Idea Ingest

What it does

When your agent uses it

• The user shares a link
• Think about this

Example prompts

• “read this”
• “save this”
• “think about this”
• “/idea-ingest”

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

1. 1Fetch the content. Use appropriate tools for the content type (web fetch for articles, API for tweets, PDF reader for documents).
2. 2Upload raw source. Save the fetched content for provenance: gbrain files upload-raw --page
3. 3Identify the author — notability-gated. Search brain for an existing author page first.
4. 4Save to brain. File by PRIMARY SUBJECT (read skills/_brain-filing-rules.md)
5. 5Analyze for the user. Reply with analysis that connects the content to what the brain knows. Think about
6. 6Sync. gbrain sync to update the index.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit fc54831. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are markdown).

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Idea Ingest loads about 1.6k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 72 tokens; SKILL.md has 766 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~72

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.6k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from garrytan/gbrain at commit fc54831, republished under its MIT licence (© garrytan). 766 words, ~1,650 tokens.

name

idea-ingest

description

Ingest links, articles, tweets, and ideas into the brain. Fetch content, save to brain with analysis, credit the author (people page only when they pass the notability gate), and cross-link. Use when the user shares a link or says "read this", "save this", "think about this".

version

1.2.0

upstream

idea-ingest@fc834ee

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/

# {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.}

© garrytan, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/idea-ingest of garrytan/gbrain.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit fc54831