Governance-grade knowledge-base format (OKF-compatible) plus CLI and single-writer MCP server
New here? Start with WHY.md. It is the story behind the project: the problem we kept hitting with coding agents, what data-olympus does differently, how it relates to Google's Open Knowledge Format, and where our benchmarks say it is strong and where it is not. The rest of this README is the technical reference.
data-olympus is a governance-grade knowledge-base format and server for agent workforces. It is readable by Open Knowledge Format (OKF) v0.2 consumers: it inherits OKF's directory structure, frontmatter conventions, reserved filenames, and link model, then layers governance extensions on top (stable id, controlled type/status/tier fields, supersedes chains) plus a single-writer MCP server and a CLI. CI proves two concrete directions against official Google OKF v0.2 commit ad30107c31c06aec8a7d5636e0d1058118604e6f: its reference visualization consumer reads every concept in example-bundle, and data-olympus imports, lints, indexes, searches, and retrieves the pinned official Bitcoin sample. This is fixture-scoped interoperability evidence, not a blanket guarantee for every OKF bundle or future upstream revision. The result is a git-native, version-controlled document graph of engineering standards, architectural decisions, and project knowledge that agents and humans can read, search, and extend without any proprietary service.
It governs decisions, not code. When an agent is about to make a choice (a library, a pattern, a migration), data-olympus surfaces the established standard or decision that should govern that choice. It is deliberately not a code-search, reference-finding, or "where is X used" tool: LSP, grep, and Sourcegraph already do that well. The retrieval task it targets is coding-intent to governing-rule, and it helps where current model interaction during vibe-coding is weakest: keeping the model aligned to patterns the team has already established as correct.
Status: pre-1.0 beta. Stable releases are distributed through PyPI and GHCR.
status: accepted, tier: T1, or type: decision without post-processing. The supersedes chain makes it possible to trace decision history across the graph.tests/okf/reference.json.Requires Python 3.13+ and uv. Run the stable CLI
directly from PyPI:
uvx --from data-olympus data-olympus --help
Install it persistently when you are ready to create a bundle and run the server:
uv tool install data-olympus
data-olympus init my-kb
data-olympus-mcp --help
An announced candidate remains opt in through its exact PyPI version. Replace
X.Y.ZrcN with the candidate named on the
releases page, if any:
uvx --from 'data-olympus==X.Y.ZrcN' data-olympus --help
See release channels for what each channel means, how to verify a candidate before adopting it, and how to roll back.
See docs/quickstart.md for bundle initialization, server startup, readiness,
agent registration, and the contributor source installation.
See docs/adoption.md for the full bundle authoring guide.
SPEC.md: format specification (bundle layout, frontmatter schema, serving contracts).docs/quickstart.md: verified local-run procedure.docs/adoption.md: bring-your-own-KB guide (author, lint, index, serve, wire an agent).docs/serving.md: single-replica serving model, read-only replicas, git pull loop, health/readiness/liveness split, proxy headers, audit-log rotation.docs/operations.md: production runbook: backup, upgrade, recovery playbooks (degraded/fetch-failed, history rewrite, frozen/demoted push entries, orphaned locks), the health/alerting model, and release channels (stable and candidate, verification, rollback).docs/comparison.md: how data-olympus relates to OKF, enterprise catalogs, markdown KB tools, agent-context conventions, RAG, and ADR tooling.docs/okf-profile.md: field-by-field OKF profile: which governance extensions are stable, which are runtime-only serving fields, and which are experimental candidates.docs/glama.md: Glama registry claim, release, and score-maintenance notes.docs/mcp-registry.md: official MCP Registry notes, what server.json declares, and the checklist for publishing.docs/enforcement.md: turning the KB into a mandatory consultation gate (hooks, kb enforce).benchmarks/README.md: retrieval benchmark methodology and how to reproduce the numbers in docs/comparison.md.SECURITY.md: supported versions and how to report a vulnerability.Source-derived launch command. Check the maintainer’s required arguments and credentials before running:
uvx data-olympusMerge this template into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. Keep existing servers. Add any arguments, credentials, and permissions required by the maintainer; this template has not been install-tested.
{
"mcpServers": {
"io-github-knaisoma-data-olympus": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"data-olympus"
]
}
}
}Restart Claude Desktop completely for changes to take effect. Confirm the server appears connected in the client’s tool list, then try a read-only example from its documentation.
Claude Desktop setup referenceData Olympus works with any MCP-compatible client. Copy the config snippet from the Configuration section above and add it to the file shown for your client, then restart the application.
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.jsonRestart Claude Desktop completely for changes to take effect.~/.cursor/mcp.jsonRestart Cursor for changes to take effect..vscode/mcp.jsonReload VS Code window for changes to take effect.~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.jsonRestart Windsurf for changes to take effect..mcp.jsonSave at the project root, then start Claude Code in that project and review the MCP server approval prompt. Keep real credentials out of shared files.