PLAIN-ENGLISH GUIDE · UPDATED AUGUST 2026
What is the Open Knowledge Format?
OKF is an open specification published by Google Cloud in June 2026. It stores knowledge as a directory of plain markdown files with structured YAML front-matter — a format both humans and AI agents can read, with no special software on either side.
How it works
A bundle is just files on your domain, typically under /okf/. Each file describes one thing — a service, a location, a policy — with metadata that says exactly what it is. An index ties them together, and internal links survive as a graph, so an agent sees not just your pages but how they connect.
That's the whole trick: instead of forcing every AI system to reverse-engineer your website's navigation, ads and markup, you hand it the knowledge directly — clean, current, and canonical because it comes from you.
/okf/services/attic-insulation.md
---
title: Attic Insulation
type: service
summary: Blown-in attic insulation with
free assessment and 10-year warranty.
updated: 2026-08-01
---
## What's included
- Free on-site assessment …
The honest version
WHAT IT DOES
Makes your content effortless for any AI agent to read, the day it comes looking.
Gives agents one canonical source for facts they currently guess at — hours, service areas, pricing policies.
Preserves the relationships between your pages that a flat scrape throws away.
Works on any platform that can serve files at a path — and it's vendor-neutral, not locked to Google.
WHAT IT DOESN'T
It is not a Google Search ranking signal, and publishing one won't move your rankings this week.
Major assistants don't yet crawl OKF bundles at scale — adoption is a bet on where the machine-readable web is heading.
It doesn't replace good SEO, schema markup, or a crawlable site. It sits alongside them.
We'll tell you this on the call, too. Readiness is the point — not magic.
The strategic case is simple: the work of structuring your knowledge pays off under every version of the AI future — and whoever's bundle is already published when agents start looking gets quoted first.
Common questions
Is OKF the same as llms.txt or schema markup?
No. Schema annotates your existing pages; llms.txt is a lightweight index. OKF is a full, structured copy of your knowledge with typed metadata and preserved relationships. They complement each other, and we typically ship all three.
Do I need Google Cloud to use it?
No. OKF is an open, vendor-neutral format — plain files you can write in a text editor and host anywhere. Google published the spec; nobody owns your bundle but you.
What kind of OKF do you build?
Public, bot-facing bundles: the knowledge on and around your website, packaged for the AI agents that visit it. We don't do internal data-team OKFs (tables, metrics, runbooks) — that's a different discipline.
How does it stay up to date?
On the consultative service, maintenance is included: when your services, locations or policies change, the bundle changes. Self-serve customers regenerate their bundle through the guided workflow whenever they need to.
Can my platform even host it?
Most can. WordPress, custom sites and most modern stacks can serve an /okf/ folder. Some closed builders can't serve files at arbitrary paths — we'll flag that in your readiness read and propose a workaround.
How long does a build take?
Self-serve: an afternoon. Consultative: typically 2–6 weeks depending on locations and complexity, including audit, architecture, build, validation and publishing.