Cabinet AI Knowledge Base Skill by ara.so — Daily 2026 Skills collection. Cabinet is an AI-first startup OS and knowledge base where everything lives as markdown files on disk. No database, no vendor lock-in — self-hosted with AI agents that have memory, scheduled jobs, embedded HTML apps, git-backed history, and a full web terminal. Installation Quick Start (recommended) npx create-cabinet@latest cd cabinet npm run dev:all Open http://localhost:3000 — the onboarding wizard builds your AI team in 5 questions. Manual Clone git clone https://github.com/hilash/cabinet.git cd cabinet npm install cp .env.example .env.local npm run dev:all Prerequisites Node.js 20+ Claude Code CLI: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code macOS or Linux (Windows via WSL) Environment Configuration
.env.local
KB_PASSWORD
your_optional_password
Leave empty for no auth
DOMAIN
localhost
Or your custom domain
Key Commands npm run dev
Next.js dev server on port 3000
npm run dev:daemon
WebSocket + job scheduler on port 3001
npm run dev:all
Both servers together (use this for development)
npm run build
Production build
npm run start
Production mode (both servers)
Architecture cabinet/ src/ app/api/ → Next.js API routes components/ → React components (sidebar, editor, agents, jobs, terminal) stores/ → Zustand state management lib/ → Storage, markdown, git, agents, jobs server/ cabinet-daemon.ts → WebSocket + job scheduler + agent executor data/ .agents/.library/ → 20 pre-built agent templates getting-started/ → Default KB pages Tech stack: Next.js 16, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui, Tiptap, Zustand, xterm.js, node-cron Project Structure (data directory) Cabinet stores everything as markdown files under data/ : data/ getting-started/ index.md my-project/ index.md research.md index.html ← Embedded HTML app (auto-rendered as iframe) .agents/ .library/ ceo.md product-manager.md researcher.md active/ my-ceo/ index.md ← Agent definition memory.md ← Agent memory (auto-updated) Agent Definition Format Agents are defined as markdown files with YAML frontmatter:
name : Research Scout role : researcher schedule : "0 /6 * * "
Cron: every 6 hours
skills : - web - search - summarization - reddit - scout goals : - Monitor competitor activity - Surface trending topics in AI tooling - File weekly summary reports
Research Scout You are a research agent for [Company Name]. Your job is to...
Memory
Creating a Custom Agent
Via the UI
Navigate to the Agents panel in the sidebar
Click "New Agent" and select a template or start blank
Fill in role, goals, and schedule
Cabinet creates
data/.agents/active/
name: My Custom Agent role: analyst schedule: "0 9 * * 1" goals: - Analyze weekly metrics - Post summary to #reports channel
My Custom Agent
You are a data analyst agent. Every Monday at 9am you will... ` ) Scheduled Jobs (Cron) Agents use standard cron syntax in their frontmatter schedule field:
Common schedule patterns
schedule : "0 /6 * * "
Every 6 hours
schedule : "0 9 * * 1"
Every Monday at 9am
schedule : "0 8 * * *"
Every day at 8am
schedule : "/30 * * * "
Every 30 minutes
schedule : "0 0 * * 0"
Weekly on Sunday midnight
The Cabinet daemon ( server/cabinet-daemon.ts ) reads agent files and registers jobs via node-cron . Jobs run agent prompts through Claude Code and write results back to the agent's memory file. Embedded HTML Apps Drop an index.html in any folder under data/ — Cabinet automatically renders it as an embedded iframe with a full-screen toggle: data/ my-dashboard/ index.html ← Cabinet renders this as an embedded app data.json style.css Example data/my-dashboard/index.html : <! DOCTYPE html
< html
< head
< title
Metrics Dashboard </ title
< style
body { font-family : sans-serif ; padding : 20 px ; background :
1a1a1a
; color :
eee
; } .metric { font-size : 2 rem ; font-weight : bold ; color :
55c938
; } </ style
</ head
< body
< h1
Weekly Metrics </ h1
< div class = " metric " id = " count "
Loading... </ div
< script
fetch ( './data.json' ) . then ( r => r . json ( ) ) . then ( d => document . getElementById ( 'count' ) . textContent = d . value ) </ script
</ body
</ html
No build step required. Version controlled via git automatically. Git-Backed History Every save auto-commits. Cabinet wraps git operations in src/lib/git.ts : // Auto-commit on every page save (Cabinet handles this internally) // To access history via the UI: // 1. Open any page // 2. Click the history icon in the toolbar // 3. Browse diffs and restore any version // To inspect from the shell: cd data git log -- oneline git diff HEAD ~ 1 HEAD -- my - project / research . md git checkout HEAD ~ 5 -- my - project / research . md # Restore older version Markdown Page Format Cabinet pages are standard markdown files with optional frontmatter:
title : Competitor Analysis tags : [ research , competitors , q2 - 2026 ] created : 2026-04-07 agent : research - scout
Competitor Analysis
Summary ...
Last Updated by Agent
API Routes Cabinet exposes Next.js API routes under src/app/api/ : // Read a page GET / api / pages ? path = my - project / research // Save a page POST / api / pages Body : { path : "my-project/research" , content : "# Research\n..." } // List directory GET / api / files ? dir = my - project // Run an agent manually POST / api / agents / run Body : { agentId : "research-scout" } // Get agent status GET / api / agents / status ? id = research - scout // Search all pages GET / api / search ? q = competitor + analysis Example: Calling the API from TypeScript // Read a knowledge base page const response = await fetch ( '/api/pages?path=my-project/research' ) const { content , path } = await response . json ( ) // Save a page await fetch ( '/api/pages' , { method : 'POST' , headers : { 'Content-Type' : 'application/json' } , body : JSON . stringify ( { path : 'my-project/research' , content : '# Research\n\nUpdated content...' } ) } ) // Trigger an agent run await fetch ( '/api/agents/run' , { method : 'POST' , headers : { 'Content-Type' : 'application/json' } , body : JSON . stringify ( { agentId : 'research-scout' } ) } ) Zustand State Management Cabinet uses Zustand stores in src/stores/ . Key patterns: // Access the page store in a component import { usePageStore } from '@/stores/pageStore' function MyComponent ( ) { const { currentPage , savePage , pages } = usePageStore ( ) const handleSave = async ( content : string ) => { await savePage ( { path : currentPage . path , content } ) } return < div
{ currentPage ?. title } < / div
} // Access agent store import { useAgentStore } from '@/stores/agentStore' function AgentPanel ( ) { const { agents , runAgent , agentStatus } = useAgentStore ( ) return ( < ul
{ agents . map ( agent => ( < li key = { agent . id }
{ agent . name } — { agentStatus [ agent . id ] } < button onClick = { ( ) => runAgent ( agent . id ) }
Run < / button
< / li
) ) } < / ul
) } Pre-Built Agent Templates Located in data/.agents/.library/ . Available roles: Department Agents Leadership CEO, COO, CFO, CTO Product Product Manager, UX Designer Marketing Content Marketer, SEO Specialist, Social Media, Growth Marketer, Copywriter Engineering Editor, QA Agent, DevOps Engineer Sales & Support Sales Agent, Customer Success Analytics Data Analyst Operations People Ops, Legal Advisor, Researcher To activate a template:
Copy a template to active agents
cp data/.agents/.library/researcher.md data/.agents/active/my-researcher/index.md
Then edit goals and schedule in the copied file
Adding a New Agent Template
name: Custom Scout role: researcher schedule: "0 8 * * *" skills: - web-search - summarization goals: - Monitor industry news daily - Summarize top 5 findings - Append to data/research/daily-digest.md
Custom Scout You are a research agent. Each morning you will search for recent developments in [TOPIC] and append a dated summary to the daily digest.
Instructions
1.
Search for "[TOPIC] news" from the last 24 hours
2.
Select the 5 most relevant items
3.
Write a 2-3 sentence summary per item
4.
Append to
data/research/daily-digest.md
with today's date as a heading
Memory
Common Patterns Pattern 1: Knowledge Base with Agent Automation data/ company/ overview.md ← Human-maintained competitors/ analysis.md ← Agent-updated weekly index.html ← Auto-generated dashboard agents/ competitor-scout/ index.md ← Runs every Monday memory.md ← Tracks what it found last week Pattern 2: Research Pipeline 1. Researcher agent scouts Reddit/HN every 6h → writes to data/inbox/ 2. Analyst agent summarizes inbox daily → writes to data/research/weekly.md 3. CEO agent reads weekly.md every Monday → writes strategic notes Pattern 3: Using the Web Terminal The web terminal (xterm.js + node-pty) gives full shell access inside the browser: Press `Ctrl+`` or click the terminal icon in the sidebar Run Claude Code directly: claude "analyze the data in research/competitors.md" Full shell: edit files, run scripts, commit to git Troubleshooting Daemon not starting
Check if port 3001 is in use
lsof -i :3001
Kill if needed
kill -9 $( lsof -t -i:3001 )
Restart
npm run dev:all Claude Code not found npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
Verify
claude --version Agent jobs not running
Check daemon logs
npm run dev:daemon
Verify cron syntax at https://crontab.guru
Check agent frontmatter has valid schedule field
Git history not working cd data git status
If not initialized:
git init git add . git commit -m "initial" Port conflicts
Next.js uses 3000, daemon uses 3001
Override in package.json scripts or set PORT env var
PORT
3002 npm run dev Embedded HTML app not rendering File must be named exactly index.html Must be inside a folder under data/ Check browser console for CSP/iframe errors Try accessing directly: http://localhost:3000/apps/my-folder Self-Hosting in Production npm run build npm run start
Runs both Next.js and daemon in production mode
With PM2
pm2 start npm --name "cabinet" -- run start pm2 save pm2 startup
Nginx reverse proxy
server { listen 80 ; server_name yourdomain.com ; location / { proxy_pass http://localhost:3000 ; proxy_http_version 1.1 ; proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade ; proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade' ; proxy_set_header Host $host ; } location /ws { proxy_pass http://localhost:3001 ; proxy_http_version 1.1 ; proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade ; proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade' ; } } Resources Website: runcabinet.com Discord: discord.gg/rxd8BYnN Cloud Waitlist: runcabinet.com/waitlist GitHub: github.com/hilash/cabinet Author: @HilaShmuel Changelog: CHANGELOG.md in the repo root