Out-the-front is a designation of folding knife where the blade is engaged in a sliding motion, rather than a hindging motion, the blade's point facing away from the operator in both the open and closed positions. OTF knives, due to their linear motion, often have button operated retraction as well as extension. This is facilitated by changing the simple button mechanism for a rocker, which is, in turn, used to assign extensive or retractive force on the blade via a spring system. The rocker mechanism also acts to engage the blade's lock, as an OTE knife would not function without a lock, unlinke a folding knife.

Examples of OTF knives include the Microtech Halo 5 and the Infidel. Due to the complicated internal mechanism for deploying and retracting the knife blade, many OTF knives are limited in production number and can also be very costly.