How to use the Brain Ingest Router agent skill (ingest)

What an agent skill is and what ingest makes the agent do

An agent skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file that tells an AI agent how to handle a specific kind of task. This one, named ingest, is described as a router: it detects the type of input and hands specialised work to other ingestion skills.

When triggered, the agent parses the source for people, companies, dates and events. For each entity it checks whether a page already exists, updates existing pages, or creates a new one when the entity passes a notability check. It adds dated timeline entries, links related pages together, and back-links every mentioned entity to the page that mentions it.

• Every fact written to a brain page carries an inline [Source: ...] citation with date and provenance.
• State sections are rewritten with current understanding rather than appended to.
• Raw sources are preserved for provenance through gbrain files upload-raw.
• Non-notable mentions stay as inline references instead of getting stub pages.

Install the ingest skill from a ZIP or the Claude apps

Download the ZIP from this page and unzip it. To make the skill available to all your projects, unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/. To limit it to one project, unzip it into that project's .claude/skills/ folder.

If you use the Claude apps instead, open Settings, go to Capabilities, and upload the skill under Skills.

• Personal install: ~/.claude/skills/
• Project install: .claude/skills/ inside your project folder
• Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Set up gbrain before you trigger the skill

The skill depends on the gbrain command-line tool and a configured brain. It will not work standalone, because it relies on gbrain commands and on folder conventions. The skill's filing rules live in a file called skills/_brain-filing-rules.md, which the agent reads before creating any new page.

Commands the skill uses include gbrain search, gbrain get, gbrain put, gbrain sync and gbrain files upload-raw. The folders it writes to are people/, companies/, concepts/, meetings/ and sources/.

• Check that the gbrain command is installed and your brain is configured.
• Confirm skills/_brain-filing-rules.md exists in your brain.

Trigger the skill with natural requests

The skill responds to phrases such as "ingest this", "save this to brain" and "process this meeting". Paste or describe the material and include one of these phrases. The agent decides how to route it.

For a web article, share the URL. The skill fetches the content with web fetch or an equivalent tool. For a video or podcast, share the URL or a local audio or video file. For a PDF or document, give the file path or URL.

• "Ingest this" followed by pasted meeting notes
• "Save this to brain" with an article URL
• "Process this meeting" with a transcript

Safety notes: scripts and network access

The skill runs scripts and uses the network. It writes pages and links into your brain by design, so it is not a quick one-off summary tool. Content and entity details are stored and may be pushed to a remote service through gbrain sync, so think before ingesting sensitive or confidential material if your brain syncs remotely.

Automatic capture is off by default. Entity detection on every message only runs after you explicitly opt in. Without that opt-in, the agent writes only what you ask it to save.

• Do not ingest confidential material into a brain that syncs to a remote service unless you accept that it may be pushed.
• Leave automatic capture off unless you want every substantive message scanned.
• Speaker-diarization services such as Diarize.io are optional and used for labelled transcripts.

Tips for consistent, cited notes

The skill is strictest about citations and back-links. Give it the context it needs, such as the meeting title or the date, so the citation fields are accurate. Review the first few pages it creates to confirm the filing and notability decisions match your expectations.

• Include the meeting title and date when you paste notes.
• For videos, expect a link to the raw transcript on every brain page.
• Read the filing rules file so you understand where pages land.