# NLP Overview

# NLP Overview

Natural Language Processing (NLP) in Curiosity Workspace turns raw text into structured signals you can search, filter, and connect to your graph.

You typically use NLP to:

  • extract entities and concepts from text
  • normalize content across languages and writing styles
  • link mentions in text to existing nodes in your graph
  • improve retrieval and downstream AI workflows

# How NLP fits into the platform

NLP interacts with:

  • Graph: entities can become nodes; links become edges (mentions → entities).
  • Search: extracted fields can be indexed and used as facets.
  • AI: LLM workflows become more reliable when grounded on extracted and linked entities.

# Key building blocks

  • Pipelines
    • sequence of steps applied to a field (tokenization, entity detection, etc.)
  • Models
    • spotters/patterns/classifiers used by pipelines to capture entities
  • Entity capture
    • the act of extracting entities from text into structured outputs
  • Entity linking
    • connecting captured entities to existing nodes (or creating new ones when appropriate)

# When to use NLP (and when not to)

Use NLP when:

  • your critical information is embedded in free text (tickets, notes, transcripts)
  • you need structured facets that don’t exist as explicit fields
  • you want graph navigation from text mentions

Avoid overusing NLP when:

  • your source already provides structured fields (use connector mapping first)
  • entity capture would be too noisy without domain tuning

# Next steps