openknowledge.toml

openknowledge.toml is an optional configuration file in the bundle. Validation, maintenance rules, the local viewer, and static HTML publication use this file. One TOML v1-compatible typed parser decodes the complete file. Therefore, each consumer uses the same syntax and reports the same errors.

Supported configuration

[rules]
paths = ["rules", "policy-rules"]
enabled = ["docs", "changelog"]

[validation.rules]
link-target = "error"
markdown-syntax = "off"

[html.theme]
name = "landing"
stylesheet = "assets/wiki-theme.css"

[html.source]
github_base = "https://github.com/example/knowledge/blob/main"
entry = "Wiki"

[html.site]
base_url = "https://example.com/knowledge/"

[publish]
enabled = true
assets = ["assets/public/**", "whitepapers/*.pdf"]

rules.paths and rules.enabled accept the existing single-string shorthand. All other fields use the exact types in the table. The shared TOML parser supports standard TOML features. These features include quoted strings, escaped basic strings, comments, multiline arrays, and dotted tables.

Validation severity values normalize ignore, ignored, and none to off. The values warning and warnings normalize to warn. The values err and errors normalize to error. Use the canonical values in new configuration.

Strictness and safety

The parser reports an error for an unknown top-level section or nested field. It also reports duplicate keys, malformed TOML, and incorrect value types. Unknown validation rule IDs and invalid severity values are errors. A command does not ignore a typographical error in an unused section. This behavior keeps the configuration consistent between all CLI surfaces.

HTML aliases from old readers are not part of the contract. Examples are css, githubBase, and site_url. Use the canonical snake-case fields in the table.

The configuration file is private viewer metadata. Asset and raw viewer routes do not list or serve it. Bundle-root loading applies the real file system boundary. It rejects a symbolic-link openknowledge.toml and does not follow the link outside the bundle.

Public artifacts use an explicit list of permitted content. [publish] enabled = true gives the required bundle-level permission. The default is false. After this gate, okf_publish and optional okf_targets select Markdown. A non-Markdown file must match publish.assets. Asset patterns cannot include unpublished Markdown again. The output always excludes .git, .openknowledge, and openknowledge.toml. A public source repository still exposes its Git content. Thus, okf_publish: false is an artifact filter and not a confidentiality control.

Per-page okf_publish permits publication only after the bundle gate succeeds. The default value permits publication after that gate. The literal value false prevents all public projections. Optional target Boolean values default to true:

okf_publish: true
okf_targets:
  viewer: true
  search: false
  mcp: false
  llms: true
  sitemap: true

An unknown target causes validation and publication to fail. A non-Boolean target or okf_publish value also causes failure. Targets route content that is already public. They are not confidentiality boundaries. Use okf_publish: false to exclude content from each public generation.

Consumer behavior

• okn validate applies [validation.rules]. It uses [rules] for deterministic rule-catalog checks.
• okn prompt rules uses [rules] for custom catalog paths and default selection.
• okn prompt review rules also uses [rules].
• okn view uses [html.theme].
• Default okn export html uses [html.theme], [html.source], and [html.site]. It uses the same strict parser as validation. It uses [publish] for the bundle gate and public asset list.
• Plain HTML also requires publish.enabled.
• JSON and graph exports ignore publication filters.
• A standalone tar export preserves the complete source, including this configuration.