Kiso

Kiso provides two applications built around Open Knowledge Format (OKF) bundles:

• kiso-cli validates an OKF bundle and publishes it as a static website containing generated HTML pages and the original Markdown files. It can be run from the command line or through GitHub Actions.
• kiso-mcp-server starts a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets an MCP-compatible AI application access the knowledge contained in an OKF bundle.

The OKF bundle remains the single source of truth for both applications.

The executable JARs require Java 25 or later. Native executables do not require a Java installation.

Kiso CLI

Quick start

If you need an OKF bundle to test Kiso, you can download our sample OKF bundle from the Kiso website. Once downloaded, unzip it.

Download the latest release of Kiso for your operating system from the releases page, then run:

./kiso-cli check --source=examples/kb-google-example

The check command validates the Markdown files in the OKF bundle and reports formatting or structural errors (it also reports broken links as warnings). Once the bundle is valid, build the static website:

./kiso-cli build --source=examples/kb-google-example --destination=public

You will find the generated static website in the public directory. You can open the index.html file in your browser to view the generated site.

If you use the native Kiso binary and want Kiso to generate social network preview images, install one of the supported native SVG to PNG conversion tools: rsvg-convert, inkscape, or resvg.

GitHub Actions

You can use Kiso CLI in GitHub Action to automatically build your OKF bundles into static websites whenever you push changes to your repository. Here’s an example workflow configuration:

- name: Build with Kiso
  uses: oak-invest/kiso/applications/[email protected]
  with:
    command: build
    source: examples/kb-google-example
    destination: website/examples/kb-google-example-latest

Commands

Options

Configuration file

The build command can be configured with an optional .kiso/configuration.yaml file located at the root of the source bundle. When the file or one of its sections is absent, Kiso uses safe default values.

site:
  baseUrl: https://knowledge.example.com/
  name: Example Knowledge Base
  language: en
  title: My knowledge base
  description: Documentation for humans and AI agents

theme:
  name: corporate

content:
  ignorePatterns:
    - README.md
    - drafts/**
    - private/**

Ignore patterns are evaluated against paths relative to the bundle root. For example, README.md excludes only the root README, while drafts/** excludes the contents of the drafts directory. The source bundle is never modified: Kiso applies these exclusions while copying files to the destination directory, before loading, validating, and publishing the resulting bundle.

Publishing profiles

Publishing profiles allow the same OKF bundle to be published in different ways without changing its source content. Store profiles in .kiso//configuration.yaml and select one with --profile:

kiso-cli build
kiso-cli build --profile public
kiso-cli build --profile internal

When no profile is selected, Kiso loads .kiso/configuration.yaml. When a profile is selected, Kiso loads only that profile’s configuration; the default configuration is not read or merged.

Kiso MCP Server

kiso-mcp-server exposes the knowledge contained in an OKF bundle to applications compatible with the Model Context Protocol. It does not generate a website and does not modify the source bundle.

Download the MCP server for your operating system from the releases page, then start it with:

./kiso-mcp-server --source=examples/kb-acme-example-v0.2

The server loads the bundle and listens on port 8080 by default. Connect the MCP-compatible AI application to:

http://localhost:8080/mcp

The AI application can then search concepts, retrieve concept content, and use this knowledge as context when answering questions.

MCP tools

Options

For example, use another port with:

./kiso-mcp-server --source=examples/kb-acme-example-v0.2 --port=8081

For access through a public hostname or Docker, pass additional allowed hosts to Tachyon:

./kiso-mcp-server --source=examples/kb-acme-example-v0.2 --host=0.0.0.0 --allowedHosts=mcp.example.com,host.docker.internal:8080

Use bare hostnames or host:port authorities, without a URL scheme or path. An entry without a port matches any port. Localhost remains allowed; omitting this option preserves Tachyon’s default protection. This option does not extend the allowed Origin values. See Tachyon’s DNS-rebinding protection.