Guide · Agent skill
How to use the Brain Ingest Gate agent skill (brain-ingest-gate)
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
Brain Ingest Gate is an agent skill for the gbrain personal knowledge base. Before an agent adds a new note or page, it checks whether a named project, person or company already has a page, and whether the same insight is already recorded, so it links to the existing page instead of creating a copy. This guide explains what the skill makes the agent do, how to install it, how to trigger it, and what it needs to work.
Brain Ingest Gategarrytan/gbrain · MIT Download the skill Quick start
- 1Confirm you have a gbrain repository. The skill needs the gbrain command-line tool and a repository with the sibling skills and convention files it references.
- 2Download the skill ZIP. Download the brain-ingest-gate ZIP from this page.
- 3Unzip into the skills folder. Unzip into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder.
- 4Or upload it in the Claude apps. In the Claude apps, go to Settings → Capabilities → Skills and upload the skill.
- 5Ask in plain language. Make a request that matches a trigger, such as asking to move files to the brain or checking for duplicates before writing.
- 6Review the agent's decisions. Check which pages the agent linked to, created or skipped before accepting the writes.
What is an agent skill?
An agent skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file. The file tells an AI agent when a task matches the skill and what steps to follow. Skills are loaded into the agent's context when a request matches their triggers.
This skill belongs to the gbrain project, a personal knowledge base called a brain. It is written for people who maintain a gbrain repository and write notes into it.
What the skill makes the agent do
The skill runs a two-step checklist before any new page is written into the brain. The first step is named-entity resolution: the agent looks up whether a named thing already has a page, using gbrain entity, then gbrain query, and expands searches through the aliases listed in page frontmatter. The second step is dedup: the agent extracts the core claim of the new content, searches for it, and opens the top hit to decide whether to write, link or skip.
If the insight is already recorded, the agent is told to link to the existing page rather than copy it.
- Checks named projects, people and companies against existing pages first
- Searches each known alias, not only the phrase the user used
- Reads the top search result before deciding, instead of trusting the score alone
- Links to an existing page when the content is already there
How to install the brain-ingest-gate skill
Download the ZIP of the skill from this page and unzip it. Then choose one of the following locations.
You can install it for yourself across projects by unzipping into ~/.claude/skills/. You can also install it for one project by unzipping into that project's .claude/skills/ folder.
In the Claude apps you can instead upload the skill under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
- Personal: ~/.claude/skills/
- Single project: .claude/skills/ inside the project folder
- Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload
How to trigger the skill with natural requests
The skill loads when your request matches its triggers. You do not need to name it. Phrase the request in plain language that describes the ingest task.
The listed triggers include requests such as moving files into the brain, migrating content, checking for duplicates before writing, and asking whether something is already in the brain.
- "Move this to brain"
- "Migrate to brain"
- "Copy these files into the brain"
- "Is this already in the brain?"
- "Check for duplicates before writing"
- "Dedup before saving"
Examples of requests and what happens
Example: you ask the agent to move a folder of meeting notes into the brain. The gate runs before any file is written. For each named project or person, the agent resolves the existing page first, then searches for each new insight and reads the top hit before deciding.
Example: a background agent is about to write a note about a company that already has a page. The gate directs it to link to that page rather than create a stub.
gbrain entity "<name>"
gbrain query "<name>" --limit 3
gbrain search "<core claim>" --limit 5
gbrain get <slug>What the skill needs to work
The skill depends on a gbrain setup. It references the gbrain command-line tool, including entity, query, get, put, capture, sync and import commands. It also expects a gbrain repository that contains the sibling skills and convention files it refers to, such as ingest, enrich, signal-detector, concept-synthesis, quality.md and _brain-filing-rules.md.
Only SKILL.md was provided for review, so the sibling skills and convention files are not included in this package. Without a gbrain repository, the commands the skill relies on will not exist.
- A gbrain installation with the gbrain command-line tool
- A gbrain repository containing the referenced skills and convention files
- Not needed: no scripts are run and the skill uses no network access
Safety notes: scripts and network
According to the review, this skill runs no scripts and uses no network. Its effects come from the commands the agent runs against your gbrain repository, which write pages into the brain.
The skill is a routing convention. The file itself says a well-behaved agent follows it, and nothing in the runtime enforces it if the skill is not loaded. A raw copy into the brain repo is not blocked by the skill alone.
- Runs scripts: no
- Uses network: no
- Enforcement: convention only; not a hard block on writes
- Duplicate detection depends on the agent reading search results and judging them, so it can miss things
Tips for getting good results
Give the agent the real name of a project or person, not only a generic description. The skill expects named pages to carry an aliases: list in their frontmatter, so keep that list up to date for pages you maintain.
For large batches, the source suggests gating a few items first and inspecting the decisions before running the rest.
- Use real names when asking about existing pages
- Keep aliases: frontmatter current on named pages
- Test a small batch before a bulk import
- Do not rely on this skill alone where guaranteed duplicate detection is required
What people use it for
- Migrating a folder of files into a gbrain repository without creating duplicate pages for existing people or projects
- Letting a background agent write notes into a shared brain while checking for existing named pages
- Checking whether an insight is already recorded before saving a new note
- Running a small test batch of imports and reviewing the gate's decisions before the full import
Frequently asked questions
How do I install the brain-ingest-gate skill?
Download the ZIP from this page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder. In the Claude apps, you can instead upload it under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
What do I need to use brain-ingest-gate?
You need a gbrain installation with the gbrain command-line tool and a gbrain repository that contains the referenced skills and convention files. Without that setup, the commands the skill relies on will not exist.
Is brain-ingest-gate free and what is its licence?
The skill is listed under the MIT licence. This page does not state pricing beyond that.
Does the skill run scripts or use the network?
According to the review, it runs no scripts and uses no network. It works through gbrain commands the agent runs against your repository.
Will this stop an agent from writing duplicate pages?
Not with certainty. The skill is a routing convention that a well-behaved agent follows, and nothing in the runtime enforces it if the skill is not loaded. Duplicate detection also relies on the agent reading search results and judging them, which can miss things.
How is this different from gbrain capture or gbrain import?
According to the skill's notes, gbrain import and sync only skip matching frontmatter IDs, and gbrain capture dedupes only identical content within 24 hours by exact hash. Semantic dedup and named-entity resolution are what this skill adds.
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Our verdict
Use this skill if you maintain a gbrain repository, import or migrate files into it, or run background agents that write into a shared brain and you want to avoid duplicate stub pages. Do not use it if you have no gbrain setup, need a hard technical block on writes, or need guaranteed duplicate detection; pick a tool that enforces those rules at runtime instead.
Download the skill