Demarkus

June 6, 2026 · View on GitHub

A protocol for agents and humans, optimized for information

Demarkus implements the Mark Protocol: versioned markdown served over QUIC. No rendering pipeline, no tracking, no central authority. Read and write with capability tokens. Every change is traceable. Lightweight and installable anywhere.

Run a single personal server, or compose many into an organizational knowledge system: a broker-fronted universe of servers behind one HTTPS endpoint with single sign-on. Humans and agents share the same versioned memory.

Install

# macOS / Linux: server + client
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/latebit-io/demarkus/main/install.sh | bash

# Client only (CLI, TUI, MCP)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/latebit-io/demarkus/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --client-only

See full install docs for platform-specific guides and other options.

See it in action

Client install demo

Quick Start

# Fetch a document from the live soul server
demarkus mark://soul.demarkus.io/index.md

# Browse interactively with the TUI
demarkus-tui mark://soul.demarkus.io/index.md

# Run your own local server
demarkus-server -root ./docs/site

For more examples (tokens, publishing, editing), see full usage guide.

What's Included

BinaryPurpose
demarkus-serverQUIC server with versioned document store, capability-based auth
demarkus-tokenGenerate and manage write tokens
demarkus-publishDirect-to-store writer for read-only server installs (chroot/RO mode)
demarkusCLI tool for all protocol operations (fetch, publish, append, graph, etc.)
demarkus-tuiTerminal browser: markdown rendering, link navigation, persistent graph
demarkus-mcpMCP server for LLM agents (protocol verbs + graph crawling, backlinks, indexing)

Protocol at a Glance

Transport: QUIC (UDP 6309) | Scheme: mark:// | Content: Markdown + YAML frontmatter

Request:

FETCH /hello.md

Response:

---
status: ok
version: 3
modified: 2026-01-15T10:30:00Z
---

# Hello World

Verbs: FETCH · LIST · VERSIONS · LOOKUP · PUBLISH · APPEND · ARCHIVE

Use Cases

Agent Memory: Run a server as persistent memory across agent sessions. The Demarkus project itself uses this pattern at mark://soul.demarkus.io for architecture notes, debugging lessons, and journal entries. Hit the ground running with the Claude Code plugin or install via OpenClaw.

Organizational Knowledge System: Compose many servers ("worlds") into a broker-fronted universe reachable through one HTTPS endpoint with OIDC single sign-on. A whole team joins with a single command, /knowledge-join from the Claude Code knowledge plugin, and their agents share organizational memory over MCP, with no per-developer server or token setup. See the knowledge system scenario.

Personal Knowledge Base: Local server, versioned documents, TUI browser. Everything from first write.

Public Documentation: Deploy on a VPS, share links, gate writes with tokens.

Demarkus Hubs: Link to content on other servers, building a federated directory of knowledge. Hubs can link to hubs.

Ecosystem

See www.demarkus.io/ecosystem for the full list.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/latebit-io/demarkus.git
cd demarkus
make all   # or: make server / make client

Requires Go 1.26+. Binaries land in server/bin/, client/bin/, and tools/bin/.

Documentation

Core Principles

  1. Optimized for Information: Markdown is the common language: structured enough for agents, readable enough for humans
  2. Privacy First: No user tracking, minimal logging, anonymity by default
  3. Security Minded: Encryption mandatory, capability-based auth, secure by default
  4. Simplicity: Human-readable protocol, minimal complexity
  5. Anti-Commercialization: No ads, no tracking, no central authority
  6. Federation: Anyone can run a server, content can be mirrored freely

License

"The web we want, not the web we got."