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

Situation	Approach
No code; drag-and-drop UX wanted	LLM Graph Builder web UI
Programmatic pipeline; PDFs/text	SimpleKGPipeline (neo4j-graphrag)
JSON / REST API responses	apoc.load.json or Python + UNWIND
LangChain already in stack	Neo4jGraph + document loader
LlamaIndex already in stack	Neo4jQueryEngine / Neo4jVectorStore
Chunk-only (no entity extraction)	Manual chunking + MERGE pattern

---

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.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=
    on_error="IGNORE",          # 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.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:

Document type	chunk_size	chunk_overlap
Dense technical text	256–512	50–80
Narrative / news articles	512–1024	80–128
Legal / financial docs	256–384	40–64

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.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.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. ONLINE = safe to ingest.

---

Common Errors

Error	Cause	Fix
LLM extracts node types not in schema	Schema too loose or "EXTRACTED" mode	Define explicit entities + patterns; use Option B schema
MissingEmbedderError	embedder= omitted	Always pass embedder= even if not doing vector search — pipeline stores embeddings on Chunk nodes
Zero entities extracted	LLM context overflow	Reduce chunk_size; switch to model with larger context
Duplicate entity nodes after ingestion	Entity resolution not run	Run SinglePropertyExactMatchResolver after bulk ingest
apoc.load.json permission denied	APOC allowlist not configured	Add URL to apoc.import.file.enabled=true and dbms.security.allow_csv_import_from_file_urls=true
Chunking loses sentence mid-way	approximate=False (default) cuts at exact token count	Set approximate=True in FixedSizeSplitter
chunk_size too large → LLM timeouts	Extraction prompt + chunk exceeds context	Keep chunk_size ≤ 512 for GPT-4o extraction; ≤ 2048 absolute max
SpaCySemanticMatchResolver fails on Python 3.14	spaCy not supported on 3.14+	Use FuzzyMatchResolver or downgrade to Python 3.13
neo4j-driver package not found	Deprecated package name since 6.0	Use neo4j package: pip install neo4j>=5.17.0
ValidationError on NodeType with no properties	NodeType requires ≥1 property since v1.13.0	Add at least PropertyType(name="name", type="STRING"); string-list labels get it automatically
from_pdf deprecation warning	from_pdf=True removed in v1.15.0	Use from_file=True instead
response_format in model_params ignored	SimpleKGPipeline auto-enables structured output for OpenAI/VertexAI (v1.14.0+)	Remove response_format from model_params; the pipeline manages it

---

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.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.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.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.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.components.data_loader import DataLoader
from neo4j_graphrag.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