LLM Wiki — Compounding Knowledge Base for Claude Code

A Claude Code skill that builds and maintains a persistent, interlinked wiki from your source documents. Based on Andrej Karpathy's LLM Wiki pattern.

Knowledge is compiled once and kept current, not re-derived on every query.

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Quick Start

One Command

git clone https://github.com/6eanut/llm-wiki
cd llm-wiki
./quickstart.sh

That's it. The script installs the skill, initializes the wiki, and drops in demo source files (Greek mythology — optional, use --no-demo to skip).

After setup, start Claude Code and run:

/wiki-ingest .raw/greek-olympians.md

Then ask anything about the content — Claude checks the wiki automatically.

With Session Hooks (Recommended)

./quickstart.sh --with-hooks

This enables:

• Dynamic wiki stats at startup — page count, recent changes, pending reviews injected at the start of every session
• Hot-cache for session continuity — context from your last session is bridged forward so you don't lose state between sessions

Manual Setup

Prefer manual control? Here's the three-step version:

./llm-wiki/install.sh --force                                           # 1. Install skill
~/.claude/skills/llm-wiki/scripts/setup-project.sh ./wiki --with-hooks  # 2. Init wiki
# 3. Drop source files in .raw/ and run /wiki-ingest

More Options

See the Quick Start Guide on the wiki for troubleshooting and advanced configuration.

What to Expect

After setup, start Claude Code in your project and ask a question:

You: "What is the relationship between Zeus and Athena?"

Claude: [reads ./wiki/.llm-wiki/index.md automatically]
        [finds relevant pages]
        [synthesizes answer with citations]

        ## Answer
        Athena is Zeus's daughter, born from his head...

        ## Evidence
        | Source Page | Key Point | Confidence |
        |-------------|-----------|------------|
        | [[athena]] | emerged from Zeus's forehead | high |
        | [[zeus]] | Father of Athena | high |

You don't need to type /wiki-query for routine questions. Claude reads CLAUDE.md at startup and follows the rule: "check the wiki before answering."

If the wiki doesn't have relevant knowledge, Claude will tell you and suggest adding source files to .raw/.

Adding Your Own Knowledge

1. Drop source files (markdown, text) into ./.raw/
2. Run /wiki-ingest .raw/your-file.md
3. The file is analyzed, concepts extracted, and interlinked pages created

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Architecture

How Proactive Wiki Works

Session starts
    ↓
Claude reads CLAUDE.md → "Check the wiki before answering"
    ↓
SessionStart hook runs → wiki stats, topics, pending items
    ↓
Slash commands auto-discovered from ~/.claude/commands/
    ↓
Skill auto-registered as "wiki" from ~/.claude/skills/llm-wiki/
    ↓
User asks any question
    ↓
Claude reads index.md → finds relevant pages → answers with citations

Key Architectural Decisions

Decision	Rationale
CLAUDE.md for rules	Always-loaded, no tool call needed. Tells Claude WHEN to use the wiki.
SessionStart hook for state	Dynamic wiki stats (pages, topics, pending items) injected each session.
LLM is the runtime	All content work done by Claude. No external language runtime needed.
Bash for determinism only	SHA-256 hashing, file listing, grep — correctness-critical operations only.
Markdown workflow files	Each command has a workflows/*.md procedure. Documentation = executable instructions.
Two-phase ingest	Phase 1 (analysis) writes a reviewable analysis before Phase 2 (generation) creates pages.
Auto-generated index	index.md regenerated on every change. Enables O(1) lookup of relevant pages.
SHA-256 incremental caching	.done sentinel files prevent re-ingestion. Safe to re-drop sources.

Three-Layer Data Architecture

.raw/ (sources)    →    wiki/ (pages)    →    skill (schema + workflows)
  (immutable)            (LLM-generated)       (conventions)

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Wiki Directory Structure

wiki/
├── .llm-wiki/
│   ├── schema.md                   Copy of WIKI_SCHEMA.md
│   ├── config.md                   User preferences
│   ├── index.md                    ★ AUTO-GENERATED — never edit by hand ★
│   ├── review.json                 {pending: [...], resolved: [...]}
│   ├── cache/
│   │   ├── hot-cache.md            Multi-session context bridge
│   │   ├── source-manifest.json    SHA-256 → source metadata
│   │   ├── state-hash.txt          Detects external modifications
│   │   └── ingests/{sha256}.done   Sentinel files (idempotent ingestion)
│   └── inbox/{sha256}-analysis.md  Phase 1 ingest analyses
├── transformer.md                  Concept page
├── 2026-04-28-weekly-notes.md      Article page
├── alan-turing.md                  Person page
└── synth-2026-04-28-riscv.md       Synthesis page

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Page Types

concept — Define a term, idea, methodology, tool

type: concept
language: en | zh | bilingual

Body: Definition → Key Properties → Examples → Related

article — Notes, blog drafts, imported documents

type: article

File: YYYY-MM-DD-{slug}.md

person — Author, researcher, notable individual

type: person

synthesis — Saved query answer (the compounding mechanism)

type: synthesis
query, based_on[], confidence: high | medium | low

File: synth-YYYY-MM-DD-{slug}.md

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Bilingual Support

• Auto-detection: CJK character ratio determines zh / en / bilingual
• Page titles: "English / 中文" format for bilingual pages
• Cross-language wikilinks: aliases field provides translations for link resolution
• Query matching: Prefers same-language pages, falls back across languages

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Skill File Map

llm-wiki/
├── SKILL.md                         Skill manifest with proactive usage rules
├── WIKI.md                          CLAUDE.md template (copied to project root)
├── WIKI_SCHEMA.md                   Page type definitions & conventions
├── install.sh                       Global installation (one-time)
├── commands/                        Auto-discovered slash commands
│   ├── wiki-ingest.md               /wiki-ingest
│   ├── wiki-query.md                /wiki-query
│   ├── wiki-lint.md                 /wiki-lint
│   ├── wiki-save.md                 /wiki-save
│   ├── wiki-graph.md                /wiki-graph
│   └── wiki-review.md               /wiki-review
├── templates/                       Page templates (article, concept, person, synthesis)
├── scripts/                         Deterministic bash operations
│   ├── setup-project.sh             ★ One-stop project setup
│   ├── init-wiki.sh                 Bootstrap new wiki directory
│   ├── hash-files.sh                SHA-256 hash source files
│   ├── check-stale.sh               Index freshness check
│   ├── find-orphans.sh              Pages with zero incoming links
│   ├── validate-frontmatter.sh      Required field validation
│   └── find-broken-links.sh         Dead wikilink detection
├── workflows/                       Deep workflow procedures (read by the skill)
│   ├── ingest.md                    Two-phase source ingestion
│   ├── query.md                     Index-first knowledge retrieval
│   ├── lint.md                      Structural + semantic health check
│   ├── save-synthesis.md            Persist answers as synthesis pages
│   ├── graph.md                     D3.js knowledge graph generation
│   └── review.md                    Review queue processing
└── hooks/                           Session lifecycle
    ├── session-start.sh             Wiki stats + PROACTIVE WIKI RULE
    └── session-stop.sh              Write hot-cache for next session

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Compared to RAG

	Typical RAG	LLM Wiki
Knowledge state	Re-derived per query	Persisted, compounding
Cross-references	None	Bidirectional [[wikilinks]]
Contradictions	Undetected	Flagged with callout blocks
Confidence	Opaque	Explicit per-page ratings
Audit trail	None	based_on provenance chain
Query cost	Every query reads source chunks	Index-first: only 3-5 pages read
Proactive	No — must be invoked	Yes — CLAUDE.md + hook drives behavior

Note: Advanced RAG implementations can include some of these features, but they're not standard. LLM Wiki provides them by design.

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Design Principles

Principle	Implementation
LLM is the runtime	All content work done by Claude. No external language runtime needed.
Bash for determinism	SHA-256, grep, file listing — correctness-critical operations only.
Auto-generated index	Regenerated on every change. Never hand-edited.
Incremental caching	SHA-256 sentinel files prevent re-work.
Two-phase ingest	Human checkpoint between analysis and generation.
Hot cache	Multi-session context bridge via SessionStop/SessionStart hooks.
True bilingual	language field, CJK detection, cross-language aliases.
Lint separation	Quick (bash, free) vs Full (LLM, thorough) — pay only when needed.

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Community

• Contributing Guide
• Code of Conduct
• Security Policy
• Changelog
• Support
• FAQ

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Credits

• Pattern: Andrej Karpathy
• Implementation: Built with Claude Code

License

MIT — see LICENSE for full text.