cabinetai

AI-first self-hosted knowledge base and startup OS. All content lives as markdown files on disk. Humans define intent. Agents do the work. The knowledge base is the shared memory between both.

Quick Start

mkdir my-startup && cd my-startup
npx cabinetai run

That's it — no global install needed. run bootstraps the directory, auto-downloads the app on first use, installs dependencies, and opens in your browser.

What You Get

• WYSIWYG markdown editor with AI editing panel (Claude)
• Agent dashboard — define personas, run tasks, view transcripts
• Scheduled jobs — cron-based automation with YAML configs
• Kanban task board
• Full terminal in the browser (xterm.js)
• Cmd+K search across all pages
• Git-backed version history with one-click restore
• Drag-and-drop page organization
• Cabinet registry — import pre-made templates for SaaS, agencies, e-commerce, and more

How It Works

~/.cabinet/              Global app cache (auto-managed)
  app/v0.3.0/            Version-pinned Next.js install

~/my-startup/            Your cabinet (this is your data)
  .cabinet               YAML manifest
  .agents/               Agent personas
  .jobs/                 Scheduled jobs
  index.md               Entry page
  ...                    Your content

The app lives in ~/.cabinet/ and is shared across all your cabinets. Each cabinet is a lightweight directory you can put anywhere — just a .cabinet manifest file, your agents, jobs, and content. No database.

Commands

All commands work via npx — no global install needed.

npx cabinetai create [name]

Create a new cabinet directory.

npx cabinetai create my-startup          # root cabinet
cd my-startup
npx cabinetai create engineering         # child cabinet inside an existing one

npx cabinetai run

Start Cabinet serving the current directory.

npx cabinetai run
npx cabinetai run --no-open              # don't open browser
npx cabinetai run --app-version 0.2.12   # use a specific app version

On first run, downloads the app to ~/.cabinet/app/ and installs dependencies. If the current directory is not already a cabinet, run bootstraps it in place by creating the .cabinet, .agents/, .jobs/, and .cabinet-state/ structure before starting the server.

Environment variables:

| Variable | Default | Description | |---|---|---| | CABINET_APP_PORT | 4000 | App server port | | CABINET_DAEMON_PORT | 4100 | Daemon server port |

npx cabinetai import <template>

Import a pre-made cabinet from the template registry.

npx cabinetai import saas-startup
npx cabinetai import career-ops
npx cabinetai import text-your-mom

npx cabinetai list

List all cabinets in the current directory.

npx cabinetai list

  Name              Kind    Path              Agents  Jobs
  My Startup        root    .                 3       2
  Engineering       child   engineering       2       1

npx cabinetai doctor

Run health checks on the environment.

npx cabinetai doctor
npx cabinetai doctor --fix       # attempt auto-repair

Checks Node.js version, cabinet structure, app installation, dependencies, and port availability.

npx cabinetai update

Download a newer app version.

npx cabinetai update

npx cabinetai uninstall (alias: remove)

Remove cached app versions from ~/.cabinet/. Prints a summary of what will be deleted and asks for confirmation. Your cabinet directories and their data are never touched — those you'd delete manually.

npx cabinetai uninstall          # remove cached app versions only
npx cabinetai uninstall --all    # also remove global state and telemetry data
npx cabinetai uninstall --yes    # skip the confirmation prompt
npx cabinetai remove             # alias for uninstall

What --all removes:

| Path | What's there | |---|---| | ~/.cabinet/ | cached app versions, global state, config.json | | ~/Library/Application Support/cabinet-telemetry/ (macOS) | anonymous install_id, telemetry queue, session state | | %APPDATA%\cabinet-telemetry\ (Windows) | same as above | | $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/cabinet/ (Linux, falls back to ~/.config/cabinet/) | same as above |

To completely remove everything Cabinet has on your machine — including your cabinets — run uninstall --all and then rm -rf your cabinet directories manually.

Requirements

• Node.js >= 18 (20+ recommended)
• git (for importing templates and app download fallback)

License

MIT