Source systems — centralized notes
Purpose: One place to accumulate vendor-agnostic knowledge about inbound data sources we use across clients—syndicated retail (SPINS), commerce (Shopify, Amazon), ads, CRM, finance, etc. This is not a substitute for per-client Data Platform Documentation (the Google workbook); it complements it with reusable Brainforge learnings and links.
Who it’s for: Delivery, data engineering, and CSOs who need a quick orientation before or during an engagement.
How this relates to other docs
| Location | What goes there |
|---|---|
This folder (source-systems/) | Cross-client notes: what the vendor is, official docs, typical integration shape, gotchas, links to internal examples. |
raw-schema-profiles/ | Brainforge internal Snowflake RAW.* schemas we profile for our own analytics (delivery/finance dbt). Narrower scope. |
| Client Data Platform workbook | Per-engagement source of truth: contracts, pipelines, lineage, stakeholders for that client. |
knowledge/clients/{client}/resources/ | Client-specific memos, SOW context, procurement briefs (e.g. “why API vs portal for LMNT”). |
Conventions
- One file per source:
{vendor}.mdin lowercase with hyphens if needed (e.g.amazon-selling-partner.md). - No secrets — API keys, credentials, and client-specific connection strings stay in env, 1Password, or the client workbook—not here.
- Prefer links to official docs over copying large excerpts; summarize only what we rely on in implementations.
- Internal paths — Link to vault transcripts or resources when they add non-obvious context; keep filenames stable.
Suggested outline for each {vendor}.md
- Summary — What the system is and when clients use it.
- Official documentation — Product pages, API docs, status pages.
- Integration patterns — How we usually land data (API, SFTP, connector, share); typical warehouse grain.
- Operational notes — Rate limits, backfills, QA themes, versioning.
- Related internal references — Memos, handoffs, transcripts (paths under
knowledge/).
Index
| Source | File | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SPINS | spins.md | Syndicated natural/specialty POS; Sales API (GraphQL) vs Satori portal. |
Add a row and a new .md file when we start tracking another source systematically.