Neo4j Document Import Skill

Neo4j Document Import Skill

When to Use

• Ingesting PDFs, HTML, plain text, Markdown into Neo4j as a knowledge graph
• Chunking documents and storing :Chunk nodes with embeddings
• Extracting entities and relationships from text with an LLM
• Using SimpleKGPipeline (neo4j-graphrag) programmatically
• Using Neo4j LLM Graph Builder (no-code web UI)
• Loading semi-structured JSON via apoc.load.json
• Connecting LangChain or LlamaIndex document loaders to Neo4j

When NOT to Use

• Structured CSV / relational data → neo4j-import-skill
• GraphRAG retrieval after ingestion → neo4j-graphrag-skill
• Vector index creation → neo4j-vector-search-skill
• Cypher query writing → neo4j-cypher-skill

Approach Decision Table

Install

pip install neo4j-graphrag                   # includes SimpleKGPipeline
pip install neo4j-graphrag[openai]           # + OpenAI LLM/embedder
pip install neo4j-graphrag[anthropic]        # + Anthropic Claude
pip install neo4j-graphrag[google]           # + Vertex AI / Gemini
pip install neo4j-graphrag[bedrock]          # + Amazon Bedrock (boto3) — added v1.15.0
pip install neo4j-graphrag[ollama]           # + Ollama (local)
pip install neo4j-graphrag[mistralai]        # + MistralAI
pip install neo4j-graphrag[fuzzy-matching]   # + FuzzyMatchResolver (rapidfuzz)
# spaCy entity resolver (Python <= 3.13 only — unsupported on 3.14+):
pip install neo4j-graphrag[nlp]

Requires: neo4j>=5.17.0 (driver 6.x supported), Python>=3.10, Neo4j>=5.18.1 (Aura>=5.18.0).

Step 1 — Define Graph Schema

Schema controls what the LLM extracts. Define before pipeline construction.

# Option A — Simple string lists (LLM infers descriptions)
entities = ["Person", "Organization", "Location", "Product", "Event"]
relations = ["WORKS_AT", "LOCATED_IN", "KNOWS", "MENTIONS", "PART_OF"]
patterns = [
    ("Person", "WORKS_AT", "Organization"),
    ("Organization", "LOCATED_IN", "Location"),
    ("Person", "KNOWS", "Person"),
    ("Article", "MENTIONS", "Organization"),
]

# Option B — Rich GraphSchema (production; best extraction quality)
from neo4j_graphrag.experimental.components.schema import (
    GraphSchema, NodeType, RelationshipType, PropertyType, ConstraintType
)
schema = GraphSchema(
    node_types=[
        NodeType(
            label="Person",
            description="A human individual",
            properties=[
                PropertyType(name="name", type="STRING"),
                PropertyType(name="role", type="STRING"),
            ],
        ),
        NodeType(
            label="Organization",
            description="A company or institution",
            properties=[
                PropertyType(name="name", type="STRING"),
                PropertyType(name="industry", type="STRING"),
            ],
        ),
    ],
    relationship_types=[
        RelationshipType(label="WORKS_AT", description="Employment relationship"),
    ],
    patterns=[("Person", "WORKS_AT", "Organization")],
    # Optional: constraints emitted to ParquetWriter metadata (v1.15.0+)
    constraints=[
        ConstraintType(label="Person", property_name="name", type="UNIQUENESS"),
        ConstraintType(label="Organization", property_name="name", type="KEY"),
    ],
)

# Option C — Auto-extract schema from text (no constraints)
schema = "EXTRACTED"   # LLM infers types; noisier output
schema = "FREE"        # No schema guidance; most noise

Use Option B for production; Option A for prototyping; "EXTRACTED" only for exploration.

Step 2 — SimpleKGPipeline Setup

import asyncio
from neo4j import GraphDatabase
from neo4j_graphrag.experimental.pipeline.kg_builder import SimpleKGPipeline
from neo4j_graphrag.llm import OpenAILLM
from neo4j_graphrag.embeddings import OpenAIEmbeddings

driver = GraphDatabase.driver(
    "neo4j+s://xxxx.databases.neo4j.io",
    auth=("neo4j", "password")
)

llm = OpenAILLM(
    model_name="gpt-4.1",
    model_params={"temperature": 0},
    # Note: SimpleKGPipeline auto-enables structured output for OpenAI/VertexAI LLMs (v1.14.0+)
    # Do NOT set response_format manually — it is managed by the pipeline
)
embedder = OpenAIEmbeddings()   # OPENAI_API_KEY from env

pipeline = SimpleKGPipeline(
    llm=llm,
    driver=driver,
    embedder=embedder,
    schema=schema,              # GraphSchema, dict, "FREE", or "EXTRACTED"
    from_file=True,             # False → pass text= instead of file_path=
             # RAISE to surface extraction failures
    perform_entity_resolution=True,
    neo4j_database="neo4j",     # omit to use default
)

LLM alternatives (same interface):

• AnthropicLLM(model_name="claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022")
• VertexAILLM(model_name="gemini-2.0-flash")
• OllamaLLM(model_name="llama3") — local; no API key needed
• BedrockLLM(model_id="anthropic.claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022-v2:0") — Amazon Bedrock (v1.15.0+)

Step 3 — Run the Pipeline

# From PDF file:
result = asyncio.run(pipeline.run_async(
    file_path="report.pdf",        # auto-dispatches to PdfLoader
    document_metadata={"source": "Q4 report", "year": 2025},
))

# From Markdown file (v1.15.0+):
result = asyncio.run(pipeline.run_async(
    file_path="notes.md",          # auto-dispatches to MarkdownLoader
    document_metadata={"source": "meeting notes"},
))

# Note: old `from_pdf=True` parameter is DEPRECATED since v1.15.0; use `from_file=True` instead
# pipeline = SimpleKGPipeline(..., from_file=True)   ← correct
# pipeline = SimpleKGPipeline(..., from_pdf=True)    ← deprecated

# From raw text:
result = asyncio.run(pipeline.run_async(
    text=document_text,
))

# Batch — process multiple files:
async def ingest_all(paths):
    for p in paths:
        await pipeline.run_async(file_path=str(p))

asyncio.run(ingest_all(list(pdf_dir.glob("*.pdf"))))

document_metadata dict is stored as properties on the :Document node.

Step 4 — Chunking Configuration

Default splitter: FixedSizeSplitter(chunk_size=300, chunk_overlap=50).

from neo4j_graphrag.experimental.components.text_splitters.fixed_size_splitter import FixedSizeSplitter

splitter = FixedSizeSplitter(
    chunk_size=512,       # tokens; 300–512 typical for GPT-4o
    chunk_overlap=50,     # ~10% of chunk_size; preserves boundary context
    approximate=True,     # respect sentence/word boundaries when possible
)

pipeline = SimpleKGPipeline(
    ...,
    text_splitter=splitter,
)

Chunking guidance:

Rule: chunk must fit within LLM context for extraction + within embedding model limits. GPT-4o: 128k context; text-embedding-3-small: 8191 tokens. Never set chunk_size > 2048.

Step 5 — Entity Resolution

Merge duplicate extracted entities after pipeline run.

from neo4j_graphrag.experimental.components.resolver import (
    SinglePropertyExactMatchResolver,   # identical name → merge
    FuzzyMatchResolver,                  # Levenshtein similarity; needs rapidfuzz
    SpaCySemanticMatchResolver,          # cosine similarity; needs neo4j-graphrag[nlp]
)

# Exact match (fastest; good baseline)
resolver = SinglePropertyExactMatchResolver(driver)
asyncio.run(resolver.run())

# Fuzzy match (handles typos / alternate spellings)
from neo4j_graphrag.experimental.components.resolver import FuzzyMatchResolver
resolver = FuzzyMatchResolver(driver, threshold=0.9)
asyncio.run(resolver.run())

# Scope resolution to specific labels only:
resolver = SinglePropertyExactMatchResolver(
    driver,
    filter_query="WHERE n:Organization OR n:Person",
)
asyncio.run(resolver.run())

Run resolvers after ingestion, not inline — bulk merges are faster.

Resulting Graph Structure

Pipeline always produces this lexical graph layer:

(:Document {id, fileName, status, ...metadata})
    -[:HAS_CHUNK]->
(:Chunk {id, text, index, embedding, ...})
    -[:NEXT_CHUNK]->          ← linked list for ordered traversal
(:Chunk {...})

(:Chunk)-[:FROM_DOCUMENT]->(:Document)   ← back-pointer

Entity extraction adds:

(:Chunk)-[:MENTIONS]->(:Person {name, ...})
(:Chunk)-[:MENTIONS]->(:Organization {name, ...})
(:Person)-[:WORKS_AT]->(:Organization)

Verify after ingestion:

CYPHER 25
MATCH (d:Document)-[:HAS_CHUNK]->(c:Chunk)
RETURN d.fileName, count(c) AS chunks LIMIT 10;

MATCH (c:Chunk)-[:MENTIONS]->(e)
RETURN labels(e)[0] AS type, count(*) AS cnt ORDER BY cnt DESC LIMIT 20;

LLM Graph Builder (No-Code UI)

Use when: non-developers need to ingest docs; rapid prototyping; no Python environment.

Hosted: https://llm-graph-builder.neo4jlabs.com/

Local (Docker):

git clone https://github.com/neo4j-labs/llm-graph-builder
cd llm-graph-builder
# Set OPENAI_API_KEY (or other provider keys) in .env
docker-compose up
# Opens at http://localhost:8080

Supported sources: PDF, plain text, Markdown, images, web pages, YouTube transcripts, S3/GCS bucket uploads.

LLM providers: OpenAI, Gemini, Claude, Llama3, Diffbot, Qwen.

Limitations: best with long-form English text; poor on tabular data (use neo4j-import-skill for CSV/Excel); visual diagrams not extracted.

APOC JSON Ingestion (Semi-Structured)

Use when source is JSON from REST APIs, S3, or file exports.

CYPHER 25
CALL apoc.load.json("https://example.com/articles.json") YIELD value
UNWIND value.articles AS article
CALL (article) {
  MERGE (d:Document {id: article.id})
  SET d.title = article.title, d.url = article.url, d.publishedAt = article.publishedAt
  FOREACH (tag IN article.tags |
    MERGE (t:Tag {name: tag})
    MERGE (d)-[:HAS_TAG]->(t)
  )
} IN TRANSACTIONS OF 1000 ROWS

Local file: apoc.load.json("file:///import/data.json"). File must be in $NEO4J_HOME/import/ or APOC allowlist configured.

Check APOC available: RETURN apoc.version(). APOC is included on all Aura tiers.

LangChain Integration Pattern

from langchain_community.graphs import Neo4jGraph
from langchain_community.document_loaders import PyPDFLoader
from langchain.text_splitter import RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter
from langchain_openai import OpenAIEmbeddings
from neo4j import GraphDatabase

graph = Neo4jGraph(
    url="neo4j+s://xxxx.databases.neo4j.io",
    username="neo4j",
    password="password",
)

loader = PyPDFLoader("report.pdf")
docs = loader.load()
splitter = RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter(chunk_size=512, chunk_overlap=64)
chunks = splitter.split_documents(docs)

embedder = OpenAIEmbeddings()
driver = GraphDatabase.driver(url, auth=("neo4j", "password"))

for i, chunk in enumerate(chunks):
    emb = embedder.embed_query(chunk.page_content)
    driver.execute_query(
        """
        MERGE (doc:Document {id: $doc_id})
        SET doc.source = $source
        CREATE (c:Chunk {id: $chunk_id, text: $text, embedding: $emb, index: $idx})
        CREATE (doc)-[:HAS_CHUNK]->(c)
        """,
        doc_id=chunk.metadata.get("source", "unknown"),
        source=chunk.metadata.get("source"),
        chunk_id=f"chunk-{i}",
        text=chunk.page_content,
        emb=emb,
        idx=i,
    )

For entity extraction with LangChain: use LLMGraphTransformer (from langchain_experimental.graph_transformers). Produces same :Document/:Chunk/entity pattern.

Constraints and Indexes (Run Before Ingestion)

CYPHER 25
// Prevent duplicate documents
CREATE CONSTRAINT doc_id_unique IF NOT EXISTS
  FOR (d:Document) REQUIRE d.id IS UNIQUE;

// Prevent duplicate chunks
CREATE CONSTRAINT chunk_id_unique IF NOT EXISTS
  FOR (c:Chunk) REQUIRE c.id IS UNIQUE;

// Entity deduplication
CREATE CONSTRAINT person_name_unique IF NOT EXISTS
  FOR (p:Person) REQUIRE p.name IS UNIQUE;
CREATE CONSTRAINT org_name_unique IF NOT EXISTS
  FOR (o:Organization) REQUIRE o.name IS UNIQUE;

// Vector index for chunk embeddings (adjust dims for your model)
CREATE VECTOR INDEX chunk_embeddings IF NOT EXISTS
  FOR (c:Chunk) ON c.embedding
  OPTIONS {indexConfig: {`vector.dimensions`: 1536, `vector.similarity_function`: 'cosine'}};

// Poll until index ONLINE:
// SHOW INDEXES YIELD name, state WHERE state <> 'ONLINE'

Do not start ingestion until all indexes are ONLINE:

SHOW INDEXES YIELD name, state WHERE state <> 'ONLINE';

If rows returned: wait, then re-run. to ingest.

Common Errors

Verification Checklist

• Constraints created and ONLINE before ingestion starts
• Vector index created before storing embeddings
• chunk_size within embedding model limit (≤2048; ≤512 for extraction)
• chunk_overlap set to 10–15% of chunk_size
• Document→HAS_CHUNK→Chunk pattern used (enables graph traversal in retrieval)
• document_metadata populated with source identifier
• Entity resolver run after bulk ingestion
• apoc.version() confirmed if using apoc.load.json
• .env has API keys; .env in .gitignore
• Verify structure: MATCH (d:Document)-[:HAS_CHUNK]->(c:Chunk) RETURN count(c)
• Verify entities: MATCH (c:Chunk)-[:MENTIONS]->(e) RETURN labels(e)[0], count(*)

GraphSchema — Current API (≥1.8.0)

entities/relations/potential_schema are deprecated. Use schema=GraphSchema(...).

from neo4j_graphrag.experimental.components.schema import (
    GraphSchema, NodeType, RelationshipType, PropertyType,
    ConstraintType, GraphConstraintType,
)

schema = GraphSchema(
    node_types=[
        NodeType(label="Person", properties=[PropertyType(name="name", type="STRING")]),
        NodeType(label="Organization", properties=[PropertyType(name="name", type="STRING")]),
    ],
    relationship_types=[RelationshipType(label="WORKS_AT")],
    patterns=[("Person", "WORKS_AT", "Organization")],
    # Constraints (v1.15.0+) — emitted to ParquetWriter metadata and enforce schema
    constraints=[
        # UNIQUENESS — property must be unique across nodes of that label
        ConstraintType(label="Person", property_name="name", type=GraphConstraintType.UNIQUENESS),
        # KEY — uniqueness + existence (null not allowed)
        ConstraintType(label="Organization", property_name="name", type=GraphConstraintType.KEY),
        # EXISTENCE — property must be non-null (replaces deprecated PropertyType.required)
        ConstraintType(label="Event", property_name="date", type=GraphConstraintType.EXISTENCE),
        # Composite KEY (v1.15.0+)
        ConstraintType(
            label="Person",
            property_names=("first_name", "last_name"),
            type=GraphConstraintType.KEY,
        ),
    ],
)
pipeline = SimpleKGPipeline(llm=llm, driver=driver, embedder=embedder, schema=schema)

schema="FREE" (no guidance) or schema="EXTRACTED" (LLM infers types) — exploration only, noisier output.

Auto-Extract Schema from Text (v1.15.0+)

When no schema is passed to SimpleKGPipeline, SchemaFromTextExtractor runs automatically. To run it explicitly:

from neo4j_graphrag.experimental.components.graph_schema_extraction import (
    SchemaFromTextExtractor,
    SchemaFromExistingGraphExtractor,
)

# Infer schema from sample text
extractor = SchemaFromTextExtractor(llm=llm, use_structured_output=True)
schema = asyncio.run(extractor.run(text=sample_text))

# Derive schema from an existing Neo4j graph
extractor = SchemaFromExistingGraphExtractor(driver=driver)
schema = asyncio.run(extractor.run())

Parquet Export (experimental, v1.14.0+)

from neo4j_graphrag.experimental.components.parquet_output import ParquetWriter

# Use ParquetWriter instead of KGWriter inside a Pipeline to export to Parquet files
writer = ParquetWriter(output_dir="/data/kg_export/")
# Produces one Parquet file per node label and per relationship type
# Metadata includes UNIQUENESS, EXISTENCE, and KEY constraints (v1.15.0/1.16.0)

LexicalGraphConfig — Customize Labels

Override default lexical layer labels (keep defaults unless integrating with existing graph):

from neo4j_graphrag.experimental.components.types import LexicalGraphConfig
# All fields have sensible defaults — only override what differs from your graph's conventions
config = LexicalGraphConfig(
    document_node_label="Article",             # default: "Document"
    chunk_node_label="Passage",                # default: "Chunk"
    node_to_chunk_relationship_type="HAS_ENTITY",  # default: "MENTIONS"
    chunk_text_property="content",             # default: "text"
)
pipeline = SimpleKGPipeline(..., lexical_graph_config=config)

Custom Document Loaders

Default file_loader auto-dispatches by extension (.pdf→PdfLoader, .md→MarkdownLoader). Supports fsspec URIs (s3://, gcs://). Subclass DataLoader for HTML/web/custom formats:

from neo4j_graphrag.experimental.components.data_loader import DataLoader
from neo4j_graphrag.experimental.components.types import DocumentInfo, LoadedDocument

class WebPageLoader(DataLoader):
    async def run(self, filepath, metadata=None):
        import httpx
        text = httpx.get(filepath).text   # strip HTML in real impl
        return LoadedDocument(text=text,
            document_info=DocumentInfo(path=filepath, metadata=metadata))

pipeline = SimpleKGPipeline(..., file_loader=WebPageLoader(), from_file=True)

Chunking strategy by use-case and full resolver config: references/kg-construction.md.

References

Load on demand:

• neo4j-graphrag KG Builder guide
• neo4j-graphrag library overview
• LLM Graph Builder (hosted)
• LLM Graph Builder GitHub
• APOC load procedures
• GraphAcademy: Building Knowledge Graphs with LLMs
• LangChain Neo4j Integration
• LlamaIndex Neo4jQueryEngine
• Extended KG Construction Reference