open-knowledge

Reviews whether a design is SOUND — solving the right problem, derived from its stated goals and constraints — and emits ranked, evidence-backed findings, not edits. Read when asked to 'review this design', 'is this design sound', 'pressure-test this proposal', 'do a design review', 'does this solve the right problem', 'poke holes in this spec', 'should we build this', or to critique a proposal / spec / ADR / architecture or product decision. Do NOT read when the user wants to AUTHOR one of these — routing a new proposal is frame-a-proposal, a spec is write-a-spec, a decision record is record-a-decision, a postmortem is write-a-postmortem. Do NOT read for code review of a diff, or to fact-check individual claims (that is a correctness pass, a different job).

Records an architecture decision as a Nygard/MADR-shaped ADR under decisions/ — capturing the context that forced the choice, the options weighed, the decision itself, and its consequences in both directions, plus the supersedes chain that keeps a decision log honest. Read when asked to record an architecture decision, write an ADR, log the decision we made, document why we chose X over Y, capture this decision for the record, or supersede an old decision with a new one. Do NOT read to frame a proposal or explore an idea not yet decided (frame-a-proposal), to write a spec or implementation plan (write-a-spec), to write an incident postmortem (write-a-postmortem), or to judge whether a design is sound (review-a-design). This skill records a decision already made; it does not make one.

Frame a new design proposal (RFC-shape) under proposals/ — problem before solution, named beneficiary and observable change, real alternatives, honest drawbacks, and a live open-questions backlog. Read when asked to frame a proposal, write an RFC, propose a design, pitch a change, draft a PRD-style design doc, or open a design proposal for review. Do NOT read to record a decision after it is accepted (use record-a-decision), to write an implementation spec (use write-a-spec), to write a postmortem (use write-a-postmortem), or to review or critique an existing design (use review-a-design).

Investigate a topic against preserved sources and write a draft-status research article under `research/` in a Knowledge Base project (the `knowledge-base` starter pack). Read when asked to research a topic, compare options, synthesize sources, gather evidence, or extend an existing research doc. Carries the full procedure: scan existing coverage, agree a research rubric, capture every source verbatim before analyzing, write the article incrementally so a crash never loses work, cite every claim, and link it back into the graph. Does not promote findings to canonical knowledge — that is the sibling `consolidate-notes` skill, after a decision lands.

Promote existing research into a stable-status canonical article under `articles/` in a Knowledge Base project (the `knowledge-base` starter pack). Read when a decision has actually been made and the team wants the source-of-truth written down, or when asked to consolidate, canonicalize, promote research, or supersede an older article. Carries the decision-confirmation gate, the `supersedes:` chain that keeps the evidence trail intact, and the canonical voice. Does not conduct new research — that is the sibling `research-with-sources` skill.

Use when the user wants to create, author, write, or design a new Agent Skill (a SKILL.md) — for OpenKnowledge or for their editors — including requests like 'help me write a skill', 'make a skill that…', 'turn this workflow into a skill', or improving an existing skill's triggering and discipline. Also use when capturing reusable agent guidance that should live as an installable skill rather than a one-off prompt. Covers choosing scope (project vs global), authoring inside a plugin or skills-distribution repo (write in the repo's own layout, never install), the SKILL.md frontmatter contract, progressive-disclosure structure, evaluating the skill, and installing it into the user's editors.

Authoritative agent-runtime contract for working inside an OpenKnowledge project — a markdown-CRDT knowledge base exposed over MCP. Use whenever reading, listing, searching, editing, or linting any `.md` or `.mdx` file in the project, and before any `mcp__open-knowledge__*` tool call (`exec`, `search`, `write`, `edit`, `lint`, and the rest). Installed by `ok init`, so its presence means this is an OpenKnowledge project and it governs every markdown file here. Covers the read/write tool surface, grounding and linking rules, folder/template conventions, the live browser preview, and the rule that OK's MCP tools — never native file tools — handle in-scope markdown.

How to work in a Writing Pipeline project (the `writing-pipeline` starter pack): a three-stage drafting flow, ideas → drafts → published. Read when the project has these folders, OR when asked to capture an idea, start or revise a draft, review a piece before it ships, or publish it. Carries the stage flow and review behaviors so that guidance does not live inside template bodies or folder descriptions. Complements the platform `open-knowledge` skill; does not replace it.

How to work in a Worldbuilding project (the `worldbuilding` starter pack): a fiction encyclopedia of characters, settings, themes, factions, and lore. Read when the project has these folders, OR when asked to add a character, setting, faction, or piece of lore, or to check the world for internal consistency. Carries the auto-stub and consistency behaviors so that guidance does not live inside template bodies or folder descriptions. Complements the platform `open-knowledge` skill; does not replace it.

How to work in a Software Lifecycle project (the `software-lifecycle` starter pack): proposals → decisions → specs → postmortems, plus guides. Read when the project has these folders, or when asked how this project is organized. Carries the doc lifecycle, status flows, and per-folder agent behaviors so that guidance does not live inside template bodies or folder descriptions. The five workflows — frame a proposal, write a spec, record a decision, write a postmortem, review a design — each ship as their own sibling skill in this pack. Complements the platform `open-knowledge` skill; does not replace it.

How to work in a Plain Notes project (the `plain-notes` starter pack): a flat notes/ folder plus a daily/ journal. The 'I just want to write' layout. Read when the project has these folders, OR when asked to jot a note, capture a quick thought, or write today's journal entry. Carries the linking habit and daily-entry behavior so templates and folder descriptions stay minimal. Complements the platform `open-knowledge` skill; does not replace it.

Open Knowledge Format (OKF) v0.2 guidance. Use when creating, reading, reviewing, or maintaining an OKF bundle; responding to OpenKnowledge `okf` plugin warnings; or choosing types, provenance, links, indexes, or logs.

How to work in a Knowledge Base project (the `knowledge-base` starter pack). Read when the project has the three-layer source-grounded layout — `external-sources/` → `research/` → `articles/` — or when asked how this project is organized. Carries the layer model, per-folder rules, status flows, and log discipline so this guidance does NOT live inside template bodies or log.md. The three procedures live elsewhere: ingest in the platform `open-knowledge` skill, research and consolidate as their own sibling skills in this pack. Complements the platform `open-knowledge` skill; does not replace it.

How to work in a Personal CRM project (the `entity-vault` starter pack, GBrain-compatible): a typed-entity vault of people, companies, meetings, and concepts, each a dossier with a rewritable summary plus an append-only timeline. Read when the project has these folders, OR when asked to capture notes about a person or company, log a meeting, prep for an upcoming meeting, or answer who someone is and what was last said. Carries the dossier convention and entity-extraction behaviors so that guidance does not live inside template bodies or folder descriptions. Complements the platform `open-knowledge` skill; does not replace it.

How to work in a Codebase Wiki project (the `codebase-wiki` starter pack): an agent-authored, source-grounded wiki of the surrounding codebase. Read when the project has a `wiki/` knowledge base with `architecture/`, `modules/`, `flows/`, `concepts/`, and `guides/` sections plus `wiki/OVERVIEW.md`, or when asked to generate or refresh a wiki of this codebase. Carries the per-folder rules and freshness + log discipline, summarizes the audience/depth knobs and source-reference convention, and bundles the full generate/refresh procedure in `references/`. Complements the platform `open-knowledge` skill; does not replace it.

Read when the user asks what OpenKnowledge is, wants to install it on a repository, wants to open or preview a single markdown file that is not part of an OpenKnowledge project, wants to share an OpenKnowledge project with collaborators, asks whether OpenKnowledge supports a particular capability, or asks how `ok init` / `ok cowork` / OK Desktop set up a project. Do NOT load to perform OpenKnowledge reads/writes — the runtime guidance for editing markdown inside an initialized OK project ships as a separate project-local skill installed into each detected agent's skills dir (for example `.claude/skills/open-knowledge/`) whenever `ok init` runs.