Hyper-Extract hands-on guide

Chapter 1 · Install the skills, start with brainstorm

Plain talk: Hyper-Extract is a document grinder—messy text in, structured knowledge out. You still need a mold (YAML template). This free package teaches the assistant to design molds; pressing the switch needs the CLI separately.

This chapter: install skills → copy-paste prompt → get a type recommendation / design draft.

Package free (Apache-2.0). Later chapters cover installing he and the first parse.

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Where people get stuck

1. Unzipping the whole GitHub repo as a Skill with the wrong folder name;
2. Asking to “extract the whole book” without naming fields;
3. Expecting offline extraction from the skills zip alone—no CLI, no API key.

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1. Install (about 5 minutes)

1. SkillBazaar → free Skill “Hyper-Extract Template Designer” → download zip.
2. Top folder must be hyper-extract under your skills path, e.g. ~/.cursor/skills/hyper-extract, with root SKILL.md plus brainstorm/, record-designer/, graph-designer/, etc.
3. New chat. @hyper-extract or “Use Hyper-Extract skills to design an extraction template.”

Check: ask what brainstorm vs graph-designer do. Clear “choose type, then design graph template” = installed.

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2. Copy-paste prompt

Use Hyper-Extract brainstorm: I want person–work relations from a biography Markdown.
Confirm inputs/outputs, recommend model / list / set / graph / hypergraph, and give a short design draft.
Do not emit final YAML yet, and do not pretend he parse already ran.

If it misbehaves

• Dumps a huge YAML → “Stay in brainstorm; no full template before type confirm.”
• Fakes parse results → “Design only; no CLI run required in this chapter.”
• Ignores child skills → “Follow hyper-extract: brainstorm → designer.”

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3. Checklist

• hyper-extract/SKILL.md and at least one child skill on disk
• Assistant gave a type suggestion and short draft
• You know skills ≠ installed he
• Next time you’ll state input shape and required output fields

Scroll down for record vs graph types, CLI first run, and failures.