Build a Project from a Folder of Documents

You have a folder of documents: contracts, reports, meeting notes, research, a client's whole file. Your AI can read them and build a Filamental project from them, with every person, organisation, decision and obligation as a node and the relationships between them drawn as connectors. Your documents are only read. Nothing in them is moved or changed.

This is the route for an AI outside Filamental. If you'd rather stay inside the app, Folder Exploration does the same job with the AI you've connected there, see Explore a Folder or Document with AI.

What you need

An AI that can read a folder on your computer, and that is connected to Filamental. That is one of:

Claude Code or Cowork, which read folders directly. Connect them over MCP as described in AI Connections & Prompting.
Claude Desktop, LM Studio or any other MCP client, as long as it can also read your files. Connect it the same way.

The AI runs on your own plan or your own model. Filamental does not read your documents and does not send them anywhere.

The steps

1. Start an empty project. Create a new project in Filamental, ideally beside your documents rather than inside the folder you want read. Leave it open. The AI works in whichever project is open.

2. Point the AI at the folder. Tell it where your documents are and what you want, for example: "Read everything in this folder and build a Filamental project from it. Propose the classifications and connectors first and wait for me."

3. Approve the vocabulary. After reading, the AI proposes the classifications (the kinds of node, such as Person or Contract) and the connector types (the kinds of relationship, such as funds or reports to), each with a colour and a weight. Change anything you like. Then add the approved ones in the app, under Classifications and Connectors in the Left Panel. The AI can use types but cannot create them, so this step is yours.

4. Let it build. Tell the AI the types are ready. It creates the nodes, with the reasoning behind each one written into its notes, and then the connectors between them. Watch it appear.

5. Read the report. The AI finishes by saying what it made and what it left out. Ask it about anything it skipped.

Tips

Start smaller than the whole folder. A first pass of a few dozen nodes is easy to review. Ask for more once the shape is right.
Ask for the reasoning. A node with a bare title is not much use. Notes that say why something is connected are what make the project worth reading later.
Re-run it. When new documents arrive, ask the AI to read the folder again and add only what is new.
Use the result as a folder. The project is plain markdown files, so you can hand it to another person, and their AI can read it the same way. See Working with Obsidian if that person keeps their notes there.