Uploading Records

Uploading is the first step in turning a scan into a connected family history. You add an image of a document, KleioBase reads it with AI, and you review and confirm what it found. This article covers which files work, how to upload them, what the AI pulls out, and how to review and confirm a record. If you are new, start with Getting Started first.

Where uploading happens

Uploading happens in the upload workspace at /upload. The workspace is tab-based: each record you add gets its own tab with a small status dot, so you can have several records in progress at once and move between them.

There are three ways to add an image:

1. Drag and drop one or more files onto the dropzone.
2. Click the dropzone to open a file picker and choose files.
3. Paste an image directly from your clipboard with Ctrl/Cmd+V.

Supported files

KleioBase reads JPG and PNG images, up to 10 MB per file. The following are not supported: PDFs, multi-page files, and WebP, GIF, or TIFF images. If your document is a PDF or a multi-page scan, export or save each page as a JPG or PNG first.

GEDCOM files are not uploaded here. They go through a separate GEDCOM import flow. See Importing & Exporting Data.

Bulk upload with a .zip

On the Archivist and Professional plans you can upload a .zip of JPG and PNG images. KleioBase extracts the images from the zip and adds them as records. Any non-image files inside the zip are skipped.

Uploading is free, processing is not

This is the most useful thing to understand about the workspace. Adding images is free and fast, so you can drop in many at once without using up anything. What consumes your monthly allowance or credits is processing - the AI extraction step that reads each document. You decide which uploaded records to process and when, so you stay in control of your usage.

The status lifecycle

Each record moves through a series of states, shown by the dot on its tab. Here is what each state means and what you can do in it.

Before you process: context and regions

While a record is in the Uploaded state, you can help the AI before it reads the page.

• Context: type optional notes about the document, such as its language, the place it comes from, or its approximate year. This guides the AI and improves accuracy.
• Regions: draw boxes directly on the image to point the AI at specific areas. This is useful when only part of a page is relevant or when the layout is dense.

Deep scan

Before you process, you can turn on deep scan with a checkbox. A normal scan costs 1 credit. A deep scan costs 5 credits but uses a stronger model that reads difficult handwriting much better. Use it when a normal scan returns names or words that are clearly wrong.

What the AI extracts

When you process a record, the AI reads the document and produces a structured result. It extracts:

• An English display name for the record.
• A transcription in the document's original language.
• An English translation.
• The record type, such as birth, marriage, death, census, immigration, military, will, or letter, among others.
• The document's main event, including its date and place.
• Every named person, with their role, names, dates, places, occupation, and other details.
• Family units such as spouses, parents, and children.
• Witnesses and associates mentioned in the document.

Reviewing and confirming

When processing finishes, the record enters the Review state. This is where you check the AI's work before it becomes part of your knowledge base.

1. Read the transcription and the list of extracted people, and compare them against the image.
2. Fix anything the AI misread. You can edit fields and change the record type.
3. Exclude any person you do not want to keep. For example, if a name is too unclear to trust, you can disable that person so they are not added.
4. When the result looks right, click Confirm.

What confirming does

Confirming commits the record to your knowledge base. It:

• Creates a new person profile for each kept person, or links to existing profiles where they already exist.
• Links the record to each person with their role in the document.
• Records the family relationships and the witnesses you kept.
• Starts duplicate matching in the background.

After you confirm, you are pointed toward your knowledge base, where the new and updated profiles appear.

Limits and usage

Processing draws from your plan's monthly upload allowance. The limits are:

The usage indicator in the header shows how much of your allowance you have used. It turns amber and then red as you approach the limit. If you run out, you can buy pay-as-you-go credit packs or wait for the reset on the 1st of the month. See Plans & Billing for details.

Profile limit

Confirming can be blocked if it would push you past your plan's person limit:

If you hit this, either remove some people from the extraction before confirming or upgrade your plan.

Troubleshooting

Processing was interrupted. Processing is not resumable in the browser. If you close the tab or the browser while a record is processing, the work keeps running on the server, but the tab will show as interrupted when you return. Click Retry to fetch the finished result.

A record failed. Failed records show an error and a Retry button. Try again, and if a normal scan keeps returning poor results on difficult handwriting, turn on deep scan before retrying.

Names came back wrong. This is the main signal to use a deep scan. Adding context about the document's language and place also helps.

What happens next

After you confirm, duplicate matching runs in the background, and match suggestions appear a little later as the system compares the new people against the rest of your knowledge base. To review and act on those, see Finding & Merging Duplicates.