diff --git a/examples/direct.py b/examples/direct.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ebcec7308
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/direct.py
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+# fmt: off
+import sys
+from typing import BinaryIO
+from itertools import repeat
+from collections.abc import Iterator
+
+import boto3
+import pyarrow.fs
+
+import aryn_sdk.partition
+import sycamore
+from sycamore.transforms.embed import SentenceTransformerEmbedder
+from sycamore.transforms.sketcher import Sketcher
+from sycamore.connectors.duckdb.duckdb_writer import (
+    DuckDBWriterClientParams,
+    DuckDBWriterTargetParams,
+    DuckDBWriter,
+)
+
+###############################################################################
+
+def iterInputs(inputs: list[str], aws_sess = None) -> Iterator[BinaryIO]:
+    fs_s3 = None
+    for input in inputs:
+        if input.startswith("s3://"):
+            path = input[5:]
+            if not fs_s3:
+                cred = aws_sess.get_credentials()
+                fs_s3 = pyarrow.fs.S3FileSystem(
+                    access_key=cred.access_key,
+                    secret_key=cred.secret_key,
+                    region=aws_sess.region_name,
+                    session_token=cred.token,
+                )
+            fsys = fs_s3
+        else:
+            if input.startswith("file://"):
+                path = input[7:]
+            else:
+                path = input
+            fsys = pyarrow.fs.LocalFileSystem()
+
+        info = fsys.get_file_info(path)
+        if info.type == pyarrow.fs.FileType.File:
+            infos = [info]
+        else:
+            infos = fsys.get_file_info(
+                pyarrow.fs.FileSelector(path, recursive=True)
+            )
+        for info in infos:
+            strm = fsys.open_input_stream(info.path)
+            yield (input, strm)
+
+###############################################################################
+
+inputs = [
+    "s3://aryn-public/cccmad-tiny/2019/006965487_National Student Nurses Association.pdf.pdf",
+    "s3://aryn-public/cccmad-tiny/2011/",
+    "file:///home/alex/load/pdfs/ntsb0.pdf",
+    "/home/alex/load/pdfs/ca_san_luis_obispo_21_22_adopted.pdf",
+]
+
+aws_sess = boto3.session.Session()
+embedder = SentenceTransformerEmbedder("sentence-transformers/all-MiniLM-L6-v2")
+
+ddb_writer = DuckDBWriter(
+    None,  # FIXME default plan to None
+    DuckDBWriterClientParams(),
+    DuckDBWriterTargetParams(dimensions=384),  # FIXME get from embedder
+)
+
+for fn, strm in iterInputs(inputs, aws_sess):
+    res = aryn_sdk.partition.partition_file(strm)
+    bigdoc = sycamore.data.document.Document(res)
+    docs = sycamore.transforms.Explode.explode(bigdoc)
+    for idx in range(len(docs)):
+        docs[idx].doc_id = f"{fn}-{idx}"  # FIXME make explode do this
+    docs = list(map(Sketcher.sketcher, docs, repeat(17), repeat(16)))  # FIXME default numeric params
+    docs = embedder.generate_embeddings(docs)
+    ddb_writer.write_docs(docs)