Claude Desktop

The Claude Desktop app has three modes that touch Open Knowledge differently.

• Code tab is Claude Code. Set it up via the Claude Code page.
• Chat and Cowork read skills from a separate, isolated list. Use the install command below for those.

Installed from the macOS DMG

A consent dialog runs the first time the app launches. It detects every MCP-capable editor on your machine, preselects all of them, and writes user-level MCP entries when you click Add (or writes nothing when you click Skip). To re-trigger it, delete ~/.ok/mcp-status.json and relaunch.

The DMG path covers MCP wiring but doesn't install the skill that Chat and Cowork need. Run the command below for that.

Install the skill (Chat + Cowork)

In the Open Knowledge desktop app, open Help → Install for Claude Chat & Cowork (Desktop App)…. The dialog builds openknowledge.skill, saves it to ~/Downloads/, and opens the Claude Desktop app. Upload it manually with five clicks: Customize → Skills → + → Create skill → Upload skill, then pick the file from Downloads.

The skill turns on automatically. Use it in any Chat or Cowork session.

If Customize → Skills isn't visible, enable it in Settings → Capabilities → Code execution and file creation.

Verify

In a fresh Chat or Cowork session:

Use the open-knowledge skill to summarize what's in this workspace.

Claude should recognize the skill and use Open Knowledge's tools.

Cowork: skill won't fire after install

Claude Cowork has an open bug where custom skills register in the UI but don't mount in the session VM. Symptom: the skill shows enabled but Cowork tells you it isn't available.

Workaround:

1. Customize → Skills, find open-knowledge, delete it.
2. Open Help → Install for Claude Chat & Cowork (Desktop App)… in the Open Knowledge desktop app to rebuild the bundle.
3. Re-upload (the same 5-click sequence).
4. Start a fresh Cowork session.

Team and Enterprise

Org owners can publish the skill once instead of asking every user to install it. Build the bundle from Help → Install for Claude Chat & Cowork (Desktop App)… in the Open Knowledge desktop app, then upload it via Organization settings → Skills → + Add in Claude Desktop. Every member sees it in Chat and Cowork.

Open with AI

Once the skill is installed, Chat and Cowork sessions can ask Open Knowledge for anything in the workspace through MCP. That's the user-facing surface. The editor's Open with AI ▸ menu does not list Cowork as a target today (Cowork has no claude-cowork:// deep-link scheme to dispatch to), so the menu surfaces Claude, Codex, and Cursor only. A claude.ai web fallback opens file-scope dispatches in the Claude web UI for users without a local Claude install; see Editor → Open with AI for the full menu UX.