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There are four ways to populate a brain, and they all write through the same validated store that honors each doc_type’s storage policy.
1

Manual / agent

Write JSON directly, or open Claude Code in the folder and let it call put_entity / create_doc_type over MCP.
2

Bulk import

Import a file directly, or let an agent write a batch in one call with put_entities.
3

Connectors

connectors/*.py pull from an MCP server on a schedule; run with open-index ingest <name> or open-index run.
4

Agent write-back

A Stop hook that records learnings via put_entity — the “continuously improving” loop.

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Bulk import

JSON arrays, JSONL, and CSV all work:
  • Bare slugs are qualified (checkout → product:checkout).
  • CSV scalars are coerced to their declared types.
  • A related_to column takes target|meaning pairs separated by ;.
  • A bad row is reported and skipped — the rest still land.
  • --asserted-by / --confidence attribute the whole batch once instead of per row.

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Ways to create entities

Create a JSON object representing the entity you want to store, and add it from the explorer.
Talk to an agent connected to the brain; it validates and writes for you.
A script on your end pushes entities into the brain.
A connector defined in the brain configuration runs on a schedule.

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Distilling from unstructured documents

To extract or distill information from unstructured documents into entities:
  • Git repo knowledge bases — connect an agent to the brain via an MCP server and prompt it to extract information from the repo.
  • Commercial tools (Notion, Confluence, …) — connect an agent to both the brain (via MCP) and the source tool (via MCP server / CLI).
  • Scripted — use a script that connects to the brain via an API and extracts information from documents.
For distilled knowledge from an existing knowledge base, the recommendation is to connect that source’s MCP server to a Claude Code instance also connected to the brain.

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Next

Read Entity management for guidance on cadence, scale, and decay — the difference between a brain that stays sharp and one that fills with noise.