# Uploading files

Upload an inventory, an application portfolio or a CMDB export as a file, and Eraser builds a [model](/models) from it – no connection needed.

## Uploading

1. Open **Settings → [Data Sources](https://app.eraser.io/dashboard/all?settings=dataSources)** and choose **File upload** (under **Add connection** once you have a data source).
2. Pick a format – JSON, CSV, Excel, YAML or XML – and the file, up to 10 MB. CSV takes up to 20 files, one per kind of thing, read together as one model.
3. The Models page opens, and a notification shows progress.

<Figure src="/assets/uploading-files-formats.png" alt="The Upload a file form in Data Sources: five formats, an example file and an AI prompt" width="640px" border />

Each format has an example file to start from, and an **AI prompt** that turns your notes or an export into a file Eraser can read.

## How a file is read

Each table or list becomes a record type, and each row or item a record. Fields that name other records – ids, foreign keys, source and target columns – become links between them. Secrets are left out.

## Replacing a file

Use **Replace upload** on the data source, with a file in the same format, to update the model. Records keep their identity by id, and records left out of the new file are removed. A file with a record missing its id is refused, so give every record a stable id.

Only team admins can upload. A file counts as one data source toward your [plan's limit](/plans), and its model toward the record limit.