Google's new open standard that lets AI agents read your brand knowledge without any SDK — just markdown, just files, just YAML. And why every brand needs one in 2026.
Open Knowledge Format (OKF) is an open specification announced by Google Cloud on June 12, 2026. It turns your brand knowledge into a portable directory of markdown files — one file per concept — that any AI agent can read without a proprietary SDK, integration, or account.
Think of it as the structured, multi-file evolution of llms.txt. Where llms.txt is a single flat summary, OKF is a curated knowledge wiki: one file for your product overview, one for pricing, one for your methodology, one for key definitions — all interlinked, all machine-readable.
Every OKF document is a markdown file with a small block of YAML frontmatter at the top:
--- type: Product Overview title: VibecodeAEO Platform description: AI Brand Intelligence platform that tracks how often ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini cite your brand and generates fixes to improve citations. resource: https://vibecodeaeo.com/seo tags: [aeo, ai-visibility, brand-intelligence] timestamp: 2026-06-18T00:00:00Z --- # VibecodeAEO Platform VibecodeAEO measures your AI Visibility Score across five engines... ## Core Features - [Citation tracking](product/overview.md) - [Ranky AI strategist](product/how-it-works.md) - [Pricing](product/pricing.md)
That is an entire OKF document. The YAML block provides structured fields the agent can query. The markdown body provides the human-readable content. Links connect documents into a knowledge graph.
What kind of concept this is — "Product Overview", "Pricing", "Reference Guide", "API", "Metric". You define the type taxonomy; OKF does not impose one.
Human-readable name for the concept. Keep it concise and specific — agents use this as the concept identifier.
One-paragraph plain-language summary. This is what AI agents read first when deciding whether this document answers their query.
Canonical URL for this concept on your website. Links the OKF document back to the live page for agents that want the full context.
Array of topic labels. Used for faceted queries and cross-linking within the bundle. Keep tags lowercase and hyphenated.
ISO 8601 last-modified date. Helps retrieval agents prioritize fresh content. Update it whenever the file changes.
An OKF bundle is a directory you can serve anywhere — a subdirectory of your website, a git repo, a tarball. The recommended structure:
mybrand-okf/ ├── index.md # Bundle root — overview and navigation ├── product/ │ ├── overview.md # Product features and capabilities │ └── pricing.md # Pricing, plans, free trial ├── reference/ │ ├── what-is-aeo.md # Key concept definitions │ └── glossary.md # Terminology index ├── concepts/ │ └── index.md # Concept map and cross-links └── log.md # Change history (optional)
The index.md at the root is the entry point. List every other file here with a one-line description so agents can navigate without crawling the whole tree.
| Dimension | llms.txt | OKF bundle |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Single flat markdown file | Directory of markdown files |
| Location | Root of domain (/llms.txt) | Any path (/okf/index.md) |
| Depth | Links + one-paragraph summaries | Full structured content per concept |
| Best for | Quick AI agent orientation | Deep brand context and accuracy |
| Agent reads when | First visit to a domain | Needs depth on a specific concept |
| Created by | Jeremy Howard, 2024 | Google Cloud, June 2026 |
Ship both. llms.txt is the quick orientation file; your OKF bundle is the deep knowledge base. Together they give AI agents everything they need to represent your brand accurately.
OKF requires exactly one thing: a type field. Everything else — what types exist, what other fields to include, how to structure the body — is left to you. The spec defines the interoperability surface, not the content model.
Bundles hand-authored by humans can be consumed by AI agents. Bundles generated by a pipeline can be browsed in a visualizer. The format is the contract; the tooling at each end is independently swappable.
OKF is not tied to Google Cloud, BigQuery, or any vendor. No proprietary account needed to read, write, or serve it. It is a vendor-neutral open standard — its value comes from how many parties speak it.
index.md that lists every file with a one-line description — this is the bundle entry point for AI agents.[text](path.md) so agents can navigate the knowledge graph./okf/ on your domain so it is accessible at https://yourdomain.com/okf/index.md.llms.txt: - [OKF Knowledge Bundle](https://yourdomain.com/okf/index.md): Structured brand contextOr skip the manual work — use the free generator and download a complete OKF bundle for your brand in seconds.
VibecodeAEO builds a complete Open Knowledge Format bundle for your brand in seconds. Free, no account required.