A clonable skeleton for a Zettelkern vault: a plain-markdown knowledge base that an LLM agent builds, cross-references, and keeps current, with every claim traced to its source. The method is Andrej Karpathy's LLM-wiki pattern in Open Knowledge Format compatible files, plus the production discipline described in the manual at https://zettelkern.com/zettelkern.md. This kit is the free tier, and it is complete: nothing here requires buying anything.
- Get a copy. Use the green "Use this template" button on GitHub, or clone this repo. Open the folder in your harness: Claude Code, Codex, or any agent that can read files and run git.
- Say: "Read AGENTS.md and bootstrap this vault for my domain." The agent asks you three questions (domain, vault language, privacy posture), fills the schema, fetches the founding pattern into raw/, instantiates the templates, and makes one commit.
- Hand it your first source and say "ingest it". From then on the loop is: add sources, ask questions, let the agent keep the wiki current.
Health check at any time, no dependencies, standard library only:
python3 tools/lint.py
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
| AGENTS.md | the contract: schema, workflows, git conventions, provenance rules |
| CLAUDE.md | one-line pointer so Claude Code lands on the same rules |
| START_HERE.template.md | for the human owner, no terminal required |
| PROMPTS.md | twelve proven prompts, copy-paste ready |
tools/lint.py |
vault health check, single file, stdlib only |
| docs/AI_DISCLOSURE.template.md | institutional AI-usage disclosure skeleton |
| index.md, log.md, overview.md | the spine: catalog, chronology, synthesis |
| wiki/concepts/example-concept.md | the one example page; supersede it once real pages exist |
| raw/sources.md | the immutable layer's rules and pointer register |
- Andrej Karpathy, "LLM Wiki": the founding pattern. https://gist.github.com/karpathy/442a6bf555914893e9891c11519de94f
- The Open Knowledge Format (OKF), an open spec by the Google Cloud Data Cloud team that formalizes the same shape: markdown files with YAML frontmatter. https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/knowledge-catalog/tree/main/okf
- The Zettelkern manual, the production discipline this kit instantiates. https://zettelkern.com/zettelkern.md
The gist is not vendored here because it carries no license; the bootstrap downloads it into your own copy instead.
Start with START_HERE.template.md; your agent renames and fills it during bootstrap. PROMPTS.md has the wording for everything you will ask. You never need a terminal.
MIT, copyright 2026 Quellkern e.U. (https://quellkern.com). Questions, or a knowledge base that already exists and needs adapting: [email protected], subject Zettelkern.