[Feature]: Supported embedded mode for downstream desktop apps

[tomvaillant]

What problem are you trying to solve?

I’m building Spotlight, an open-source newsroom-intelligence application.

Spotlight would own investigation workflow, verification and publishing. OpenKnowledge would provide local file exploration and semantic search inside the same Electron application.

Currently, embedding the OpenKnowledge web runtime would require relying on undocumented internals or running it as a separate application.

Proposed solution

Could OpenKnowledge support a documented embedded mode, perhaps through ok start --embedded?

The minimum contract would provide:

• non-interactive startup on an ephemeral loopback port;
• per-launch authentication;
• machine-readable readiness, version and health information;
• documented project/file deep links and graceful shutdown;
• downstream-controlled updates and local-only embedding configuration.

We would pin and bundle an exact OpenKnowledge release, integrate only through public interfaces, and keep OpenKnowledge separate from Spotlight’s workflow authority.

Is bundling the CLI/web runtime in another GPL-compatible application an intended use? If OEM licensing is more appropriate, what is the right contact?

I would be happy to test this with Spotlight and contribute a focused implementation.

Area

CLI

Alternatives considered

Running two applications, maintaining a fork, or rebuilding OpenKnowledge’s file and search capabilities.