Arkon - The Open-Source Enterprise AI Knowledge Hub & MCP Server

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Arkon is a self-hosted, enterprise-grade knowledge management layer that bridges organizational data and AI clients. It runs as a centralized MCP Server (Model Context Protocol), compiling your SOPs, policies, and internal docs into a structured, traceable knowledge wiki - then serving that wiki to Claude and other LLMs through a single permission-scoped endpoint.

🚀 Why Arkon?

In most organizations, AI adoption is fragmented. Employees copy-paste documents into chatbots, producing inconsistent context, security risks, and duplicated work.

Arkon treats AI as a managed organizational resource. Every employee gets the right context, automatically and securely - filtered by their department and role.

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/assets/how-arkon-works.png" alt="How Arkon Works" width="720"> </p>

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✨ Key Features

🧠 Intelligent Knowledge Wiki - the MRP Pipeline

Unlike a vector database that just chunks and indexes, Arkon's MRP pipeline (Map → Reduce → Plan-review → Refine → Verify → Commit) actually compiles documents into a coherent wiki of interlinked pages.

• Plan review before write: every ingestion produces a human-reviewable plan listing which wiki pages will be created or updated. Editors can regenerate the plan with feedback before any page is written.
• Page merge instead of overwrite: when a new source touches an existing wiki page, content is LLM-merged so prior knowledge is never lost.
• Traceable claims: every page records the source documents it was compiled from.
• Image-aware: vision captions are baked into source text before compilation, so wiki pages reference the right images in the right places.
• Resumable: drafts persist mid-pipeline; a crashed run resumes without re-doing the expensive LLM work.

📚 Wiki Browser & Knowledge Graph

• Three-panel layout: page tree, content, backlinks & outlinks.
• Full-text + semantic (pgvector) search.
• Interactive knowledge graph visualization (per-scope or global).
• Wikilink-style cross-references between pages.
• Version history and rollback on every page.
• Draft proposal → editor review → approval workflow.

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/assets/arkon-wiki-ui.png" alt="Arkon Wiki Browser UI — three-panel knowledge base with page tree, content viewer, and knowledge graph" width="720"> </p>

🏢 Department & Global Scopes

Precise context boundaries with their own scoped wiki, document set, and department rosters.

• Department-level isolation for HR, Legal, Engineering, etc.
• Global scope for company-wide SOPs, policies, and general knowledge.
• Hard scope enforcement: members only see knowledge from their assigned departments or the global realm - at the API, MCP, and search layers.

🛂 Fine-Grained RBAC

Role-based access control at the department and global levels.

• Built-in roles: Viewer · Contributor · Editor · Admin to control draft, edit, and setting access.
• Granular permissions (doc:read:own_dept, wiki:edit:all, org:settings:manage, ...).
• Audit log for every privileged action - settings changes, plan approvals, and role updates.

🔌 MCP Server for Claude & Other AI Clients

Employees connect Claude Desktop or Claude.ai to Arkon via OAuth 2.1 + PKCE — just add the server URL and sign in through the browser. No manual token copying required. The MCP server exposes:

• Wiki tools - search_wiki, read_wiki_page, list_wiki_pages, read_wiki_index.
• Source drill-down - get_source, get_source_outline, get_source_pages, list_sources.
• Edit workflow - propose_wiki_edit, edit_wiki_page, list_pending_drafts, review_draft, approve_draft, reject_draft.
• Discovery - list_knowledge_types, get_knowledge_type_docs.

All tools enforce per-token scope (department, knowledge type, source list).

🧰 AI Skills Distribution

Upload custom agent packages once and distribute them across the org.

• Versioned skill packages (.zip with SKILL.md).
• Department-scoped visibility.
• Contribution workflow for end-user updates.

🤖 Pluggable AI Providers

Catalog-driven selection - admins pick from a curated list with context window, cost, and capability metadata on display.

• LLM: Anthropic Claude (Opus / Sonnet / Haiku 4.x), Google Gemini (3.x Pro / Flash / Flash-Lite, 2.5), OpenAI (GPT-5.x, GPT-4.x).
• Embedding: Google gemini-embedding-*, OpenAI text-embedding-3-* - switchable with online re-embed migration (active model atomically flipped on completion, no zero-result search window).
• Vision: Google Gemini Flash, OpenAI GPT-4o family.

🔒 Privacy & Security First

• Self-hosted. Deploy on-prem or in your private cloud via Docker.
• No telemetry. Outbound traffic goes only to the AI provider you choose.
• Encrypted at rest. API keys stored with Fernet encryption in PostgreSQL.

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🛠️ Tech Stack

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/assets/arkon-architecture.png" alt="Arkon Architecture" width="720"> </p>

• Backend: FastAPI · PostgreSQL + pgvector · Redis (arq workers) · MinIO
• Frontend: Next.js · Tailwind CSS
• AI integration: Model Context Protocol via FastMCP
• Document parsing: PDF, DOCX, DOC, plain text, URLs, embedded images

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💻 Server Requirements

Arkon runs 7 Docker containers (PostgreSQL + pgvector, Redis, MinIO, FastAPI API, 2 ARQ workers, Next.js frontend). The table below provides recommended configurations based on team size:

| | Starter | Team | Enterprise | |---|:---:|:---:|:---:| | Team size | 1 – 20 | 20 – 100 | 100+ | | vCPU | 2 cores | 4 cores | 8+ cores | | RAM | 4 GB | 8 GB | 16+ GB | | Storage | 40 GB SSD | 100 GB SSD | 250+ GB NVMe SSD | | OS | Ubuntu 22.04+ / Debian 12+ | Ubuntu 22.04+ / Debian 12+ | Ubuntu 22.04+ / Debian 12+ | | Use case | Evaluation / small teams | Departmental deployment | Organization-wide rollout |

[!NOTE]

• RAM is the primary bottleneck — the MRP pipeline workers load large LLM context windows into memory during wiki compilation.
• Storage scales with your document corpus — pgvector indexes, MinIO file storage, and PostgreSQL WAL logs are the main consumers.
• All AI inference happens externally (Anthropic / Google / OpenAI APIs), so GPU is not required.
• A reverse proxy (Nginx / Caddy) with SSL is recommended for production. See Setup Guide.

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🚦 Quick Start (Docker)

[!NOTE] Arkon is built for teams, not individuals. If you're looking for a personal knowledge setup, Obsidian + Claude Skills is a much simpler fit.

Not a tech person? Skip the self-hosting hassle — reach out for a free guided demo tailored for your team. No config, no Docker, just a walkthrough of what Arkon can do for your organization.

Prerequisites: Docker & Docker Compose, plus an API key from your preferred AI provider (Anthropic, Google, or OpenAI).

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/nduckmink/arkon.git
   cd arkon
   

2. Configure environment:

   cp .env.docker.example .env.docker
   # Edit .env.docker - set SECRET_KEY, admin credentials, and Postgres/MinIO secrets
   

3. Launch:

   docker compose --env-file .env.docker up -d --build
   

4. Access the portal at http://localhost:3119, sign in as admin, then go to Settings to pick your embedding / LLM / vision models and paste API keys.

→ See Setup Guide for development mode and the full env reference.

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🔗 Connecting Claude

In Claude Desktop or Claude.ai → Settings → Connectors, add a custom connector:

• Name: Arkon
• URL: https://your-arkon-server/mcp

Click Connect → a browser window opens with the Arkon login form → sign in with your Arkon credentials → done. Arkon uses OAuth 2.1 + PKCE so no manual token setup is required.

To make Claude consistently use Arkon, add this to Claude's Custom Instructions (Settings → Custom Instructions):

Whenever answering questions related to the company — its processes, products,
people, departments, policies, or projects — always search Arkon first using
the search_wiki tool before relying on general knowledge.

For stronger enforcement, create a Project in Claude Desktop, attach Arkon as a connector, and paste the same text as Project Instructions.

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/assets/arkon-in-use-of-claude.png" alt="Arkon in use with Claude Desktop" width="720"> </p>

→ See MCP & Claude for the complete tool reference.

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🗺️ Roadmap

• [x] MRP Pipeline - deterministic compilation with plan review, page merge, and resume-on-crash.
• [x] MCP Server - scoped wiki + source + draft tools.
• [x] Department & Global Scopes - department isolation with RBAC.
• [x] Wiki draft & revision workflow - propose, review, approve, rollback.
• [x] AI Skills - versioned, department-scoped agent packages.
• [x] Catalog-driven model selection - LLM, embedding, and vision picked from a curated list with cost/context-window metadata.
• [x] Online embedding migration - atomic re-embed with no search downtime.
• [x] Audit log - privileged actions tracked.
• [ ] Rich media ingestion - bulk folder upload with images, videos, and Excel/spreadsheet parsing baked into the MRP pipeline.
• [x] Usage analytics dashboard
• [ ] External data import - connectors for SharePoint, Google Drive, Notion, and other common org data sources.
• [ ] Arkon CLI - one-command setup for employees.
• [ ] Notification system - for draft reviews and plan approvals.

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⭐ Star History

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📄 License

Arkon is licensed under the PolyForm Internal Use License 1.0.0. Free for internal business operations; you may not offer Arkon as a service to third parties.

For enterprise support or custom integrations, please contact the maintainers.

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Keywords: Enterprise AI, Model Context Protocol, MCP Server, Knowledge Management System, Self-hosted RAG, AI Knowledge Base, Claude MCP, LLM Context Management, Open Source Wiki.

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📬 Contact

Main Author Minh Nguyen (Nguyễn Đức Minh) — Vietnam (GMT+7) · Fluent English ✉️ duckmink.bitsness@gmail.com

Company BITSNESS TECHNOLOGY AND SOLUTIONS COMPANY LIMITED ✉️ bitsness.ad@bitsness.vn

For enterprise inquiries, demo requests, or custom integrations — email us directly.