DrDroidLab/open-index

**Open Index** is a tool for building domain specific accurate, structured data that agents can actually operate on — and for keeping that data correct as things change.
You use Open Index to build a **brain**: a searchable, continuously-improving context graph of your domain. A brain is **domain-agnostic** — model a support org (product → "has common issue" → issue), a sales pipeline (customer → order), your infrastructure (service → runbook), or anything else. You define the concepts; Open Index stores them, searches them, and draws the map.
A brain is built from four primitives:
- **doc_type** — a concept you want to track and maintain (e.g. service, customer, issue).
- **doc_schema** — the fields stored for a given doc_type.
- **entity** — one instance of a doc_type, stored per its schema. Every entity can link to others via related_to (the target) + relationship_edge_meaning (free-text edge semantics).
- **connector** — an optional source you extract entities from (e.g. an MCP server).
Quickstart
Prefer containers, or need a brain several agents share? →
**docs/deployment.mdx** (docker compose --profile sqlite up).
Commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| open-index init [dir] | Scaffold a new brain directory. |
| open-index add-doc-type | Add a doc_type schema stub under doc_types/. |
| open-index add-entity | Validate + store an entity JSON file. |
| open-index import | Bulk-import entities from JSON / JSONL / CSV. |
| open-index index | (Re)load entities/**/*.json into the search index. |
| open-index validate | Validate brain.yaml, schemas, and every entity file (use in CI). |
| open-index ingest | Run a connector now to pull entities from an MCP server. |
| open-index run [--force] [--loop N] | Run every connector whose schedule is due (wire into cron/CI). |
| open-index search [-t doc_type] | Search from the terminal. |
| open-index ui | Launch the explorer (How to use / Schema / Explore / **Map** / Analytics / Jobs). |
| open-index mcp [--read-only] | Run the MCP context layer over stdio. **Read+write by default**; --read-only opts out of writes. |
| open-index serve [--port --token --read-only] | Serve the MCP context layer over **HTTP** for remote agents (bearer-token auth). |
| open-index serve --brains | Serve **every** brain under a directory from one process, each at / /mcp. |
| open-index mcp-config [--url --token] | Print the MCP connection block to paste into your agent. |
A context layer for domain-specialized agents
Open Index is designed to sit behind agents specialized for a domain—legal,
marketing, customer support, sales, infrastructure, or a domain of your own. The
MCP server gives those agents structured context and a validated way to keep that
context current:
- **agent prompt** — dynamic domain navigation is published through MCP server
instructions so supporting hosts can inject it before the first turn
- **read** — navigation_guidelines() refreshes those instructions;
search_brain() and get_entity() retrieve domain context
- **write** — put_entity() (add/update an entity), create_doc_type() (define a concept)
Read and write is the default MCP mode so a domain agent can both use knowledge
and maintain it. Add --read-only when the agent should consume context without
mutating it. Claude Code is supported as one optional MCP client; open-index init
scaffolds .mcp.json, CLAUDE.md, and an editing skill as conveniences for it.
Portable agent setup skill
skills/setup-open-index/SKILL.md follows the
portable Agent Skills SKILL.md format used by agent runtimes including OpenClaw,
Hermes, and Claude Code. Give or install this skill in the selected runtime when
the agent should set up Open Index itself. It covers installation, domain-brain
initialization, generic MCP wiring, default read/write verification, the
--read-only opt-out, and production guardrails.
A brain on disk
Storage defaults to **SQLite + FTS5** (zero external services). The backend sits
behind a pluggable interface with two implementations: SQLite (default, local/dev)