Alan Shaw, Selective Brain Export and JSON Metadata

https://thebrain.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/100372

Hello Alan,

Thank you for your patience, and sorry for the delay.

I checked on this. If your external tool only needs the exported JSON data, such as thoughts.json, links.json, and attachments.json, and does not need the actual binary attachment files, the simplest workaround is to upload only the top level .json files from the Brain export to that tool.

That should let your tool analyze the Brain structure, links, notes, and attachment metadata without including the larger attachment files stored in the thought folders.

There is an Only export the selection option under:

File > Export > Folders

However, that export format is likely not the exact structure you are looking for if your current tool depends on the Brain export JSON files.

For the more advanced workflow you described, such as exporting only a subtree, only thoughts modified since a certain date, or pulling selected metadata without a full archive, that would currently be more of a feature request for the desktop export workflow.

The API would be the more flexible route for this. It should allow a custom script to walk through the Brain starting from the home thought, collect the thoughts, links, notes, and attachment metadata you need, and skip the binary attachment files. That would require some custom coding, but it is the closest match to the selective export workflow you described. https://api.bra.in/index.html , https://www.thebrain.com/blog/introducing-thebrain-api

Best regards,

John