Optional features

What is off by default, how to turn it on, and which status code tells you a feature is off.

KiwiFS starts with a small, safe default set. Some subsystems are opt-in in .kiwi/config.toml, a few depend on the search backend or external tools, and two are chosen when the binary is built. When a feature is off, its endpoints return a clear status code instead of failing silently.

A 501 or 503 from an endpoint listed below usually means the feature is off on this server, not that something is broken.

Runtime features

Feature	On by default	How to turn it on	When off
Draft spaces	No	[drafts] enabled = true with git versioning	501
Audit log	No	[audit] enabled = true	501
Webhooks	No	[webhooks] enabled = true	503
Vector search	No	[search.vector] enabled = true plus an embedder	503
Schema enforcement	No	[schema] enforce = true	Writes are not validated
Workflow transition rules	No	[workflow] enforce_transitions = true	Any status change is allowed
Rate limiting	No	[server.rate_limit] requests_per_minute above 0	No limit
Backup push	No	[backup] remote	No push
Claims	Yes	Nothing to do	503 if the claim store could not open
DQL, Bases, analytics	Yes	Keep [search] engine = "sqlite"	501 with engine = "grep"
Graph analytics	Yes	Needs the link index	503
Import connections	Yes	Nothing to do	List returns []; other calls 503
Airbyte connectors	When Docker is reachable	Start Docker or set [import] airbyte_api_key	503
S3, WebDAV, NFS	No	kiwifs serve --s3, --webdav, --nfs	Port not open

Turning features on

Draft spaces

Drafts are git branches in separate worktrees, so they need git versioning as well as the switch:

.kiwi/config.toml

[versioning]
strategy = "git"

[drafts]
enabled = true
max_active = 10

See Draft spaces.

Audit log

.kiwi/config.toml

[audit]
enabled = true

Terminal

curl 'http://localhost:3333/api/kiwi/audit?since=2026-10-01T00:00:00Z&limit=100'

See Audit log.

Webhooks

.kiwi/config.toml

[webhooks]
enabled = true

Then register webhooks through the API or with [[webhook_entries]]. See Webhooks.

Vector search

.kiwi/config.toml

[search.vector]
enabled = true

[search.vector.embedder]
provider = "openai"
model = "text-embedding-3-small"
api_key = "${OPENAI_API_KEY}"

The vector store defaults to an embedded SQLite store. Run kiwifs reindex to embed existing pages. See Search and Vector search configuration.

Schema enforcement

.kiwi/config.toml

[schema]
enforce = true
enforce_level = "warn"

Start with warn on an existing knowledge base to see violations without blocking writes, then switch to the default reject. See Schemas.

Claims

Claims are on by default. Expired claims are released every 30 seconds. You only see 503 if the claim store under .kiwi/state/ could not be opened; check the server log for claims disabled.

See Claims.

Document export tools

Exporting to formats such as DOCX, slides, or a static site uses external tools when they are installed: Pandoc, Marp CLI, MkDocs, Typst, XeLaTeX, and pandoc-crossref. The server logs which ones it found at startup, and formats that need a missing tool are unavailable. The Docker image ships with Pandoc, Marp CLI, MkDocs, and Chromium. See Document export.

Build-time features

Release binaries and the Docker image use the default build. Two features change with Go build tags when you build from source:

Feature	Default build	Build tag	Notes
D2 diagrams	Included	-tags nod2 removes it	Without D2, ```d2 fences don’t render and /api/kiwi/render/d2 returns 501. Removing it makes the binary smaller.
ONNX embedder	Not included	-tags onnx adds it	Lets [search.vector.embedder] provider = "onnx" run a local model. Needs CGo and the ONNX Runtime shared library. Without it, the onnx provider fails at startup with a message to rebuild.

Terminal

make ui
go build -tags nod2 -o kiwifs .
CGO_ENABLED=1 go build -tags onnx -o kiwifs .

On Windows, kiwifs mount (FUSE) is not available. Use kiwifs serve with WebDAV or the REST API instead.

Related

Configuration

Every config key and its default.

API overview

Auth and error conventions.