okf-mcp

okf-mcp is a project-agnostic Open Knowledge Format CLI, graph index, generator runner, MCP stdio server, and optional HTTP authoring API.

It consumes one or more directories of Markdown files with YAML frontmatter, treats non-reserved Markdown files as OKF concepts, and exposes those concepts through CLI commands plus MCP resources and tools for structured search, validation, graph navigation, and proposal-based authoring.

The core intentionally has no database, embeddings, build step, or hosted-service dependency. It uses js-yaml for standards-oriented YAML parsing. Local bundle mode makes no network calls. Optional remote bundles can fetch public Markdown concepts from GitHub when configured. Generator plugins and accepted authoring proposals are the write paths, and both write only under configured project directories.

Install And Run

The current stable release is 0.3.3, published under npm's latest tag. Pin the exact version for reproducible use:

npx -y @mfdaves/okf-mcp@0.3.3 --version
npx -y @mfdaves/okf-mcp@0.3.3 --project ./okf.project.yaml validate

For a persistent installation:

npm install --global @mfdaves/okf-mcp@0.3.3

okf --version
okf --project ./okf.project.yaml validate
okf-mcp --project ./okf.project.yaml mcp

To work from the source repository:

git clone https://github.com/mfdaves/okf-mcp.git
cd okf-mcp
npm ci
npm test
node bin/okf-mcp.js --version

Node 22 or newer is required.

--bundle accepts either a path or id=path. Multiple --bundle flags are allowed.

--remote-bundle accepts id=https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/tree/<ref>/<path>. It fetches public Markdown files from that GitHub tree and indexes them as a read-only bundle.

--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. If neither --project nor a bundle source is passed, the CLI discovers the nearest okf.project.yaml or okf.project.json from the current directory.

CLI exit statuses are 0 for success, 1 for validation or operational failure, and 2 for invalid usage. Unknown options are rejected.

Related MCP server: DocGraph

Published OKF Reference

This repository publishes a self-describing OKF bundle for the product, its runtime boundaries, interfaces, authoring workflows, and safety policy. The canonical entry point is okf://okf-mcp/overview/okf-mcp.

Validate and query the bundled reference from a checkout or installed package:

okf --project okf.project.yaml validate
okf --project okf.project.yaml search "proposal"
okf --project okf.project.yaml concept okf://okf-mcp/overview/okf-mcp

Load the latest published reference directly from GitHub:

okf --remote-bundle okf-mcp=https://github.com/mfdaves/okf-mcp/tree/main/okf/bundles/okf-mcp --inspect

For reproducible consumption, replace main with a release tag. The @mfdaves/okf-mcp npm package includes both okf.project.yaml and the complete reference bundle.

Project Config

For project-agnostic use, create an okf.project.yaml at a repository root:

project: Example
bundles:
  - id: app
    root: okf/bundles/app
    include: ["**/*.md"]
    exclude: ["archive/**"]
  - id: data
    root: okf/bundles/data
relationTypes:
  - deployed_by
remoteBundles:
  - id: shared
    url: https://github.com/example/okf-atlas/tree/main/bundles/shared
    include: ["public/**"]
    exclude: ["drafts/**"]
plugins:
  - name: docs
    type: filesystem
    root: docs
    output: okf/bundles/app/generated/docs
    bundle: app

Run project commands:

okf --project okf.project.yaml validate
okf --project okf.project.yaml search "orders"
okf --project okf.project.yaml graph mermaid
okf --project okf.project.yaml generate
okf --project okf.project.yaml mcp
okf --project okf.project.yaml mcp --authoring
okf --project okf.project.yaml mcp --allow-remote-tool
OKF_WRITE_TOKEN=change-me okf --project okf.project.yaml serve
okf --remote-bundle shared=https://github.com/example/okf-atlas/tree/main/bundles/shared --inspect

Commands:

• mcp

• validate

• graph [json|dot|mermaid]

• search <query>

• concept <uri>

• neighbors <uri>

• paths <from> <to>

• generate

• serve

serve 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 project root

MCP Client Config

Example client configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "okf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@mfdaves/okf-mcp@0.3.3",
        "--bundle",
        "app=/absolute/path/to/repo/okf/bundles/app",
        "mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Project config mode, with read-only project helpers but without proposal mutations:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "okf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@mfdaves/okf-mcp@0.3.3",
        "--project",
        "/absolute/path/to/repo/okf.project.yaml",
        "mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Add --authoring to enable proposal creation, acceptance, and rejection. 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 supports MCP protocol versions 2025-11-25, 2025-06-18, 2025-03-26, and 2024-11-05. It returns a requested supported version. For a well-formed unsupported version, it returns its preferred supported version, 2025-11-25, so the client can continue or disconnect.

The transport uses standard JSON-RPC error codes for malformed messages, invalid requests, unknown methods, invalid method parameters, missing resources, and internal failures. Notifications never receive responses. Expected failures from a known tool, such as a missing concept, a read-only bundle, a failed remote fetch, or a proposal conflict, are returned as MCP tool results with isError: true.

MCP Registry Metadata

server.json describes the npm package as the stdio server io.github.mfdaves/okf-mcp. Registry-aware clients should prompt for an absolute okf.project.yaml path, pass it through --project, and append the fixed mcp command.

The package, lockfile, CLI, MCP serverInfo, package.json mcpName, and both versions in server.json are kept synchronized by the package smoke gate. Release candidates remain available through npm's next tag; only a verified stable version is published to the official MCP Registry.

Concept Format

The server exposes one resource per Markdown document:

okf://<bundle-id>/<relative-path>

Resources use text/markdown. Reserved index.md and log.md files are resources, but they are not concept documents.

Concept files may use a path-derived URI or set a stable id:

---
id: okf://app/routes/order-status
type: API Route
title: Order Status Route
description: Serves order status state.
aliases: [order-status]
tags: [api, orders]
relations:
  - type: consumes
    target: okf://data/tables/order_status
  - type: configured_by
    target: repo://src/routes/order-status.js
---

# Order Status Route

okf:// relation targets must resolve to a known concept. Non-OKF targets such as repo:// are treated as external opaque references.

Tools

• list_bundles

• list_concepts

• get_concept

• search_concepts

• list_types

• list_tags

• list_relation_types

• load_remote_bundle

• list_remote_bundles

• okf_validate_concept

• okf_suggest_concept_path

• okf_propose_concept

• okf_propose_update

• okf_list_proposals

• okf_get_proposal

• okf_accept_proposal

• okf_reject_proposal

• get_graph

• get_neighbors

• get_subgraph

• find_paths

• graph_summary

• validate_bundle

• validate_project

• export_graph

Most 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.

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:

Project mode may expose read-only concept validation, path suggestion, and proposal inspection helpers. The okf_* mutation tools are proposal-first and require both project mode and --authoring. Proposing a concept or update writes only a proposal record. Accepting a proposal writes the Markdown concept into the configured bundle root and rebuilds the complete index from configured local bundles, configured remote bundles, and runtime-loaded remote bundles.

Authoring Concepts

Concept authoring is available through MCP tools started with --authoring and through the HTTP API. Clients never need direct local file access.

MCP proposal flow:

{
  "name": "okf_propose_concept",
  "arguments": {
    "bundle": "app",
    "path": "tools/create-order.md",
    "frontmatter": {
      "type": "MCP Tool",
      "title": "Create Order",
      "relations": [
        {
          "type": "related_to",
          "target": "okf://app/workflows/order-creation"
        }
      ]
    },
    "body": "# Create Order\n\nCreates an order through the application MCP tool.",
    "message": "Document create_order for agents."
  }
}

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:

{
  "name": "okf_propose_update",
  "arguments": {
    "uri": "okf://app/tools/create-order",
    "frontmatter": {
      "title": "Create Order Tool",
      "description": "Creates a validated order."
    },
    "removeFrontmatterKeys": ["deprecatedField"],
    "message": "Correct outdated tool metadata."
  }
}

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:

• concept paths must be safe relative .md paths inside a writable bundle

• concept writes cannot traverse symbolic links under a writable bundle

• missing subdirectories are created only when a proposal is accepted

• index.md and log.md cannot be authored as concepts

• duplicate paths and duplicate okf:// IDs are rejected

• updates cannot change concept identity and reject detected changes made after proposal creation

• invalid IDs, invalid relation types, and broken internal OKF relations fail validation

• external relation targets such as repo://... are allowed

HTTP API

Start the HTTP server:

OKF_WRITE_TOKEN=change-me okf --project okf.project.yaml serve --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8765

Read/validation endpoints:

• GET /health

• GET /v1/bundles

• POST /v1/concepts/validate

• POST /v1/concepts/suggest-path

• GET /v1/proposals

• GET /v1/proposals/:id

Mutation endpoints require Authorization: Bearer <OKF_WRITE_TOKEN>:

• POST /v1/proposals

• POST /v1/proposals/update

• POST /v1/proposals/:id/accept

• POST /v1/proposals/:id/reject

The default file-backed proposal store writes proposal JSON under .okf-proposals in the project root. Accepted proposals write Markdown concepts into the configured bundle 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

Remote bundles let one project consume concepts published by another repository without cloning or vendoring them locally.

Supported source:

• Public GitHub repository tree URLs: https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/tree/<ref>/<path>

Remote loading:

• indexes only .md files

• ignores non-Markdown files

• keeps each remote bundle under its configured bundle id

• supports include and exclude filters

• resolves Markdown links inside the remote bundle path

• enforces file count and byte limits

• does not execute code from the remote repository

CLI examples:

okf --remote-bundle shared=https://github.com/example/okf-atlas/tree/main/bundles/shared --inspect
okf --project okf.project.yaml --remote-bundle vendor=https://github.com/example/vendor-okf/tree/main/bundles/catalog validate

MCP runtime loading:

Start the MCP server with --allow-remote-tool before calling load_remote_bundle.

{
  "name": "load_remote_bundle",
  "arguments": {
    "id": "shared",
    "url": "https://github.com/example/okf-atlas/tree/main/bundles/shared",
    "include": ["public/**"]
  }
}

Use list_remote_bundles to inspect what was loaded.

Structured Search

search_concepts accepts:

• query

• bundle

• types

• tagsAny

• tagsAll

• pathPrefix

• frontmatter

• linkedTo

• linkedFrom

• relationType

• orphanOnly

• limit

• offset

list_concepts also accepts a text query and applies it together with its listing filters. 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.

Example:

{
  "query": "catalog",
  "types": ["API Route"],
  "tagsAll": ["api", "orders"],
  "limit": 10
}

Graph Behavior

Markdown links between OKF documents become markdown_link edges. Frontmatter relations become typed relation edges.

Links to a nested bundle directory resolve 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 compact JSON:

{
  "nodes": [
    {
      "id": "okf://app/routes/order-status",
      "bundle": "app",
      "path": "routes/order-status.md",
      "type": "API Route",
      "title": "Order Status Route",
      "tags": ["api", "orders"],
      "description": "Serves order status state."
    }
  ],
  "edges": [],
  "warnings": []
}

Use graph_summary first for a compact overview, get_neighbors for local traversal, and get_subgraph for bounded expansion around seed concepts. export_graph supports json, dot, and mermaid. Pass includeExternal: true to graph tools when opaque external targets should appear as graph nodes.

Default relation types:

• depends_on

• produces

• consumes

• persists_to

• materializes_to

• configured_by

• checked_by

• owned_by

• supersedes

• related_to

Add 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:

• exact file paths, such as services/order-status.md

• directory prefixes, such as archive/

• * for one path segment

• ** for any nested path

Validation

validate, validate_bundle, and validate_project return separate conformant and validForProject fields plus structured diagnostics. valid remains a compatibility alias for validForProject.

OKF conformance covers:

• parseable YAML mapping frontmatter on non-reserved concept documents

• a non-empty type

• the reserved structure of index.md and log.md

Unknown 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.

Project validity additionally reports:

• duplicate OKF URIs

• broken internal Markdown links

• invalid relation types

• missing relation targets

• broken okf:// relation targets

• duplicate bundle IDs

• invalid or escaping project paths

• links that resolve outside the configured bundle root

• missing bundle roots

The server keeps serving valid concepts from partial bundles.

Generator Plugins

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.

Limitations

• The MCP server implements the stdio JSON-RPC methods needed for resources and tools directly instead of using an SDK, so advanced SDK conveniences are out of scope.

• MCP initialization negotiates an explicit supported version and falls back to 2025-11-25 for well-formed unsupported versions.

• There is no file watcher. Restart the server after external file changes. Concepts accepted through MCP authoring refresh the MCP server index immediately.

• The HTTP API is a lightweight built-in server, not a full hosted multi-tenant service.