def METHOD_NAME(
    cls, persist_path: str, fs: Optional[fsspec.AbstractFileSystem] = None
) -> "SimpleGraphStore":
    """Create a SimpleGraphStore from a persist directory."""
    fs = fs or fsspec.filesystem("file")
    if not fs.exists(persist_path):
        logger.warning(
            f"No existing {__name__} found at {persist_path}. "
            "Initializing a new graph_store from scratch. "
        )
        return cls()
    logger.debug(f"Loading {__name__} from {persist_path}.")
    with fs.open(persist_path, "rb") as f:
        data_dict = json.load(f)
        data = SimpleGraphStoreData.from_dict(data_dict)
    return cls(data)