Company knowledge

Use Company Knowledge for information that needs sources: policies, products, procedures, or internal documents. This guide uses only the fictional company Northstar Bicycle Labs.

The commands below assume $PluginRoot was resolved as shown in Quick installation. Normal users may ask Codex to use $company-knowledge-base without resolving a path themselves.

1. Create a separate repository

$CompanyRoot = "D:\Knowledge\Northstar-Bicycle-Labs"
$AdminUser = "admin"

& "$PluginRoot\scripts\Invoke-LocalKnowledge.ps1" `
  -Tool local-knowledge `
  -ToolArguments @(
    "company", "init",
    "--root", $CompanyRoot,
    "--name", "Northstar Bicycle Labs",
    "--admin", $AdminUser
  )

Enter the password only in the hidden terminal getpass prompt. Never place the password in ToolArguments, an environment variable, chat prompt, file, log, or Git. Record the returned company_id.

.local-knowledge\company.toml   commit
knowledge\                      commit
.local-sources\                 do not commit
.ckb\                           do not commit

Use a private remote for a company repository.

2. Configure models and credentials

company init creates .ckb\config.json with the sample names local-chat-model and local-embedding-model. They are placeholders, not working model IDs.

$CompanyId = "northstar-bicycle-labs" # company_id returned by init

Start the Local Server in LM Studio and load one chat model and one embedding model. When the server does not require a bearer token, list its exact IDs:

$LmStudioUrl = "http://127.0.0.1:1234/v1"
(Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri "$LmStudioUrl/models").data |
  Select-Object -ExpandProperty id

If bearer authentication is enabled, read the IDs in the LM Studio interface. Write that URL and the two exact IDs to the non-secret config:

$ChatModel = Read-Host "Exact chat model ID"
$EmbeddingModel = Read-Host "Exact embedding model ID"
$ConfigPath = Join-Path $CompanyRoot ".ckb\config.json"
$Config = if (Test-Path -LiteralPath $ConfigPath) {
  Get-Content -Raw -Encoding utf8 $ConfigPath | ConvertFrom-Json
} else {
  [pscustomobject]@{}
}
$Config | Add-Member NoteProperty lm_studio_url $LmStudioUrl -Force
$Config | Add-Member NoteProperty chat_model $ChatModel -Force
$Config | Add-Member NoteProperty embedding_model $EmbeddingModel -Force
$ConfigJson = $Config | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 20
$Utf8NoBom = New-Object System.Text.UTF8Encoding($false)
[IO.File]::WriteAllText(
  $ConfigPath,
  $ConfigJson + [Environment]::NewLine,
  $Utf8NoBom
)

These required fields then have this shape:

{
  "lm_studio_url": "http://127.0.0.1:1234/v1",
  "chat_model": "EXACT_CHAT_MODEL_ID",
  "embedding_model": "EXACT_EMBEDDING_MODEL_ID"
}

Do not put tokens or Git passwords in that file. Start the portal, sign in as the administrator, and open Settings → Credentials. Store the LM Studio bearer token there only when the server requires one. Configure a Git username/PAT there only when syncing or pushing to a private remote:

& "$PluginRoot\scripts\Invoke-LocalKnowledge.ps1" `
  -Tool local-knowledge `
  -ToolArguments @(
    "company", "serve", "--company", $CompanyId,
    "--host", "127.0.0.1", "--port", "8000"
  )

The portal encrypts credentials; its master key stays in Windows Credential Manager. Run health before adding a source:

& "$PluginRoot\scripts\Invoke-LocalKnowledge.ps1" `
  -Tool local-knowledge `
  -ToolArguments @("company", "health", "--company", $CompanyId)

Read the returned JSON, not only the exit code: status must be ok, database must be true, the chat endpoint must be ready, the secret backend must have no error, and okf must have no failures. The embedding model must be ready for semantic search; otherwise search is lexical only. OCR is required only for scanned PDFs.

3. Attach a project

$ProjectRoot = "D:\Projects\northstar-support"
$CompanyId = "northstar-bicycle-labs"

& "$PluginRoot\scripts\Invoke-LocalKnowledge.ps1" `
  -Tool local-knowledge `
  -ToolArguments @(
    "project", "init",
    "--root", $ProjectRoot,
    "--company", $CompanyId,
    "--profile", "combined",
    "--install-mode", "global"
  )

combined keeps separate project Memory and uses shared company evidence. company-only omits Memory. Both require a registered company.

4. Add a source

Copy an approved source under .local-sources\:

$SourcePath = Join-Path $CompanyRoot ".local-sources\support-policy.md"

& "$PluginRoot\scripts\Invoke-LocalKnowledge.ps1" `
  -Tool local-knowledge `
  -ToolArguments @(
    "company", "source-add", "--company", $CompanyId,
    "file", $SourcePath, "--title", "Support policy"
  )

Use the returned source ID to queue ingestion, then the returned job ID:

& "$PluginRoot\scripts\Invoke-LocalKnowledge.ps1" `
  -Tool local-knowledge `
  -ToolArguments @("company", "ingest", "--company", $CompanyId, "1")

& "$PluginRoot\scripts\Invoke-LocalKnowledge.ps1" `
  -Tool local-knowledge `
  -ToolArguments @("company", "run-job", "--company", $CompanyId, "1")

Replace 1 with actual IDs. Website sources require explicit public HTTP(S) seeds and --allow-domain for every permitted domain. Private hosts and off-allowlist navigation fail closed.

5. Review and answer

& "$PluginRoot\scripts\Invoke-LocalKnowledge.ps1" `
  -Tool local-knowledge `
  -ToolArguments @(
    "company", "serve", "--company", $CompanyId,
    "--host", "127.0.0.1", "--port", "8000"
  )

Open http://127.0.0.1:8000. Review each claim, exact excerpt, locator, and confidence. A factual answer requires evidence_sufficient: true and citations with verified: true, source_uri, locator, and an exact supporting excerpt.

If evidence is insufficient, say so. Never fill the gap with Memory or Skill text.