Set up your ontology

Create your first ontology with AI or build it by hand in the editor.

When your ontology is empty, the Editor (/ontology) shows Set Up Your Ontology. You choose how to start. This page is for Owners and Admins.

Choose how to start

Option	Best when
Create with AI (marked Recommended)	You can describe your business in plain language and want a proposed structure to review.
Create Manually	You already know the structure you want and prefer full control.

Create with AI needs an AI provider. If none is active, set one up under Integrations first. Chat and ontology import need the same thing.

Create with AI

Open the guided setup

On Set Up Your Ontology, select Get started under Create with AI.

Type in the box. The placeholder reads "Describe your business, entities, or ask the AI to adjust...". Write in plain language. For example, say what kinds of documents you handle and what you want to know about them.

Watch the structure grow

The Ontology Architect builds your ontology. A Node Tree on one side fills in as it works, and a Live Diff panel marks nodes as Added, Deleted, Modified or Moved. You can ask the AI to adjust anything.

Confirm

When you are happy, select Confirm — looks good (or Confirm & Apply). Nothing is saved until you confirm. Use Start over to begin again.

Building can take up to 30 minutes. Keep the page open. Leaving the page cancels the build. Steps that already finished are kept and you can resume the session later from Continue an earlier session.

If you change your mind, select Switch to manual editing.

Create manually

Select Open editor under Create Manually. You then add nodes yourself. See Nodes and properties.

The top-level document node

SynkVault needs a top-level node named document (or documents) directly under the ontology root. Without it, document ingestion fails. The editor shows a banner, Top-level document node is missing, until it exists. After a reset or for a brand-new ontology this is expected. This node is protected: you cannot rename, move or delete it.

Ontology

Define how your knowledge is structured and improve it safely with drafts.

Nodes and properties

Add nodes, define their properties and understand what they inherit.