MD and HTML each serve a different purpose and should co-exist in one Knowledge Base, easy for humans. this is https://t.co/bqJFjPBlrP https://t.co/LzBf7LYbCN

Cabinet — Free & Open-Source AI-First Knowledge Base

Source: https://runcabinet.com/ free project · open source · self-hosted

noun

1. 1.A cupboard with shelves or drawers for storing or displaying items. “a filing cabinet”
2. 2.politicsThe committee of senior ministers responsible for controlling government policy. “a cabinet meeting”
3. 3.softwareAn AI-first knowledge base where files live on disk and a team of AI agents helps you execute. “I asked my cabinet to research the market and draft the blog post”

origin— mid 16th century: fromcabinet, diminutive of Old Frenchcabine. definition 3— 2026, open source.

Your knowledge base. Your AI team.

A free and open-source AI-first startup OS where everything lives as markdown files on disk. No database. No vendor lock-in.

No subscription. No trial. No paywall. Clone it, run it, and make it your own.

|

Real Use Cases

How people actually use Cabinet

Knowledge base + agents + files. One OS for wildly different workflows.

Install Flow

See Cabinet start up in the terminal

The install walkthrough is back. One command scaffolds the workspace, sets up your AI team, and gets Cabinet running locally.

The Problem

Your AI agents have no memory

Every time you start a new Claude session, it forgets everything. Your project context, your decisions, your research — gone. You keep re-explaining the same things. Cabinet gives your AI a persistent brain: a knowledge base that both you and your agents read and write to, 24/7.

Without Cabinet

Scattered docs in Notion. AI sessions that forget context. Manual copy-paste between tools. Scripts held together with tape.

With Cabinet

One knowledge base. AI agents that remember everything. Scheduled jobs that compound. Your team grows while you sleep.

Design Principle

If it feels like enterprise workflow software, it’s wrong. If it feels like watching a team work, it’s right.

Unique to Cabinet

Ship HTML apps inside your knowledge base

This is the biggest difference between Cabinet and tools like Obsidian or Notion. Drop anindex\.htmlinto any folder and it renders as a live, interactive app.

• **Full-screen mode:**add a\.appmarker — sidebar and AI panel auto-collapse
• **AI-generated apps:**ask Claude to build a dashboard, it writes the HTML directly into your KB
• **Version controlled:**every change is tracked in git, same as your markdown pages
• **No build step:**plain HTML/CSS/JS. Works with React, Vue, or vanilla

/tools/lead-scorer/index.html

<!-- Your KB file tree -->

data/

tools/

lead-scorer/

index.html ← renders as app

.app ← full-screen mode

styles.css

app.js

dashboards/

metrics/

index.html ← embedded site

research/

market-analysis.md

whitepaper.pdf

leads.csv

Features

Everything you need. Nothing you don’t.

A complete operating system for your startup — knowledge base, AI agents, task management, and team chat in one self-hosted app.

WYSIWYG + Markdown

Rich text editing with Tiptap. Tables, code blocks, slash commands. Toggle to raw markdown anytime.

AI Agents

Onboard a CEO, Editor, Marketer. Each has goals, skills, scheduled jobs. Watch them work like a real team.

Embedded HTML Apps

Drop an index.html in any folder — it renders as an iframe. Full-screen mode for dashboards and tools.

Web Terminal

Full Claude Code terminal in the browser. xterm.js + node-pty. Run commands without leaving Cabinet.

File-Based Everything

No database. Markdown on disk. Drag-and-drop tree sidebar. Your data is always yours, always portable.

Git-Backed History

Every save auto-commits. Full diff viewer. Restore any page to any point in time. Linked repo support.

Scheduled Jobs

Cron-based agent automation. Reddit scout every 6 hours. Weekly reports on Monday. Your AI team never sleeps.

Missions & Tasks

Break goals into missions. Assign tasks to agents. Track progress with Kanban boards and progress bars.

Internal Chat

Built-in team channels. Agents and humans communicate. @mention an agent to trigger a response.

Full-Text Search

Cmd+K instant search across all pages. Fuzzy matching. FlexSearch index rebuilt on every change.

PDF & CSV First-Class

PDFs render inline. CSVs open as editable tables with add/delete rows and columns. Auto-save with git commit.

Linked Git Repos

Add .repo.yaml to link KB directories to source code repos. AI agents read and reference your codebase.

The Shift

Why the world needs Cabinet

Andrej Karpathy recently described the future of knowledge work. Cabinet is that future, built today.

AK

Andrej Karpathy

LLM Knowledge Bases

“Using LLMs to build personal knowledge bases for various topics of research interest. A large fraction of my recent token throughput is going less into manipulating code, and more intomanipulating knowledge.”

“Raw data from a given number of sources is collected, then compiled by an LLM into a .md wiki, then operated on by various CLIs by the LLM to do Q&A and to incrementally enhance the wiki.”

“I think there is room here for an incredible new product instead of a hacky collection of scripts.”

Data Ingest

Karpathy:Index source docs into raw/, LLM compiles a wiki of .md files

Drag PDFs, CSVs, HTML apps, markdown into the KB. AI agents auto-organize and cross-link.

IDE / Viewer

Karpathy:Uses Obsidian as the frontend to view compiled wiki

Built-in WYSIWYG editor, PDF viewer, CSV editor, embedded HTML apps, web terminal - all in one UI.

Q&A

Karpathy:Once wiki is big enough, ask LLM complex questions against it

AI panel with @mentions. Agents reference the entire KB. Ask questions, get answers with page citations.

Output

Karpathy:Render markdown, slide shows, matplotlib images back into Obsidian

Agents write directly to the KB. Slides, dashboards, reports - all viewable inline. Output compounds.

Automation

Karpathy:Manually runs LLM health checks, vibe-coded a search engine

Scheduled cron jobs, agent heartbeats, mission boards. Your AI team runs 24/7 without scripts.

Comparison

Not another note-taking app

Obsidian is a markdown editor. Notion is a team wiki. Paperclip orchestrates agents. Cabinet is the only tool that combines a knowledge base, AI agents, and embedded apps in one self-hosted OS.

vs Obsidian

Obsidian is a great markdown editor with plugins. But it has no AI agents, no scheduled jobs, no embedded HTML apps, no web terminal. Cabinet is a knowledge OS, not just a note editor.

vs Notion

Notion locks your data in their cloud. Cabinet stores everything as markdown files on disk. You own your data. You can grep it. AI agents read and write directly. No API limits. No lock-in.

vs Paperclip

Paperclip is excellent at agent orchestration — org charts, budgets, audit logs. But it has no knowledge base, no editor, no content layer. Cabinet gives your agents a brain to read and write to, plus HTML apps, a terminal, and a full wiki.

AI Team

Hire your AI team in 5 questions

Answer 5 questions. A CEO agent appears. It suggests teammates. Each agent has goals, skills, and recurring jobs. You watch them work like watching a real team.

Strategic planning, goal tracking, task delegation. Creates missions, coordinates the team.

Weekly reportGoal review

KB content editing, formatting, linking. Maintains documentation quality.

Content reviewLink checker

📣

Content Marketer

Specialist

Blog posts, social media, newsletters. SEO-optimized content generation.

Reddit scoutBlog drafts

Keyword research, site optimization, ranking analysis.

Keyword trackerCompetitor scan

Lead generation, outreach, pipeline tracking.

Lead scorerFollow-up drafter

Review, proofread, fact-check content across the KB.

Content auditBroken link scan

How It Works

From zero to AI team in 2 minutes

Install & Run

One command. Next.js + daemon start. Your knowledge base is a /data directory on disk.

npx cabinetai run

Answer 5 Questions

What’s your company? What do you do? What are your goals? Cabinet builds your custom AI team.

Watch Your Team Work

Agents create missions, write content, scout Reddit, review quality — all on schedule.

Knowledge Compounds

Every agent run, every edit, every research session adds to the KB. Your system gets smarter every day.

Ready to build your AI team?

Cabinet is a free, open-source project you can run yourself. No subscription, no trial clock, and no vendor lock-in. Start in 2 minutes.

Questions?[email protected]