MFS — register / update / re-sync data sources

1. What this skill does

Walks the user through getting a data source into MFS so it's searchable. The work splits into:

1. Picking the right connector scheme.
2. Collecting credentials (preferring env:VAR / file:/path indirection

over plaintext).

1. Writing a connector TOML.
2. Calling mfs add <uri> --config <toml> and monitoring the returned job.

Each connector has its own field set, credential acquisition story, and gotchas. Per-connector details live in reference/connectors/<scheme>.md — read the matching one before collecting fields for any scheme.

Step 0: Pre-flight (always run first)

mfs --version            # missing? `cargo install mfs-cli` (see install row below)
mfs status               # server reachable? connectors/jobs visible?
mfs config show          # endpoint/profile/client id/server-info debugging
mfs connector list       # what's already configured?

Branch on the result:

Step 1: Classify intent (the central decision)

Read the user's most recent message. Pick exactly one row:

Mid-flow redirect

If at any point the user changes intent ("wait, just list what I have" / "actually let me just re-sync the existing one"), abandon the current § and jump to the new one. Don't insist on finishing the original branch.

§A. Zero-friction add

User knows what to add and has credentials handy. Aim for: ≤3 questions to the user, then write toml + run mfs add.

1. Parse the URI from the user's message. Shape: <scheme>://<alias>.

Scheme is required and is the connector type (postgres, slack, …). Alias is the human-readable instance ID — gets used as the toml filename and the connector's row in metadata. - If only <scheme> was given (no alias), ASK: "What should I call this instance? (free-form; appears as the URI host part, e.g. postgres://prod-db)" - file takes a bare path, not an alias. The target is a local path: mfs add /abs/path (the URI is derived as file://local/abs/path). The path is client-side: on the same host the server reads it directly; on a different host the CLI bundles and uploads the tree (--upload / --no-upload to force).

1. Read the matching reference/connectors/<scheme>.md for the

required field set, and reference/credentials.md for how credentials work. For each credential field, put a reference in the toml — env:VAR_NAME or file:/abs/path — which the server resolves against its own environment / filesystem at ingest time. Make sure that value is present where the server runs (client and server share a machine on a loopback endpoint; otherwise it lives on the server — ask the user if unsure).

1. Write the toml to a temp path:

``toml # mfs-server connector config — <scheme> # URI: <uri> <field1> = "<value or env:VAR>" <field2> = "<value>" ... ` Use a path like /tmp/mfs-<alias>.toml` so it doesn't pollute the user's cwd.

1. Run mfs add in estimate-confirm mode for external sources where

cost matters (databases >100k rows, GitHub repos with many issues, large Slack workspaces, full website crawls): ``bash mfs add <uri> --config /tmp/mfs-<alias>.toml ` For non-local targets, the current CLI automatically calls /v1/connectors/estimate and prompts Continue? [y/N] unless --yes is set. There is no standalone --estimate` flag. Show the estimate to the user and only answer yes when the user has approved.

For small / unambiguous sources (single repo of docs, one CRM with <10k records, a defined Slack channel), the same command is still the normal add path. Use --yes only when the user has already accepted skipping the estimate confirmation.

Whole-account enumerators (gdrive = the entire Drive; feishu user-mode docs = the entire My Space): if the estimate is large, don't just confirm a full index — first propose narrowing by time. Re-estimate with a recent start date (POST /v1/connectors/estimate with a since field) to show the smaller count, then add with that bound: ``bash mfs add <uri> --config /tmp/mfs-<alias>.toml --since <date> ` --since indexes only objects modified on/after <date>; older ones are left untouched and never deleted, and can be pulled in later by lowering --since`.

1. Capture the queued job id. If the step 4 command was approved at the

prompt, it already queued the job. For local targets, or when the user has explicitly approved skipping the estimate confirmation, run: ``bash mfs add <uri> --config /tmp/mfs-<alias>.toml ` Capture the returned job_id. mfs add always returns after queueing; use mfs job show or mfs job list` to watch terminal state.

1. Follow the job until terminal state:

``bash mfs job show <jobid> # or polled (no jq needed — grep the JSON status field): while ! mfs job show <jobid> | grep -qE '"status": *"(succeeded|failed|cancelled)"'; do sleep 5 done mfs job show <job_id> ``

1. Confirm result — report what's searchable, not just what was registered:

- succeeded + succeededobjects > 0 → run mfs connector inspect <uri> and report both numbers: objectcount (files registered) and objects.indexed / chunkcount (files actually embedded and semantically searchable). They often differ — only documents, code, and (with a vision model on) images get embedded; data / config files (.json .csv .yaml .log …) are listed and greppable but not vector-searchable. Don't claim "all N indexed" when only some are. Then give one example: "Try: mfs search '<sample query>' <uri>". - succeeded + succeededobjects == 0 → check mfs ls <uri> — either source genuinely empty, or wrong text_fields/scope. Read reference/troubleshooting.md. - failed → read the job's error field, match against reference/troubleshooting.md, propose a fix and ask user.

§B. Greenfield walk-through

User vague about what to add. Hand-hold through scheme picking, then delegate to §A's steps 2-7 with the chosen scheme.

1. Pre-flight (Step 0 already covered this).

1. Ask: which kind of source? Group the 20 schemes by shape so the

choice is tractable: `` Pick the source TYPE: 1. Database tables (postgres, mysql, snowflake, bigquery) 2. Document store (mongo) 3. Code repository (github) 4. Issue tracker / wiki (jira, linear, notion) 5. CRM (hubspot) 6. Support / help desk (zendesk) 7. Chat / messaging (slack, discord, gmail, feishu) 8. Cloud storage / files (s3, gdrive, file, web) 9. Other (specify) `` Once user picks a group, narrow to the specific scheme (e.g. "Database tables → postgres / mysql / snowflake / bigquery — which?").

1. Ask for an instance alias (host part of the URI; e.g. "prod-db",

"support-workspace", "main-repo").

1. Read reference/connectors/<scheme>.md — its top section

"How to obtain credentials" guides the user through fetching the token/DSN/key from the source's own console. Walk them through one step at a time, ask after each step ("Got the token? Paste it as env:VAR_NAME if it's already exported, or paste the value here").

1. Continue with §A from step 2 (collect fields → write toml →

estimate-confirm/add → follow job → confirm).

§C. Force re-ingest

User wants to re-sync an existing connector — typically because the source changed (new tickets, new PRs, new files) and the user doesn't want to wait for the next scheduled sync.

1. Confirm the URI matches a registered connector:

``bash mfs connector list | grep <alias-or-scheme> `` If not found, redirect to §B.

1. Confirm with the user when it's a force-full re-index (re-embeds

everything, costs tokens): > "Re-syncing <uri>. Pick one: > • no flag pull changed data using the connector's normal sync path > • --since limit to changes since a date — only on connectors that > support it (currently gdrive, feishu); others return an error > • --full re-embed everything from scratch (re-bills embedding > API; only do this if you've changed text_fields, > the embedding model, or chunking config)"

1. Run:

``bash mfs add <uri> # incremental: re-uses existing toml + caches mfs add <uri> --full # full re-embed mfs add <uri> --since <date> # only new content since date ``

1. Follow + confirm as in §A step 6-7.

§D. Edit existing config

User wants to change a registered connector — new token, different textfields, more channels, raise maxread_rows, etc.

1. Locate the existing toml:

``bash ls -la $MFSHOME/connectors/<alias>.toml # OR (if MFSHOME unset) ls -la ~/.mfs/connectors/<alias>.toml ``

1. Read it so the user sees current state. ASK what they want to

change. Common edits and the right field:

See reference/connectors/<scheme>.md for the full field list.

1. Apply the minimum diff. Don't rewrite unrelated fields.

1. Run mfs connector update so the engine applies the new config

through the explicit update path: ``bash mfs connector update <uri> --config $MFS_HOME/connectors/<alias>.toml ``

1. Follow + confirm as in §A step 6-7.

When does a config update re-embed?

Applying a textfields change to existing objects needs mfs add <uri> --force-index. A plain mfs connector update saves the new config, but an incremental sync re-chunks an object only when its source content changed — a config-only change leaves existing objects on their previous shape. Run mfs add <uri> --force-index after the update to re-chunk them with the new textfields.

If the change forces re-embedding and the source is large, ask the user before running it if the cost cannot be estimated from the CLI.

§E. List registered connectors

mfs connector list                        # via the running server (live state)
mfs-server connector list                 # on-disk tomls under $MFS_HOME/connectors/

The two views can differ:

• mfs connector list shows what the server has registered in its

metadata DB.

• mfs-server connector list shows the toml files on disk (admin spec).

If they diverge, the disk file is a saved spec the user can re-apply with mfs add <uri> --config <toml>.

Format the output as a small table for the user. If they then ask about one specific connector, switch to §C / §D as appropriate.

§F. Clarify intent

User's first message was too vague to pick a path. Ask one short question, default to §B if they shrug:

"Want to (1) add a new source, (2) re-sync an existing one, (3) change
the config of one you've already added, or (4) just see what's
registered?"

After they answer, jump to the matching §.

Useful commands (cross-cutting)

Cheap reads any path may need:

mfs status                       # server + all connectors at a glance
mfs config show                  # endpoint/profile/client id/server info
mfs connector inspect <uri>      # one connector's object/job summary
mfs ls <uri> --json              # per-entry search_status
mfs connector list               # live server view
mfs-server connector list        # on-disk toml view (admin)
mfs job list                     # recent ingest jobs
mfs job show <job_id>            # one job's state and error field
mfs job cancel <job_id>          # cancel a queued/running job
mfs remove <root-uri>            # drop a connector + its index data (DESTRUCTIVE)

mfs remove <root-uri> permanently removes that connector AND its indexed chunks from Milvus. Use the registered connector root, not a child object path. ALWAYS confirm with the user before running it.

Anti-patterns to flag back to the user

• Adding the same URI twice — second mfs add <uri> updates the

existing connector, doesn't create a duplicate. If the user really wants two postgres instances, give them different aliases (postgres://prod-db vs postgres://staging-db).

• Cosmetically-different URIs that point to the same source — the

URI string IS the connector identity; MFS does NOT canonicalize across the scheme-specific forms a host/database can take. So postgres://h:5432/db and postgres://h/db register as two separate connectors over the same physical DB, each with its own job queue + collection state. Pick one form per source and stick with it; if the user is mid-flow and you spot the drift, suggest rolling back the duplicate with mfs connector remove.

• Pasting plaintext tokens into the toml when an env var exists —

suggest env:VAR form, especially when the user mentions docker / K8s / CI / shared host.

• Setting text_fields blindly on a SaaS connector — most have a

built-in preset (see reference/connectors/<scheme>.md for what auto- applies); user only needs [[objects]] for overrides.

• --full re-embedding to "fix" a search problem — wastes tokens.

First diagnose with mfs-find (§12) whether the issue is index config or query construction.

Reference routing

• [reference/credentials.md](reference/credentials.md) — WHEN about

to write a secret value into a toml. Covers env:VAR and file:/path indirection syntax, security tradeoffs, and which env vars common SaaS CLIs already export.

• [reference/update-flow.md](reference/update-flow.md) — WHEN

walking §D and the user wants to change something that has knock-on consequences (changing text_fields, switching embedding provider).

• [reference/troubleshooting.md](reference/troubleshooting.md) —

WHEN mfs add failed, job state is failed, or succeeded but succeeded_objects == 0. Maps common error messages to recovery steps.

• [reference/error-codes.md](reference/error-codes.md) — WHEN an

mfs command returned --json error output with a code field.

• reference/connectors/<scheme>.md — WHEN about to add or update a

specific scheme. REQUIRED reading before the credential-gathering step. Schemes: postgres, mysql, mongo, snowflake, bigquery, slack, discord, gmail, feishu, github, jira, linear, notion, hubspot, zendesk, s3, gdrive, web, file.

The per-connector files cover credential acquisition, required toml keys, optional knobs, and known pitfalls. Don't guess any of these from training-data memory — the reference is the source of truth for this codebase's connectors.