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Quick Start

Get up and running with Compendium in 5 minutes.

1. Initialize Configuration

Configure your LLM provider (OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint):

compendium init

This interactive command will prompt you for: - Base URL (API endpoint) - API key - Model name

The configuration is saved to ~/.compendium/llm-config.json plus your OS credential store — the same store the Web UI's Settings page uses, so whichever one you configure through, the other picks it up too.

2. Create a Bundle

A bundle is a directory containing OKF concepts. Create one:

compendium new my-catalog
cd my-catalog

This scaffolds .compendium/config.json (the concept types this bundle recognizes), an index.md, and one seed concept (systems/example-system.md) showing the expected shape — replace or delete it once you have real concepts.

3. Ingest Documents

Ingest existing documentation into the bundle:

compendium ingest --source /path/to/docs --bundle . --type Document

This creates OKF concepts from your source files.

4. Start the Web UI

Launch the Blazor web interface:

# Build the web server (first time only)
./build.sh --target=PublishWeb    # Linux/macOS
.\build.ps1 -Target PublishWeb    # Windows

# Run the server
./bin/web/Compendium.Web          # Linux/macOS
.\bin\web\Compendium.Web.exe      # Windows

Open http://localhost:5050 in your browser.

5. Chat with the Agent

Via Web UI

  1. Navigate to http://localhost:5050
  2. Click "Load Bundle" and select your bundle directory
  3. Go to "Settings" and configure your LLM
  4. Go to "Chat" and start asking questions

Via CLI

compendium chat --bundle my-catalog

Example queries:

  • "List all concepts"
  • "What systems are documented?"
  • "Show me integrations that read from the CoreDB database"

Common Workflows

Ingest Data Maps

compendium ingest --source datamaps/ --bundle my-catalog --type "Data Map"

Ingest from Multiple Sources

# SharePoint exports
compendium ingest --source sharepoint-export/ --bundle my-catalog --type Document

# Architecture diagrams
compendium ingest --source diagrams/ --bundle my-catalog --type "Architecture Diagram"

# Email archives
compendium ingest --source emails.ost --bundle my-catalog --type Email

Review and Approve Drafts

  1. Open http://localhost:5050/review
  2. Review auto-generated concepts
  3. Approve (marks as stable) or reject

Enable Agent Curation

By default, the agent has read-only access. To enable write access:

compendium chat --bundle my-catalog --allow-write

This gives the agent access to: - CreateConcept — mint new concepts - UpdateConceptBody — edit concept content - AddLink — create relationships - FlagForReview — mark concepts for human review

Agent-created content stays draft

The agent can never promote concepts to stable — only humans can do that.

Next Steps