Kiso

Kiso is an open-source publishing engine built by oak-invest that transforms Open Knowledge Format (OKF) bundles into static websites readable by both humans and AI agents. It is written in Java, licensed under Apache 2.0, and distributed as a CLI binary with a companion GitHub Action for CI/CD workflows. The project reached its first public release (v0.1.2) in June 2026.

What It Is

Kiso sits in the static-site-generator category but is specifically designed around the Open Knowledge Format — a structured Markdown specification originally developed under the GoogleCloudPlatform knowledge-catalog project. Rather than generating a generic documentation site, Kiso produces output that is explicitly agent-friendly: each generated HTML page links back to its original Markdown source, and the build output includes a llms.txt file and a sitemap.xml to help AI agents discover and consume the knowledge base. The result is plain static output that can be hosted locally or on any HTTP server, including GitHub Pages.

How the Build Command Works

The core workflow is a single build command:

• --source points to any OKF bundle directory (e.g., examples/kb-google-example)
• --destination specifies the output directory (defaults to public)

The command generates structured HTML pages with navigation, the original Markdown files embedded for inspection, llms.txt for LLM consumption, and sitemap.xml for crawlers. The generated directory can be opened locally or deployed to any static hosting service without additional tooling.

OKF as the Source of Truth

Kiso treats the Open Knowledge Format bundle as the authoritative source, which shapes three design principles the project homepage describes:

• Structured Markdown — knowledge stays in plain Markdown files that are easy to edit, review, diff, and version in Git
• Explicit metadata — pages carry enough context to be validated, linked, and rendered consistently
• Agent-friendly output — generated HTML preserves clear links back to the original Markdown files so AI agents can trace content to its source

GitHub Action Integration

Kiso ships a ready-made GitHub Action (oak-invest/kiso/applications/kiso-cli-action@v0.1.2) that plugs directly into CI/CD pipelines. Teams can trigger an automatic OKF-to-static-site build on every push and publish the result to GitHub Pages or any other static hosting target without manual intervention.

Update: v0.1.2

The repository was created in June 2026 and the first public release, v0.1.2, was published on 2026-06-26. The project is actively developed on the development branch, with the last push recorded on 2026-06-29. With 12 open issues and ongoing commits, the project is in early but active development.