optional workspace mode can federate several bundles. Concepts are exposed through CLI commands and MCP resources and tools for validation, structured search, graph navigation, provenance inspection, and proposal-based authoring.
The core intentionally has no database, embeddings, build step, or hosted-service dependency. It uses js-yaml for safe YAML, CommonMark for Markdown structure, MiniSearch for in-memory BM25+ text retrieval, and the official Model Context Protocol TypeScript SDK v2 for stdio MCP. Local root mode makes no network calls. Optional remote loading fetches public Markdown concepts and only their explicitly referenced inert assets from GitHub. Nothing in the v0.2 computation support executes code or attests a receipt.
OKF v0.2 intentionally specifies a portable file format, not a serving or query runtime. okf-mcp keeps that boundary explicit:
| Area | Official OKF v0.2 | okf-mcp behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Bundle and identity | A directory tree of Markdown files; a Concept ID is its bundle-relative path without .md | --root maps directly to one bundle; okf:// is an optional workspace locator, not the portable Concept ID |
| Concept metadata | Required type; recommended title, description, resource, and tags; unknown keys are allowed | Preserves extension fields and unknown types while reporting normative conformance separately from workspace policy |
| Provenance and lifecycle | sources, usage_window, generated, verified, status, and stale_after | Normalizes these fields for search, provenance traversal, trust tiers, and deterministic freshness checks |
| References | Markdown links and path-valued resource, sources[].resource, computation, executor.resource, and attester.resource fields | Builds graph edges and bounded inert asset snapshots without executing or implicitly fetching referenced code |
| Attested Computation | Defines contract fields and an informative consumer flow while deferring runtime wire protocols and attester packaging | Statically inspects contracts and digests, checks declared parameter and receipt field names, and never executes or claims attestation |
| v0.1 compatibility | Allows timestamp fallback when the whole generated mapping is absent and # Citations fallback when the sources key is absent | Consumes both forms and adds review-only migration checks and proposals |
The following are okf-mcp extensions rather than requirements of the format:
okf.project.yaml workspaces and typed relationsid, aliases, and okf:// locatorsstrictLinksNode 22 or newer is required.
Install from the GitHub release:
Pin the published version for reproducible use:
For a persistent installation:
To work from the current source branch:
--root accepts one local OKF bundle directory and is the recommended okf-mcp interface for a single bundle. The portable identity of each concept is its extensionless path inside that root.
--bundle accepts either a path or id=path. Multiple flags remain supported for compatibility. --project and its bundles: list are an optional okf-mcp federation/authoring extension, not part of OKF v0.2.
--remote-bundle accepts id=https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/tree/<ref>/<path>. It fetches public Markdown first, then only bundle-local files explicitly named by standard v0.2 resource fields. Remote content remains read-only and inert.
--inspect prints a compact graph summary and exits. Without --inspect and without an explicit command, the process starts a stdio MCP server.
The package exposes both okf and okf-mcp binaries when installed. Without an explicit source, the CLI first discovers the nearest root index.md declaring okf_version; nearest-project discovery remains a compatibility fallback.
CLI exit statuses are 0 for success, 1 for validation or operational failure, and 2 for invalid usage. Unknown options are rejected.
This repository publishes a self-describing OKF bundle for the product, its runtime boundaries, interfaces, authoring workflows, and safety policy. Its portable entry Concept ID is overview/okf-mcp; okf://okf-mcp/overview/okf-mcp remains the workspace/MCP resource locator.
Validate and query the bundled reference from a checkout or installed package:
Load the reference bundle directly from this release:
The @mfdaves/okf-mcp npm package includes both okf.project.yaml and the
complete reference bundle.
Use okf.project.yaml only when one process must federate multiple roots, configure generators, or enforce a project-wide relation vocabulary:
Run project commands:
Commands:
mcpvalidategraph [json|dot|mermaid]search <query>concept <concept-id-or-locator>neighbors <concept-id-or-locator>paths <from> <to>provenance <uri>edge-kindscomputation inspect|prepare|check-receiptasset <okf-asset-uri>source <concept-id-or-locator> <source-id>migrate check|previewgenerateserveserve options:
--host <host>: bind host, default 127.0.0.1--port <port>: bind port, default 8765--write-token <token>: bearer token for write endpoints; defaults to OKF_WRITE_TOKEN--proposal-root <path>: proposal JSON directory; defaults to .okf-proposals under the selected local root or projectThe npm-based examples below use the current published release. A source checkout can invoke its executable bin/okf-mcp.js with the same arguments.
Example client configuration:
Project config mode, with read-only project helpers but without proposal mutations:
Add --authoring to enable proposal creation, acceptance, and rejection. For a smaller direct-write surface, add --write --actor <actor> to expose read-only okf_validate_changes and validated-batch okf_apply_changes; add --git-commit to commit each successful batch when the catalog is in a clean Git worktree. Add --allow-remote-tool to let MCP clients load arbitrary supported public remote bundles at runtime. Configured remote bundles remain readable without that runtime-loading flag.
The stdio server uses @modelcontextprotocol/server v2. It serves the modern
2026-07-28 MCP revision and the SDK's compatibility path for 2025-era
clients, including 2025-11-25. The SDK owns protocol negotiation, framing,
resource dispatch, tool dispatch, and advertised-schema validation.
Expected failures from a known tool, such as a missing concept, a read-only
bundle, a failed remote fetch, invalid arguments, or a proposal conflict, are
returned as MCP tool results with isError: true. Calls to tools that are not
enabled are rejected by SDK dispatch. Unexpected implementation errors are
masked instead of exposing internal details.
server.json describes the npm package as the stdio server
io.github.mfdaves/okf-mcp. Registry-aware clients should prompt for an
absolute OKF root path, pass it through --root, and append the fixed mcp
command.
Concept IDs are their bundle-relative Markdown paths with .md removed. This extensionless path is the portable OKF identity. okf-mcp also exposes a workspace-scoped compatibility locator:
The former .md URI and a valid custom id remain compatibility lookup aliases. A bare Concept ID resolves only when unique across loaded bundles. For standalone aggregate catalogs, a URI-shaped portable path such as okf://services/queue.md also resolves when services/queue is globally unique and services is not a loaded bundle id. Exact canonical URIs always win; a known-bundle miss or ambiguous portable path stays unresolved. Reserved index.md and log.md resources retain their filenames because they are not concepts.
The id, aliases, and typed relations fields below are okf-mcp extensions. The standard v0.2 identity remains path-derived:
New content should use normal relative or bundle-root Markdown paths for internal links and extension relation targets. Existing okf:// targets remain supported; non-OKF schemes such as repo:// remain opaque compatibility references.
Code knowledge may live outside the code repository without recording a machine-specific path. Point a standard sources entry at a Git Repository concept and add the okf-mcp git extension below:
Map the repository concept only in the local process configuration:
read_git_source and the source CLI command read the pinned blob from the mapped Git object database. They never read the dirty worktree or fetch. Missing mappings and unpinned revisions remain visible but unavailable. Repository mappings may point to normal checkouts, bare repositories, or mounted paths; credentials and local paths stay outside the OKF bundle.
list_bundleslist_conceptsget_conceptsearch_conceptslist_typeslist_tagslist_relation_typeslist_edge_kindsget_provenanceinspect_attested_computationread_bundle_assetread_git_sourceprepare_attested_computationcheck_computation_receiptcheck_v02_migrationload_remote_bundlelist_remote_bundlesokf_validate_conceptokf_suggest_concept_pathokf_propose_conceptokf_propose_updateokf_propose_attested_computationokf_propose_v02_migrationokf_list_proposalsokf_get_proposalokf_accept_proposalokf_reject_proposalokf_validate_changesokf_apply_changesget_graphget_neighborsget_subgraphfind_pathsgraph_summaryvalidate_bundlevalidate_projectexport_graphMost MCP tools are read-only over the current index. load_remote_bundle mutates only the server's in-memory index by fetching a public GitHub tree; it does not write files. Concept listing and search default to compact summaries; pass detail: "full" when navigation metadata, signals, ranking, or snippets are required. Relationship paths are deduplicated by node sequence even when parallel edge kinds connect the same concepts.
Every MCP tool includes a purpose-specific description, descriptions for its input parameters, and standard annotations covering read-only behavior, destructive behavior, idempotency, and external access.
Tool arguments are validated against the advertised input schemas before execution. Unsupported fields, missing required values, incorrect primitive types, and out-of-range integers are rejected without coercion. Unknown or disabled tool names remain protocol-level invalid-parameter errors.
Tool discovery and direct invocation use the same capability checks:
| Mode | Normal proposals | Direct live write | Computation proposal | Runtime remote load |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| default | disabled | disabled | disabled | disabled |
--authoring | enabled | disabled | disabled | disabled |
--write --actor openai/gpt-5.6 | disabled | enabled | disabled | disabled |
--authoring --allow-computation-authoring | enabled | disabled | enabled | disabled |
--allow-remote-tool | disabled | disabled | disabled | enabled |
An explicit local root or project workspace exposes concept validation, path suggestion, and proposal inspection helpers. Proposal mutation tools require --authoring. The direct live tools instead require --write plus a truthful actor using human:<id>, process:<id>, or provider/model syntax. In normal single-root mode, callers omit bundle; it is required only to select among multiple project roots. Remote roots remain read only.
Generic concept tools cannot create or change an Attested Computation contract. okf_propose_attested_computation additionally requires --allow-computation-authoring and creates one coordinated review proposal for the concept plus an optional external computation file.
Start the server with the direct-write capability only when the MCP client/user approval boundary is sufficient review:
The agent sees one read-only batch validator and one destructive apply tool. It supplies structured concept fields rather than YAML; OKF serializes compatible Markdown frontmatter and stamps the configured generated.by plus one generated.at timestamp for the whole batch.
Create paths are optional. The server first uses a strong dominant directory convention from existing same-type concepts within the requested prefix, then falls back to deterministic type/title slugs. okf_suggest_concept_path reports the strategy, evidence, path availability, and same-type/title matches so an available filename is not mistaken for a safe duplicate. Updates identify an existing uri; stale locators return bounded likely replacements, while scalar fields replace existing values and tags, sources, and relations use explicit add/remove patches. metadata carries extension frontmatter but cannot override identity, generation, collection, or computation fields. Paths and URIs are immutable during update: moving a concept changes its portable identity and remains a separate, intentionally unsupported operation.
Every 1–100 item batch is validated as one future graph, so concepts created together can reference one another and same-type/title conflicts are detected across creates and updates. Call okf_validate_changes with the complete intended batch to receive a time-of-check preview without writing files. Validation and apply share the same planner; apply repeats every check under the writer queue because revisions and Git state can change after a preview. Compact receipts are the v0.8 default; pass detail: "full" for the v0.7 planning layout. Effects expose structured relations and keep server-managed generation provenance separate from substantive changedFields.
The server writes nothing unless every candidate is valid, revision checks still match, and every target stays inside one writable bundle. Process-generated documents, generator output directories, hidden/control-plane paths such as .git/**, reserved files, and Attested Computation contracts are not live-write targets. Rollback checks revisions immediately before each restore and reports detected replacements as a partial rollback_conflict. That protection is best effort under the documented single-external-writer requirement; it is not a cross-process compare-and-swap guarantee.
Add --git-commit as server policy to create one commit per successful batch. A detected Git worktree must be completely clean and have a configured identity before publication. Active Git filter attributes and assume-unchanged/skip-worktree index flags block the operation so validation cannot execute configured filters or overlook hidden user changes; replace-object resolution is disabled so hidden replacement history cannot alter the parent tree. The server builds an isolated index from the validated Markdown bytes, creates that exact tree with commit-tree, publishes it with a compare-and-swap ref update, synchronizes only the affected ordinary-index paths afterward, and never pushes. Concurrent unrelated staged entries cannot enter the commit. A determinate commit failure leaves matching valid files as working-tree-only; an ambiguous ref-update timeout is reported as unknown unless the resulting commit tree can be proven. Non-Git catalogs are written normally. Every response makes the repository root, commit state, index state, target-byte state, and persistence boundary explicit.
The reviewable proposal workflow remains available through MCP tools started with --authoring and through the HTTP API. Clients never need direct local file access.
MCP proposal flow:
Then call okf_accept_proposal with the returned proposal.id.
To correct an existing concept, read it with get_concept, then propose only the fields that need to change:
Omitted frontmatter fields and an omitted body are preserved. The concept URI cannot change through an update. Each update proposal records the source file revision, and acceptance checks it again immediately before replacing the file so detected concurrent changes are rejected.
Safety rules:
.md paths inside a writable bundleindex.md and log.md cannot be authored as conceptsokf:// IDs are rejectedrepo://... are allowedStart the HTTP server:
Read/validation endpoints:
GET /healthGET /v1/bundlesPOST /v1/concepts/validatePOST /v1/concepts/suggest-pathProposal inspection and mutation endpoints require Authorization: Bearer <OKF_WRITE_TOKEN> because pending records can contain complete candidate Markdown and computation code:
GET /v1/proposalsGET /v1/proposals/:idPOST /v1/proposalsPOST /v1/proposals/updatePOST /v1/proposals/:id/acceptPOST /v1/proposals/:id/rejectThe default file-backed proposal store writes proposal JSON under .okf-proposals in the selected root or project. Accepted proposals write Markdown concepts into the selected local root.
POST /v1/concepts/validate and POST /v1/concepts/suggest-path do not persist anything. POST /v1/proposals persists only a proposal record. Only POST /v1/proposals/:id/accept writes a concept Markdown file.
Remote bundles let one workspace consume concepts published by another repository without vendoring them. For a host-agnostic setup, clone or mount an OKF repository from any Git host and pass its directory through --root; transport and synchronization remain outside the OKF specification.
Supported source:
https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/tree/<ref>/<path>Remote loading:
.md documents first, then fetches only explicitly referenced bundle-local assets.sql, .py, or binary filesinclude and exclude filtersCLI examples:
MCP runtime loading:
Start the MCP server with --allow-remote-tool before calling load_remote_bundle.
Use list_remote_bundles to inspect what was loaded.
search_concepts accepts:
querybundletypestagsAnytagsAllpathPrefixfrontmatterlinkedTolinkedFromrelationTypeorphanOnlystatusestrustTiersfreshness and deterministic asOfhasSourcesruntime and attestationReadygeneratedBy and verifiedBydetail (compact by default, or full)limitoffsetlist_concepts also accepts a text query and applies it together with its
listing filters. Text search tokenizes case-insensitively and requires every
query term, regardless of order. BM25+ ranks title, type, tags, aliases,
description, path, and body matches; frontmatter remains available through
exact structured filters but is not copied into the text index. Scores are
relative within a result set and are not a stable cross-version scale. Compact results contain only uri, title, type, and description; title, type, and description are bounded, while full results remain lossless.
Queries are bounded to 512 characters and 16 terms. Prefix expansion, fuzzy
matching, stemming, and stop-word removal are intentionally disabled so code
identifiers and domain terminology remain literal. Punctuation-only queries
return no matches. Tags and types are matched case-insensitively. Arbitrary
frontmatter filters support exact scalar matching and array-contains
matching. relationType selects concepts with an outgoing relation of that
type.
The SDK regression suite also budgets a neutral four-step research path from actual serialized MCP text. It uses UTF-8 bytes divided by four as a deterministic estimate, not an exact model tokenizer or billing count, and guards both an absolute compact budget and a compact/full ratio.
Example:
For local relevance and performance checks, run the non-packaged development
benchmark with a bundle root and an optional JSON array of { "query": "...", "expected": "path/or/concept-id" } judgments:
It reports OKF and search-index build time, retained heap/RSS, p50/p95 query latency, Recall@10, MRR@10, and representative rankings. Search indexes are process-local and keyed to the parsed OKF index, so remote loads and accepted proposals receive a fresh index automatically.
As an okf-mcp graph projection, Markdown links become markdown_link edges, extension relations become typed relation edges, and standard v0.2 path-valued fields become resource, source, computation, executor, and attester edges. Internal concept references resolve to canonical nodes; explicitly referenced non-Markdown files resolve to okf-mcp okf-asset:// nodes; URLs and scope descriptors remain unfetched external or opaque leaves.
For navigation convenience, okf-mcp resolves links to a nested bundle directory to that directory's reserved
index.md when there is no exact document target. This applies to local and
remote bundles and to candidate validation during proposal authoring.
Graph tools return bounded JSON:
Use graph_summary first for counts by lifecycle, trust, freshness, runtime, readiness, and edge kind. Graph tools accept edgeKinds; pass includeExternal: true or includeAssets: true when those leaf nodes are needed.
Default relation types:
depends_onproducesconsumespersists_tomaterializes_toconfigured_bychecked_byowned_bysupersedesrelated_toAdd project-specific relation types with relationTypes in okf.project.yaml.
Project paths in bundles and plugins must be relative paths that stay inside the directory containing okf.project.yaml. Absolute paths and ../ escapes are rejected.
Bundle include and exclude filters use simple path patterns:
services/order-status.mdarchive/* for one path segment** for any nested pathvalidate, validate_bundle, and validate_project return separate conformant and validForProject fields plus structured diagnostics. valid remains a compatibility alias for validForProject.
OKF conformance covers, when the corresponding files are present:
typeindex.md and log.mdUnknown frontmatter keys and unknown concept type values do not fail conformance. The YAML parser supports nested mappings, arrays, block scalars, and other structures accepted by its safe YAML core schema; duplicate keys and unsupported custom tags are rejected.
Missing index.md files and broken cross-links do not fail OKF conformance. strictLinks affects only okf-mcp workspace validity (validForProject), not the normative conformant result.
Project validity additionally reports:
strictLinks: true or pass --strict-links to make them project-invalidokf:// relation targetsThe server keeps serving valid concepts from partial bundles.
Optional v0.2 families are normalized into signals. Malformed provenance, generation, verification, lifecycle, freshness, or computation metadata produces an advisory and never creates a fourth trust tier. Verification fails closed to unverified; absent status defaults to stable; freshness is evaluated at an explicit asOf date when supplied. Authoring is stricter than consumption and rejects malformed known v0.2 fields.
inspect_attested_computation reports the runtime, declared parameters, sanctioned inline or file computation digest, executor receipt fields, attester reference, indexed assets, readiness, and diagnostics. prepare_attested_computation checks declared parameter names and returns digests without returning values. check_computation_receipt checks field presence without returning values, persisting the receipt, or claiming attestation.
okf-mcp has no execution or attestation adapter. It never runs the computation, executor resource, or attester resource, and it never fetches an external contract URI on demand.
CLI parity is available through computation inspect|prepare|check-receipt, provenance, edge-kinds, and asset. Supply sensitive values with --parameters-file <path|-> or --receipt-file <path|->; raw parameter and receipt JSON is intentionally rejected in process arguments. - reads one JSON object from stdin. Asset reads accept --max-content-bytes up to the indexed 1 MiB limit.
The v0.2 specification keeps v0.1 bundles consumable through two fallbacks: legacy timestamp when generated is absent, and a legacy body # Citations list when sources is absent. okf-mcp applies those fallbacks during reads and offers an optional review-only conversion workflow.
For one root, inspect migration readiness and preview the proposed native fields without writing anything:
In optional multi-root project mode, supply the root id before the actor-mapping JSON.
Migration is deliberately conservative:
generated and sources fields always wintimestamp is copied into a new generated: { by, at } mapping only after a truthful by actor is explicitly confirmed# Citations becomes sources only from one top-level H1 section containing at least one safely parseable list entry and no unparsed prose, nested sections, ambiguous entries, or escaping paths--generated-path, a document flag, or generated_file/generatedFile frontmatter must be changed through their generator; remote roots are report-onlyokf_propose_v02_migration requires local-root authoring. It creates a review manifest, one proposal per affected file, and a gated root okf_version: "0.2" proposal. Nothing is accepted automatically; the root proposal can be accepted only after every child is accepted and the complete catalog validates.
Generator plugins are configured in okf.project.yaml and run with generate.
Built-in plugins:
filesystem: creates one concept per matching source file. Defaults to Markdown files.json-spec: creates one concept per JSON file and can emit persists_to relations when a destination table is present.Generated output is regular Markdown/YAML OKF and is validated by the same indexer as hand-authored concepts.