okb 2.2.1

Personal knowledge base with semantic search for LLMs

Owned Knowledge Base (OKB)

A local-first semantic search system for personal documents with Claude Code integration via MCP.

Installation

pipx - preferred!

pipx install okb

Or pip:

pip install okb

Quick Start

# 1. Start the database
okb db start

# 2. (Optional) Deploy Modal embedder for faster batch ingestion
okb modal deploy

# 3. Ingest your documents
okb ingest ~/notes ~/docs

# 4. Configure Claude Code MCP (see below)

CLI Commands

Command	Description
okb db start	Start pgvector database container
okb db stop	Stop database container
okb db status	Show database status
okb db migrate [name]	Apply pending migrations (optionally for specific db)
okb db list	List configured databases
okb db destroy	Remove container and volume (destructive)
okb db snapshot save [name]	Create database snapshot (default: timestamp)
okb db snapshot list	List available snapshots
okb db snapshot restore <name>	Restore from snapshot (creates pre-restore backup)
okb db snapshot restore <name> --no-backup	Restore without pre-restore backup
okb db snapshot delete <name>	Delete a snapshot
okb ingest <paths>	Ingest documents into knowledge base
okb ingest <paths> --local	Ingest using local GPU/CPU embedding (no Modal)
okb serve	Start MCP server (stdio, for Claude Code)
okb serve --http	Start HTTP MCP server with token auth
okb watch <paths>	Watch directories for changes
okb config init	Create default config file
okb config show	Show current configuration
okb config path	Print config file path
okb modal deploy	Deploy GPU embedder to Modal
okb token create	Create API token for HTTP server
okb token list	List tokens for a database
okb token revoke [TOKEN] --id <n>	Revoke token by full value or ID
okb sync list	List available API sources (plugins)
okb sync list-projects <source>	List projects from source (for config)
okb sync run <sources>	Sync data from external APIs
okb sync auth <source>	Interactive OAuth setup (e.g., dropbox-paper)
okb sync status	Show last sync times
okb rescan	Check indexed files for changes, re-ingest stale
okb rescan --dry-run	Show what would change without executing
okb rescan --delete	Also remove documents for missing files
okb llm status	Show LLM config and connectivity
okb llm deploy	Deploy Modal LLM for open model inference
okb llm clear-cache	Clear LLM response cache
okb enrich run	Extract TODOs and entities from documents
okb enrich run --dry-run	Show what would be enriched
okb enrich pending	List entities awaiting review
okb enrich approve <id>	Approve a pending entity
okb enrich reject <id>	Reject a pending entity
okb enrich analyze	Analyze database and update description/topics
okb enrich consolidate	Run entity consolidation (duplicates, clusters)
okb enrich merge-proposals	List pending merge proposals
okb enrich approve-merge <id>	Approve an entity merge
okb enrich reject-merge <id>	Reject an entity merge
okb enrich clusters	List topic clusters
okb enrich relationships	List entity relationships
okb service install	Install systemd user services for background operation
okb service uninstall	Remove systemd user services
okb service status	Show service status
okb service start	Start okb services
okb service stop	Stop okb services
okb service restart	Restart services (use after upgrading okb)
okb service logs [-f]	Show service logs (optionally follow)

Configuration

Configuration is loaded from ~/.config/okb/config.yaml (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/okb/config.yaml).

Create default config:

okb config init

Example config:

databases:
  personal:
    url: postgresql://knowledge:localdev@localhost:5433/personal_kb
    default: true    # Used when --db not specified (only one can be default)
    managed: true    # okb manages via Docker
  work:
    url: postgresql://knowledge:localdev@localhost:5433/work_kb
    managed: true

docker:
  port: 5433
  container_name: okb-pgvector

chunking:
  chunk_size: 512
  chunk_overlap: 64

Use --db <name> to target a specific database with any command.

Environment variables override config file settings:

• OKB_DATABASE_URL - Database connection string
• OKB_DOCKER_PORT - Docker port mapping
• OKB_CONTAINER_NAME - Docker container name
• OKB_SERVER_URL - Remote server URL (overrides default server)
• OKB_TOKEN - Remote server token (overrides default server)

Config file permissions: Config files must be mode 0600 (not readable by group/other) since they may contain secrets. OKB checks on load and errors if too open.

Project-Local Config

Override global config per-project with .okbconf.yaml (searched from CWD upward):

# .okbconf.yaml
default_database: work  # Use 'work' db in this project

extensions:
  skip_directories:     # Extends global list
    - test_fixtures

Merge: scalars replace, lists extend, dicts deep-merge.

Remote Servers (Client Mode)

Connect to remote OKB HTTP servers:

servers:
  personal:
    url: http://localhost:8080/mcp
    token: ${OKB_PERSONAL_TOKEN}
    default: true
  work:
    url: http://work-host:8080/mcp
    token: ${OKB_WORK_TOKEN}

Only one server can be default: true. If none is marked, the first is used.

Local config can override the default server per-project:

# .okbconf.yaml
default_server: work

Per-Database Source Overrides

Databases can override global plugin source configs (full replacement per source, no merge):

databases:
  work:
    url: postgresql://...
    managed: true
    sources:
      github:
        enabled: true
        token: ${WORK_GITHUB_TOKEN}
      todoist:
        enabled: false

LLM Integration (Optional)

Enable LLM-based document classification, filtering, and enrichment:

llm:
  provider: claude          # "claude", "modal", or null (disabled)
  model: claude-haiku-4-5-20251001
  timeout: 30
  cache_responses: true

Providers:

Provider	Setup	Cost
claude	export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=...	~$0.25/1M tokens
modal	okb llm deploy	~$0.02/min GPU

Modal LLM Setup (no API key needed, runs on Modal's GPUs):

llm:
  provider: modal
  model: microsoft/Phi-3-mini-4k-instruct  # Recommended: no gating

Non-gated models (work immediately):

• microsoft/Phi-3-mini-4k-instruct - Good quality, 4K context
• Qwen/Qwen2-1.5B-Instruct - Smaller/faster

Gated models (require HuggingFace approval + token):

• meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct - Requires accepting license at HuggingFace
• Setup: modal secret create huggingface HF_TOKEN=hf_...

Deploy after configuring:

okb llm deploy

Pre-ingest filtering - skip low-value content during sync:

plugins:
  sources:
    dropbox-paper:
      llm_filter:
        enabled: true
        prompt: "Skip meeting notes and drafts"
        action_on_skip: discard  # or "archive"

Document Enrichment

Extract TODOs and entities (people, projects, technologies) from documents using LLM:

okb enrich run                      # Enrich un-enriched documents
okb enrich run --dry-run            # Preview what would be enriched
okb enrich run --source-type markdown  # Only markdown files
okb enrich run --query "meeting"    # Filter by semantic search

Entities are created as pending suggestions for review:

okb enrich pending                  # List pending entities
okb enrich approve <id>             # Approve → creates entity document
okb enrich reject <id>              # Reject → hidden from future suggestions

Configure enrichment behavior:

enrichment:
  enabled: true
  extract_todos: true
  extract_entities: true
  auto_create_todos: true       # TODOs created immediately
  auto_create_entities: false   # Entities go to pending review
  min_confidence_todo: 0.7
  min_confidence_entity: 0.8

CLI commands:

okb llm status              # Show config and connectivity
okb llm deploy              # Deploy Modal LLM (for provider: modal)
okb llm clear-cache         # Clear response cache

Claude Code MCP Config

stdio mode (default)

Add to your Claude Code MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "knowledge-base": {
      "command": "okb",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

HTTP mode (for remote/shared servers)

First, start the HTTP server and create a token:

# Create a token
okb token create --db default -d "Claude Code"
# Output: okb_default_rw_a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8

# Start HTTP server
okb serve --http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8080

The server uses Streamable HTTP transport (RFC 9728 compliant):

• POST /mcp - Send JSON-RPC messages, receive SSE response
• GET /mcp - Establish SSE connection for server notifications
• DELETE /mcp - Terminate session
• /sse is an alias for /mcp for backward compatibility

Configure your MCP client to connect:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "knowledge-base": {
      "type": "sse",
      "url": "http://localhost:8080/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer okb_default_rw_a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8"
      }
    }
  }
}

MCP Tools available to LLM

Tool	Purpose
search_knowledge	Semantic search with natural language queries
keyword_search	Exact keyword/symbol matching
hybrid_search	Combined semantic + keyword (RRF fusion)
get_document	Retrieve full document by path
list_sources	Show indexed document stats
list_projects	List known projects
recent_documents	Show recently indexed files
save_knowledge	Save knowledge from Claude (source_type: claude-note or synthesis)
delete_knowledge	Delete a Claude-saved knowledge entry
get_actionable_items	Query tasks/events with structured filters
get_database_info	Get database description, topics, and stats
set_database_description	Update database description/topics (LLM can self-document)
add_todo	Create a TODO item in the knowledge base
trigger_sync	Sync API sources (Todoist, GitHub, Dropbox Paper). Accepts repos for GitHub.
trigger_rescan	Check indexed files for changes and re-ingest
list_sync_sources	List available API sync sources with status
enrich_document	Run LLM enrichment to extract TODOs/entities
list_pending_entities	List entities awaiting review
approve_entity	Approve a pending entity
reject_entity	Reject a pending entity
analyze_knowledge_base	Analyze content and generate description/topics
get_synthesis_samples	Get document samples and stats for LLM-driven synthesis
find_entity_duplicates	Find potential duplicate entities
merge_entities	Merge duplicate entities
list_pending_merges	List pending merge proposals
approve_merge	Approve a merge proposal
reject_merge	Reject a merge proposal
get_topic_clusters	Get topic clusters from consolidation
get_entity_relationships	Get relationships between entities
run_consolidation	Run full entity consolidation pipeline

Contextual Chunking

Documents are chunked with context for better retrieval:

Document: Django Performance Notes
Project: student-app          ← inferred from path or frontmatter
Section: Query Optimization   ← extracted from markdown headers
Topics: django, performance   ← from frontmatter tags
Content: Use `select_related()` to avoid N+1 queries...

Frontmatter Example

---
tags: [django, postgresql, performance]
project: student-app
category: backend
---

# Your Document Title

Content here...

Plugin System

OKB supports plugins for custom file parsers and API data sources (GitHub, Todoist, etc).

Creating a Plugin

# File parser plugin
from okb.plugins import FileParser, Document

class EpubParser:
    extensions = ['.epub']
    source_type = 'epub'

    def can_parse(self, path): return path.suffix.lower() == '.epub'
    def parse(self, path, extra_metadata=None) -> Document: ...

# API source plugin
from okb.plugins import APISource, SyncState, Document

class GitHubSource:
    name = 'github'
    source_type = 'github-issue'

    def configure(self, config): ...
    def fetch(self, state: SyncState | None) -> tuple[list[Document], SyncState]: ...

Registering Plugins

In your plugin's pyproject.toml:

[project.entry-points."okb.parsers"]
epub = "okb_epub:EpubParser"

[project.entry-points."okb.sources"]
github = "okb_github:GitHubSource"

Configuring API Sources

# ~/.config/okb/config.yaml
plugins:
  sources:
    github:
      enabled: true
      token: ${GITHUB_TOKEN}  # Resolved from environment
      repos: [owner/repo1, owner/repo2]
    todoist:
      enabled: true
      token: ${TODOIST_TOKEN}
      include_completed: false     # Sync completed tasks
      completed_days: 30           # Days of completed history
      include_comments: false      # Include task comments (1 API call per task)
      project_filter: []           # List of project IDs (use sync list-projects to find)
    dropbox-paper:
      enabled: true
      # Option 1: Refresh token (recommended, auto-refreshes)
      app_key: ${DROPBOX_APP_KEY}
      app_secret: ${DROPBOX_APP_SECRET}
      refresh_token: ${DROPBOX_REFRESH_TOKEN}
      # Option 2: Access token (short-lived, expires after ~4 hours)
      # token: ${DROPBOX_TOKEN}
      folders: [/]            # Optional: filter to specific folders

Dropbox Paper OAuth Setup:

okb sync auth dropbox-paper

This interactive command will guide you through getting a refresh token from Dropbox.

License

MIT