/idea-ingest
Ingest links, articles, tweets, and ideas into the brain. Fetch content, save to brain with analysis, create author people page, and cross-link. Use when the user shares a link or says "read this", "save this", "think about this".
$ npx -y skills add garrytan/gbrain --skill idea-ingest --agent claude-codeHow it fires
How this skill gets triggered: by you, by Claude, or both.
- Fires itselfAuto-invocation. Claude auto-loads it when your prompt matches the work.Auto-invocation is when the right skill fires by itself at the right moment, driven by a FLOW.md router and a hook, instead of you invoking it by name. It is the difference between a skill being installed and a skill actually getting used.Read the full definition →
- You can call itInvoke it directly when you want it.
- Slash command
/idea-ingest
Context preview
The summary Claude sees to decide when to auto-load this skill.
Ingest links, articles, tweets, and ideas into the brain. Fetch content, save to brain with analysis, create author people page, and cross-link. Use when the user shares a link or says "read this", "save this", "think about this".
SKILL.md
idea-ingest.SKILL.mdname: idea-ingest
version: 1.0.0
description: |
Ingest links, articles, tweets, and ideas into the brain. Fetch content, save
to brain with analysis, create author people page, and cross-link. Use when the
user shares a link or says "read this", "save this", "think about this".
triggers:
- shares a link or URL
- "read this"
- "save this"
- "think about this"
- "put this in brain"
tools:
- search
- query
- get_page
- put_page
- add_link
- add_timeline_entry
- file_upload
mutating: true
writes_pages: true
writes_to:
- people/
- concepts/
- sources/
Idea Ingest Skill
> **Filing rule:** Read `skills/_brain-filing-rules.md` before creating any new page.
Contract
This skill guarantees:
- Every ingested item has a brain page with genuine analysis (not just a summary)
- The author gets a people page (MANDATORY for anyone whose thinking is worth ingesting)
- Cross-links created bidirectionally (source ↔ author, source ↔ mentioned entities)
- Raw source preserved for provenance via `gbrain files upload-raw`
- Every fact has an inline `[Source: ...]` citation
- Filing follows primary subject rules (not format-based)
> **Convention:** See `skills/conventions/quality.md` for Iron Law back-linking.
Every mention of a person or company with a brain page MUST create a back-link. Format: `- **YYYY-MM-DD** | Referenced in [page title](path) — brief context`
Phases
1. **Fetch the content.** Use appropriate tools for the content type (web fetch for articles, API for tweets, PDF reader for documents).
2. **Upload raw source.** Save the fetched content for provenance: `gbrain files upload-raw <file> --page <slug>`
3. **Identify the author — MANDATORY people page.** Anyone whose thinking is worth ingesting is worth tracking.
- Search brain for existing author page
- If no page → CREATE ONE with compiled truth + timeline format
- If page exists → update timeline with this new publication
- Cross-link both directions
4. **Save to brain.** File by PRIMARY SUBJECT (read `skills/_brain-filing-rules.md`):
- About a person → `people/`
- About a company → `companies/`
- A reusable framework → `concepts/`
- Raw data dump → `sources/`
5. **Analyze for the user.** Reply with analysis that connects the content to what the brain knows. Think about:
- Active projects — is this relevant?
- Contradictions — does this challenge existing brain knowledge?
- Connections — does this involve known people/companies?
- Don't just summarize. Tell the user things they wouldn't have noticed.
6. **Sync.** `gbrain sync` to update the index.
Output Format
# {Title} — {Author}
**Source:** {URL}
**Author:** {Author}, {role}
**Published:** {date}
**Ingested:** {date}
## Context
{Why this matters now, connected to brain knowledge}
## Summary
{3-5 bullet core arguments}
## Key Data / Claims
{Specific facts, numbers, quotes}
## Analysis
{How this connects to existing brain knowledge. What's new. What contradicts.}Anti-Patterns
- Just summarizing without connecting to brain knowledge
- Filing everything in `sources/` (sources is for raw data dumps only)
- Skipping the author people page
- Not cross-linking to mentioned entities
- Ingesting without checking brain first for existing coverage
Read more
name: idea-ingest version: 1.0.0 description: | Ingest links, articles, tweets, and ideas into the brain. Fetch content, save to brain with analysis, create author people page, and cross-link. Use when the user shares a link or says "read this", "save this", "think about this". triggers: - shares a link or URL - "read this" - "save this" - "think about this" - "put this in brain" tools: - search - query - get_page - put_page - add_link - add_timeline_entry - file_upload mutating: true writes_pages: true writes_to: - people/ - concepts/ - sources/
Idea Ingest Skill
> **Filing rule:** Read `skills/_brain-filing-rules.md` before creating any new page.
Contract
This skill guarantees:
- Every ingested item has a brain page with genuine analysis (not just a summary)
- The author gets a people page (MANDATORY for anyone whose thinking is worth ingesting)
- Cross-links created bidirectionally (source ↔ author, source ↔ mentioned entities)
- Raw source preserved for provenance via `gbrain files upload-raw`
- Every fact has an inline `[Source: ...]` citation
- Filing follows primary subject rules (not format-based)
> **Convention:** See `skills/conventions/quality.md` for Iron Law back-linking.
Every mention of a person or company with a brain page MUST create a back-link. Format: `- **YYYY-MM-DD** | Referenced in [page title](path) — brief context`
Phases
1. **Fetch the content.** Use appropriate tools for the content type (web fetch for articles, API for tweets, PDF reader for documents).
2. **Upload raw source.** Save the fetched content for provenance: `gbrain files upload-raw <file> --page <slug>`
3. **Identify the author — MANDATORY people page.** Anyone whose thinking is worth ingesting is worth tracking.
- Search brain for existing author page
- If no page → CREATE ONE with compiled truth + timeline format
- If page exists → update timeline with this new publication
- Cross-link both directions
4. **Save to brain.** File by PRIMARY SUBJECT (read `skills/_brain-filing-rules.md`):
- About a person → `people/`
- About a company → `companies/`
- A reusable framework → `concepts/`
- Raw data dump → `sources/`
5. **Analyze for the user.** Reply with analysis that connects the content to what the brain knows. Think about:
- Active projects — is this relevant?
- Contradictions — does this challenge existing brain knowledge?
- Connections — does this involve known people/companies?
- Don't just summarize. Tell the user things they wouldn't have noticed.
6. **Sync.** `gbrain sync` to update the index.
Output Format
# {Title} — {Author}
**Source:** {URL}
**Author:** {Author}, {role}
**Published:** {date}
**Ingested:** {date}
## Context
{Why this matters now, connected to brain knowledge}
## Summary
{3-5 bullet core arguments}
## Key Data / Claims
{Specific facts, numbers, quotes}
## Analysis
{How this connects to existing brain knowledge. What's new. What contradicts.}Anti-Patterns
- Just summarizing without connecting to brain knowledge
- Filing everything in `sources/` (sources is for raw data dumps only)
- Skipping the author people page
- Not cross-linking to mentioned entities
- Ingesting without checking brain first for existing coverage
Search gives you raw pages. GBrain gives you the answer. It's the brain layer your AI agent has been missing — the only one that does synthesis, graph traversal, and gap analysis in one box.
Repo: garrytan/gbrain
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