oikb Guide

July 17, 2026 · View on GitHub

A complete guide to syncing content into Open WebUI Knowledge Bases.

Installation
Getting Started
- Your First Sync
- Watch Mode
Configuration File
Sources
Filtering
Daemon Mode
Webhooks
Enterprise Features
Deployment
CLI Reference
Troubleshooting

Installation

pip install oikb

For specific connectors with extra dependencies:

pip install oikb[gdrive]     # Google Drive
pip install oikb[s3]         # AWS S3
pip install oikb[confluence] # Confluence
pip install oikb[all]        # Everything

Requires Open WebUI 0.9.6+ and Python 3.10+.

Getting Started

Your First Sync

Set your Open WebUI credentials:

export OPEN_WEBUI_URL=http://localhost:3000
export OPEN_WEBUI_API_KEY=sk-your-api-key

Or save them permanently:

oikb config set url http://localhost:3000
oikb config set token sk-your-api-key

Find your Knowledge Base ID in Open WebUI → Knowledge → click a KB → copy the ID from the URL.

Sync a local directory:

oikb sync ./docs --kb-id your-kb-id

That's it. Only new and modified files are uploaded (SHA-256 diffing). Run it again and nothing happens — it's fully incremental.

Preview Before Syncing

Always safe to preview first:

oikb sync ./docs --kb-id your-kb-id --dry-run

This shows exactly what would be added, modified, or deleted without touching the KB.

Watch Mode

Auto-sync when files change:

oikb watch ./docs --kb-id your-kb-id

Uses filesystem events (not polling) so changes are picked up instantly.

Configuration File

For multi-source setups or daemon mode, use a .oikb.yaml config file.

Generating with oikb init

The fastest way to create one:

oikb init

This walks you through each source interactively and writes the file.

Manual Setup

Create .oikb.yaml in your project root:

sources:
  - name: docs
    source: ./docs
    kb-id: your-kb-id

  - name: wiki
    source: github:myorg/wiki
    kb-id: another-kb-id
    interval: 1h

Then sync all sources at once:

oikb sync

Global Defaults

Avoid repeating the same config across entries:

defaults:
  interval: 1h
  concurrency: 4
  filter:
    max-size: 50mb
  notify:
    url: https://hooks.slack.com/services/T.../B.../xxx
    on: error

sources:
  - name: docs
    source: github:myorg/docs
    kb-id: abc123

  - name: handbook
    source: confluence:ENG
    kb-id: def456
    interval: "0 6 * * 1-5"  # overrides default

Per-entry values override defaults. Nested dicts (filter, notify) are deep-merged.

Environment Variable Interpolation

All string values support ${VAR} and ${VAR:-default}:

sources:
  - name: docs
    source: github:${GITHUB_ORG}/docs
    kb-id: ${KB_DOCS_ID}
    token: ${GITHUB_TOKEN}
    notify:
      url: ${SLACK_WEBHOOK:-https://hooks.slack.com/fallback}

This enables GitOps workflows where .oikb.yaml is committed to the repo but secrets come from the runtime environment.

Sources

Local Directories

oikb sync ./path/to/docs --kb-id your-kb-id

Scans recursively. Supports any file type.

GitHub

oikb sync github:owner/repo --kb-id your-kb-id

Requires GITHUB_TOKEN for private repos. Syncs the default branch. To specify a branch or subdirectory:

oikb sync github:owner/repo --branch develop --path docs/

Or in .oikb.yaml:

sources:
  - name: api-docs
    source: github:myorg/api
    kb-id: abc123
    branch: main
    path: docs/

GitLab / Bitbucket

oikb sync gitlab:owner/repo --kb-id your-kb-id
oikb sync bitbucket:owner/repo --kb-id your-kb-id

Requires GITLAB_TOKEN or BITBUCKET_TOKEN respectively.

Confluence

oikb sync confluence:SPACE_KEY --kb-id your-kb-id

Requires CONFLUENCE_URL, CONFLUENCE_USERNAME, and CONFLUENCE_API_TOKEN.

BookStack

# Sync all pages from all BookStack books as Markdown files.
oikb sync bookstack: --kb-id your-kb-id

# Sync one specific BookStack page.
oikb sync 'bookstack:pages?include_ids=12' --kb-id your-kb-id

# Sync one BookStack book as chapter files; pages outside chapters remain page files.
oikb sync 'bookstack:books?include_ids=12&output=chapters' --kb-id your-kb-id

# Sync one whole BookStack book as a PDF file.
oikb sync 'bookstack:books?include_ids=12&output=books&format=pdf' --kb-id your-kb-id

# Sync all pages from one shelf and preserve shelf/book/chapter paths.
oikb sync 'bookstack:shelves?include_ids=5&structure=hierarchical' --kb-id your-kb-id

Requires BOOKSTACK_URL, BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_ID, and BOOKSTACK_TOKEN_SECRET.

Defaults are bookstack:books, output=pages, format=md, and structure=flat.

Parameter	Values	Description
`output`	`pages`, `chapters`, `books`	Exports individual pages, chapters where pages are grouped in chapters, or whole books.
`format`	`txt`, `md`, `html`, `pdf`	Exported file format.
`structure`	`flat`, `hierarchical`	Keeps files flat or mirrors shelf/book/chapter paths where available.
`include_ids`	comma-separated IDs	Limits the selected pages, books, or shelves.
`exclude_ids`	comma-separated IDs	Excludes selected pages, books, or shelves.

Use bookstack:pages, bookstack:books, or bookstack:shelves to select what IDs refer to. bookstack: defaults to bookstack:books. When bookstack:pages is used, output is always treated as pages. With output=chapters, pages outside chapters remain individual page exports.

Cloud Storage (S3 / GCS / Azure)

oikb sync s3://bucket/prefix --kb-id your-kb-id
oikb sync gcs://bucket/prefix --kb-id your-kb-id
oikb sync azure://container/prefix --kb-id your-kb-id

Uses standard cloud SDK credentials (AWS profiles, service accounts, etc.).

SharePoint

Sync a SharePoint document library:

oikb sync sharepoint:mysite.sharepoint.com --kb-id your-kb-id
oikb sync sharepoint:mysite.sharepoint.com/Documents --kb-id your-kb-id

SharePoint supports two authentication methods:

Client Secret (simpler setup)

Set these environment variables:

export SHAREPOINT_TENANT_ID=your-tenant-id
export SHAREPOINT_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id
export SHAREPOINT_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret

Certificate Auth (recommended for production)

Certificate-based auth is more secure and follows Microsoft best practices for production environments.

First install the required extras:

pip install oikb[sharepoint-cert]

Then set:

export SHAREPOINT_TENANT_ID=your-tenant-id
export SHAREPOINT_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id
export SHAREPOINT_CERTIFICATE_PATH=/path/to/cert.pem
# Optional — only needed if the PEM key is encrypted:
export SHAREPOINT_CERTIFICATE_PASSWORD=your-password

The PEM file must contain both the private key and the certificate. The connector extracts the thumbprint and signs a JWT assertion automatically.

Note: SHAREPOINT_CLIENT_SECRET and SHAREPOINT_CERTIFICATE_PATH are mutually exclusive — set one or the other.

.oikb.yaml example

sources:
  - name: legal-docs
    source: sharepoint:contoso.sharepoint.com/Legal
    kb-id: abc123
    interval: 1h

Nextcloud

Sync a Nextcloud folder via WebDAV:

export NEXTCLOUD_URL=https://nextcloud.example.com
export NEXTCLOUD_USER=svc_docs
export NEXTCLOUD_PASSWORD=your-app-password

oikb sync "nextcloud:/Documents" --kb-id your-kb-id
oikb sync "nextcloud:/Team/Engineering Handbook" --kb-id your-kb-id

Use a Nextcloud app password when possible. The connector resolves the authenticated DAV user ID through the Nextcloud OCS user endpoint, so it works with both local users and LDAP-backed accounts.

.oikb.yaml example

sources:
  - name: team-docs
    source: "nextcloud:/Documents"
    kb-id: abc123
    interval: 1h

Zotero

Sync PDF attachment text from Zotero collections into KB directories. A bare zotero: syncs all top-level collections and root library items into _unfiled; use %% for nested collections.

pip install oikb[zotero]

export ZOTERO_LIBRARY_ID=123456
export ZOTERO_API_KEY=...

oikb sync "zotero:" --kb-id your-kb-id
oikb sync "zotero:Research%%Machine Learning" --kb-id your-kb-id

Optional settings:

Variable	Description
`ZOTERO_LIBRARY_TYPE`	`user` (default) or `group`
`ZOTERO_INCLUDE_NOTES`	Append child notes when true
`ZOTERO_INCLUDE_ANNOTATIONS`	Append PDF annotation text/comments when true
`ZOTERO_CHECKSUM`	`version` (default) or `content`
`ZOTERO_EXCLUDE`	Comma-separated collection paths to skip
`ZOTERO_UNFILED_DIR`	Directory for root library items, default `_unfiled`
`ZOTERO_WEBDAV_URL`	WebDAV Zotero storage base; fetches `<attachment-key>.zip` on Zotero file 404
`ZOTERO_WEBDAV_USER` / `ZOTERO_WEBDAV_PASSWORD`	WebDAV credentials

All Connectors

46 connectors available. See the full list:

Category	Sources
Git	GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket
Cloud Storage	S3, GCS, Azure Blob, Dropbox, R2, Google Drive, SharePoint, Nextcloud, Egnyte, Oracle Cloud
Wikis & KBs	Confluence, Notion, BookStack, Discourse, GitBook, Guru, Outline, Slab, Document360, DokuWiki, Google Sites
Ticketing	Jira, Linear, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Asana, ClickUp, Airtable, ServiceNow, ProductBoard
Messaging	Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Zulip
Meetings	Gong, Fireflies
Forums	XenForo
Sales & CRM	Salesforce, HubSpot
Web	Website / Sitemap crawler
Research	Zotero

Filtering

Include / Exclude Globs

Control which files get synced:

sources:
  - name: docs
    source: github:owner/repo
    kb-id: abc123
    filter:
      include: ["docs/**/*.md", "*.txt"]
      exclude: ["drafts/**", "**/*.tmp"]

include — only sync files matching these patterns
exclude — skip files matching these patterns (applied after include)

Max File Size

Skip files above a size limit:

filter:
  max-size: 50mb

Accepts b, kb, mb, gb. Files exceeding the limit are warned and skipped:

⚠ Skipping model.bin (2.1 GB) — exceeds max-size (50.0 MB)

Also available as CLI flag: oikb sync ./docs --kb-id abc --max-file-size 50mb

Splitting Sources Across KBs

Route different parts of a repo to different Knowledge Bases:

sources:
  - name: user-docs
    source: github:owner/repo
    kb-id: abc123
    filter:
      include: ["docs/**"]

  - name: api-reference
    source: github:owner/repo
    kb-id: def456
    filter:
      include: ["api/**"]

Daemon Mode

For production deployments, run oikb as a long-lived daemon with scheduled sync and an HTTP API.

Starting the Daemon

oikb daemon --port 8080

Reads .oikb.yaml and syncs each source on its configured interval. Specify a config file:

oikb daemon --config /etc/oikb/config.yaml

Scheduling

Simple intervals:

interval: 30m    # every 30 minutes
interval: 1h     # every hour
interval: 6h     # every 6 hours

Cron expressions:

interval: "0 6 * * 1-5"    # weekdays at 6am
interval: "0 */6 * * *"    # every 6 hours
interval: "0 0 * * 0"      # weekly on Sunday midnight

Both can be mixed in the same config. Auto-detected by field count.

API Endpoints

Endpoint	Description
`GET /health`	Sync status for all sources (k8s readiness probe)
`GET /health/ready`	Liveness probe
`GET /metrics`	Prometheus metrics
`GET /history`	Sync history (filterable by KB, errors)
`POST /sync/{name-or-kb-id}`	Trigger immediate sync
`POST /sync/{id}?dry_run=true`	Preview changes without uploading
`POST /webhooks/github`	GitHub push webhook
`POST /webhooks/gitlab`	GitLab push webhook
`POST /webhooks/slack`	Slack event webhook
`POST /webhooks/confluence`	Confluence update webhook

Authentication

Secure endpoints with an API key:

export OIKB_API_KEY=your-secret-key
oikb daemon

All API requests require Authorization: Bearer your-secret-key. Docker secrets supported via OIKB_API_KEY_FILE.

Webhooks

Enable instant sync on push:

sources:
  - name: docs
    source: github:owner/repo
    kb-id: abc123
    webhook: true
    github_secret: your-webhook-secret

Then add a webhook in GitHub → Settings → Webhooks pointing to http://your-daemon:8080/webhooks/github.

Supported: GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Confluence.

Enterprise Features

Prometheus Metrics

GET /metrics exports:

Metric	Type	Description
`oikb_sync_total`	Counter	Syncs by source and status
`oikb_sync_duration_seconds`	Histogram	Sync duration
`oikb_files_uploaded_total`	Counter	Files added + modified
`oikb_files_deleted_total`	Counter	Files deleted
`oikb_sync_errors_total`	Counter	Failed syncs
`oikb_info`	Gauge	Build version

Add to your Prometheus config:

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: oikb
    static_configs:
      - targets: ["oikb:8080"]

Structured JSON Logging

Enable for log aggregators (Datadog, Splunk, ELK, CloudWatch):

oikb daemon --log-format json
# or
LOG_FORMAT=json oikb daemon

Output (one JSON object per line):

{"ts":"2025-05-21T06:00:01Z","level":"INFO","logger":"oikb.daemon","msg":"Synced github:owner/repo → abc123: 3 added (1823ms)"}

Failure Notifications

POST to a webhook on sync error:

sources:
  - name: docs
    source: github:owner/repo
    kb-id: abc123
    notify:
      url: https://hooks.slack.com/services/T.../B.../xxx
      on: error     # error (default) | always

The payload includes a text field for native Slack compatibility, plus structured fields (source, status, error, duration_ms).

Sync Locking

Prevents overlapping syncs to the same KB. If a webhook fires while a scheduled sync is running, the duplicate is skipped:

INFO  Skipping github:owner/repo — sync already running for abc123

Automatic. No configuration needed.

Dry-Run via API

Preview changes without uploading:

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/sync/docs?dry_run=true \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OIKB_API_KEY"

Returns:

{"dry_run": true, "result": {"added": 3, "modified": 1, "deleted": 0}}

Deployment

Docker

docker run -d \
  -e OPEN_WEBUI_URL=http://open-webui:8080 \
  -e OPEN_WEBUI_API_KEY=sk-... \
  -e OIKB_API_KEY=your-daemon-key \
  -e LOG_FORMAT=json \
  -v ./.oikb.yaml:/app/.oikb.yaml:ro \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  ghcr.io/open-webui/oikb:latest daemon

Docker Compose

services:
  open-webui:
    image: ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main
    ports:
      - "3000:8080"

  oikb:
    image: ghcr.io/open-webui/oikb:latest
    environment:
      - OPEN_WEBUI_URL=http://open-webui:8080
      - OPEN_WEBUI_API_KEY=${OPEN_WEBUI_API_KEY}
      - OIKB_API_KEY=${OIKB_API_KEY}
      - LOG_FORMAT=json
    volumes:
      - ./.oikb.yaml:/app/.oikb.yaml:ro
    command: daemon
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    depends_on:
      - open-webui
    restart: unless-stopped
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "wget", "-q", "--spider", "http://127.0.0.1:8080/health/ready"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 15s

GitHub Actions

- name: Sync docs to Open WebUI
  uses: docker://ghcr.io/open-webui/oikb:latest
  with:
    args: sync /github/workspace/docs --kb-id ${{ secrets.KB_ID }}
  env:
    OPEN_WEBUI_URL: ${{ secrets.OPEN_WEBUI_URL }}
    OPEN_WEBUI_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.OPEN_WEBUI_API_KEY }}

Kubernetes

Minimal deployment:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: oikb
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: oikb
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: oikb
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: oikb
          image: ghcr.io/open-webui/oikb:latest
          args: ["daemon"]
          ports:
            - containerPort: 8080
          env:
            - name: OPEN_WEBUI_URL
              value: http://open-webui:8080
            - name: OPEN_WEBUI_API_KEY
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: oikb-secrets
                  key: open-webui-api-key
            - name: OIKB_API_KEY
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: oikb-secrets
                  key: oikb-api-key
            - name: LOG_FORMAT
              value: json
          volumeMounts:
            - name: config
              mountPath: /app/.oikb.yaml
              subPath: .oikb.yaml
          livenessProbe:
            httpGet:
              path: /health/ready
              port: 8080
            initialDelaySeconds: 5
            periodSeconds: 30
          readinessProbe:
            httpGet:
              path: /health
              port: 8080
            initialDelaySeconds: 10
            periodSeconds: 60
      volumes:
        - name: config
          configMap:
            name: oikb-config
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: oikb
spec:
  selector:
    app: oikb
  ports:
    - port: 8080

CLI Reference

oikb init                           Generate .oikb.yaml interactively
oikb sync [SOURCE]                  Incremental sync
oikb sync --dry-run                 Preview without uploading
oikb sync --max-file-size 50mb      Skip large files
oikb sync --concurrency 4           Parallel uploads
oikb sync --scan-secrets            Block files with credentials
oikb watch <dir> --kb-id ID         Auto-sync on file change
oikb daemon                         Start scheduled daemon
oikb daemon --log-format json       JSON logging
oikb daemon --config /path/to/yaml  Custom config path
oikb diff <source> --kb-id ID       Preview changes
oikb validate                       Check .oikb.yaml syntax
oikb validate --deep                Verify API, auth, and KB existence
oikb ls --kb-id ID                  List files in a KB
oikb status --kb-id ID              Show KB info
oikb history                        View sync history
oikb history --json                 JSON output
oikb history --errors               Failed syncs only
oikb reset --kb-id ID               Delete all files in a KB
oikb config set url <url>           Save Open WebUI URL
oikb config set token <token>       Save API key
oikb config show                    Show saved config

Troubleshooting

"Connection refused" or "401 Unauthorized"

Check your credentials:

oikb config show
# or verify env vars:
echo $OPEN_WEBUI_URL
echo $OPEN_WEBUI_API_KEY

"No sync entries found"

You're running oikb sync without arguments and there's no .oikb.yaml in the current directory. Either:

Specify the source: oikb sync ./docs --kb-id your-kb-id
Create a config: oikb init

Large syncs are slow

Enable concurrent uploads: --concurrency 4 or concurrency: 4 in yaml
Set filter.max-size: 50mb to skip large binaries
Use filter.exclude to skip unnecessary files

Daemon won't start

oikb validate        # Check config syntax
oikb validate --deep # Verify API + KB connectivity

How do I find my KB ID?

Open WebUI → Knowledge → click a KB → the ID is in the URL: http://localhost:3000/knowledge/8f3a2b1c-1234-5678-9abc-def012345678