Google’s version if ICM? The **Open Knowledge Format (OKF)** is an open, vendor-neutral specification designed to standardize how context, metadata, and curated knowledge are stored and shared between humans and AI agents. Introduced by the Google Cloud Data Cloud team in June 2026, OKF formalizes the emerging **"LLM-wiki" pattern** (popularized by AI researcher Andrej Karpathy) into a portable, interoperable format. Instead of forcing AI agents to repeatedly search massive, disconnected text files or query proprietary vendor catalogs, OKF provides a shared standard for a living knowledge base. ### Core Technical Structure The technical shape of an OKF "bundle" is intentionally minimal and lightweight. If you have ever used tools like Obsidian, Notion, or static site generators like Hugo, the structure will look highly familiar: * **File System as Identity:** An OKF bundle is simply a directory tree of standard Markdown (.md) files. Each file represents a single unit of knowledge—called a **Concept**—which can be a physical asset (like a database table or API endpoint) or an abstract idea (like a business metric or an incident playbook). * **YAML Frontmatter:** Every Markdown file begins with a snippet of YAML configuration metadata. * **Minimal Schema Constraints:** To maintain ultimate flexibility, the specification enforces only **one** required field in the frontmatter: type. Other highly recommended (but optional) fields include title, description, resource (a unique URI pointing to the underlying asset), tags, and timestamp (ISO 8601). * **Graph via Hyperlinks:** Concepts are linked together using standard Markdown links ([Link Text](path/to/file.md)). This effectively turns a flat folder structure into a rich graph of untyped, directed relationships (e.g., *parent/child*, *depends-on*, *joins-with*). Broken links are explicitly permitted to represent knowledge gaps that haven't been written yet. ### The 3 Core Design Principles

After reading the full history of thinking machines: Vote below, then tell us in the comments: which part of the timeline surprised you the most?