> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://morphik.ai/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# ingest_directory

> Ingest all files in a directory

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Sync">
    ```python theme={null}
    def ingest_directory(
        directory: Union[str, Path],
        recursive: bool = False,
        pattern: str = "*",
        metadata: Optional[Dict[str, Any]] = None,
        use_colpali: bool = True,
        parallel: bool = True,
    ) -> List[Document]
    ```
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Async">
    ```python theme={null}
    async def ingest_directory(
        directory: Union[str, Path],
        recursive: bool = False,
        pattern: str = "*",
        metadata: Optional[Dict[str, Any]] = None,
        use_colpali: bool = True,
        parallel: bool = True,
    ) -> List[Document]
    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Parameters

* `directory` (str | Path): Directory containing files to ingest
* `recursive` (bool, optional): Whether to recurse into subdirectories. Defaults to False.
* `pattern` (str, optional): Glob pattern to select files (for example `"*.pdf"`). Defaults to `"*"`.
* `metadata` (Dict\[str, Any], optional): Metadata applied to each ingested file
* `use_colpali` (bool, optional): Whether to use ColPali-style embedding. Defaults to True.
* `parallel` (bool, optional): Whether to process files in parallel. Defaults to True.

## Returns

* `List[Document]`: List of ingested document metadata

## Examples

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Sync">
    ```python theme={null}
    from pathlib import Path
    from morphik import Morphik

    db = Morphik()

    docs = db.ingest_directory(
        Path("/data/contracts"),
        recursive=True,
        pattern="*.pdf",
        metadata={"category": "contracts"},
    )
    print(f"Ingested {len(docs)} documents")
    ```
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Async">
    ```python theme={null}
    from pathlib import Path
    from morphik import AsyncMorphik

    async with AsyncMorphik() as db:
        docs = await db.ingest_directory(
            Path("/data/contracts"),
            recursive=True,
            pattern="*.pdf",
            metadata={"category": "contracts"},
        )
        print(f"Ingested {len(docs)} documents")
    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>