Cabinet: An AI-First Knowledge Base and Startup OS

Introduction

Cabinet is an innovative AI-first knowledge base and startup operating system, designed to empower individuals and teams with intelligent automation while maintaining full control over their data. Built by Hila Shmuel, former Engineering Manager at Apple, Cabinet distinguishes itself by storing all information as markdown files on disk, eliminating the need for a database and preventing vendor lock-in. This self-hosted solution ensures your data never leaves your machine, prioritizing privacy and portability. It integrates AI agents with memory, allowing for dynamic workspaces and automated tasks that evolve with your knowledge base.

Installation

Getting started with Cabinet is straightforward, requiring just a few commands to set up your AI-powered environment.

npx create-cabinet@latest
cd cabinet
npm run dev:all

After running these commands, open your browser to http://localhost:4000. An onboarding wizard will guide you through building your custom AI team by answering five simple questions.

For more detailed installation, update, and uninstall options, refer to the official documentation.

Examples

Cabinet transforms how you interact with your knowledge and AI. Here are some examples of its capabilities:

Hire Your AI Team: Cabinet ships with 20 pre-built agent templates across various departments, including Leadership, Product, Marketing, Engineering, Sales & Support, Analytics, and Operations. You can customize these agents with specific goals, skills, and scheduled jobs.
Automated Workflows: Agents can perform tasks like scouting Reddit every 6 hours or generating weekly reports every Monday, ensuring your knowledge base is constantly updated and your team grows even while you sleep.
Embedded HTML Apps: Unlike traditional note-taking apps, Cabinet allows you to embed full HTML applications directly within your knowledge base. Simply drop an index.html file into any folder, and it will render as an interactive iframe, enabling AI-generated apps and custom tools without a build step.
Git-Backed History: Every save automatically triggers a commit, providing a full diff viewer and the ability to restore any page to any point in time. This ensures a complete audit trail and robust version control for your evolving knowledge.

Why Use Cabinet?

Cabinet is built on a strong philosophy centered around data ownership, transparency, and flexibility, making it an ideal choice for those seeking an advanced, secure, and customizable AI-powered OS:

Data Ownership: Your data remains local, visible, and portable, stored as plain markdown files. There is no vendor lock-in, and you retain full control over your information.
Git Everything: Memory has history. Cabinet leverages Git for version control, allowing you to inspect changes, revert mistakes, and audit how knowledge evolves.
BYOAI (Bring Your Own AI): Cabinet is designed to work with various AI models, including Claude, Codex, local models, and future innovations, without locking you into a single provider.
Simplicity and Inspectability: Embracing the KISS principle, Cabinet prioritizes plain files, clear behavior, and systems that developers can easily understand and hack.
Security and Self-Hosting: With a deep commitment to security, Cabinet runs in an environment you control, minimizing exposure and making trust a core design requirement.

Compared to tools like Obsidian or Notion, Cabinet stands out with its AI agent orchestration, scheduled cron jobs, embedded HTML apps, and web terminal, all while being self-hosted with a file-based, no-database approach.