| name | inbox-triage |
| description | Process vault root Inbox.md entries and route each one to its proper home — People, Places, Restaurants, Events, coach folders, or Ideas. Triggered on user request "triage inbox", "process inbox", "clean up inbox", or when Inbox.md exceeds ~30 lines. |
Skill: inbox-triage
Inbox.md is a capture surface, not a home. This skill takes everything in Inbox.md and proposes where each item belongs in the vault — then applies after user confirmation.
Distinct from idea-distill: idea-distill focuses on developing ideas (Ideas/ folder, pattern detection). Inbox-triage routes all inbox entries — people notes, restaurant visits, event captures, coach-relevant observations, actionable items, ideas — to the right file in the vault.
When to invoke
- User says: "triage inbox", "process inbox", "route inbox", "clear my inbox"
- Inbox.md exceeds ~30 lines (signal: too much to reason about)
- During weekly review (inbox should be empty or near-empty by Sunday)
- After a week with many spontaneous captures (travel, events, social week)
What counts as "Inbox.md"
The vault root Inbox.md — typically at $VAULT/Inbox.md. This is the default capture point for the brain alias. Not to be confused with coach-level inbox files (those are Drive-sourced; handled by vault-pull-inbox).
Routing decisions
For each entry in Inbox.md, determine the right destination:
| Entry type | Destination |
|---|
| Note about a person | People/<firstname-lastname>.md (create if missing) |
| Restaurant visit, recommendation | Restaurants/<city>/<slug>.md (create if missing) |
| Place note (gym, venue, neighborhood) | Places/<slug>.md (create if missing) |
| Event recap, meeting notes | Events/<YYYY-MM-DD-slug>.md (create if missing) |
| Coach-relevant observation | Coach inbox write — propose surfacing to Coaches/<coach>/profile.md or via next session |
| Idea, hypothesis, exploration | → leave for idea-distill, or move to Ideas/<slug>.md if clearly standalone |
| Actionable to-do | → Projects/<project>.md or remain in Inbox.md with a tag |
| Reading, article, link | → Reading/<slug>.md |
| Ambiguous / can't classify | → propose to user with two options |
Algorithm
- Read
Inbox.md
- Parse entries: split on blank lines between items, or look for
## headings, or date-prefix patterns (YYYY-MM-DD — )
- For each entry:
- Determine entry type (use the routing table above)
- If routing target file exists: propose appending to its Log section
- If routing target file does not exist: propose creating from template
- Group into batches by destination type (all People entries together, etc.)
- Compose a triage report
Triage report format
## Inbox Triage (2026-05-04) — 8 entries
### Route to People/ (2)
1. "Alex mentioned he's moving to NYC in June" → append to [[People/alex-smith]] log
2. "Need to thank Jordan for the intro" → create [[People/jordan-lee]] with note + follow-up item
### Route to Restaurants/ (1)
3. "Dinner at Nopa Tuesday, goat cheese flatbread was exceptional" → append to [[Restaurants/sf/nopa]] visits
### Route to Events/ (1)
4. "Strategy offsite wrap-up — decided to pause the reorg" → create [[Events/2026-04-28-strategy-offsite]]
### Route to Coaches/ (2)
5. "Sleep been bad all week, definitely affecting pole class" → surface to fitness coach or pole coach next session
6. "Finally nailed a clean shoulder mount entry on Tuesday" → add to pole sessions.md if not already logged
### Route to Ideas/ (1)
7. "What if we built a public LifeOS dashboard?" → create [[Ideas/lifeos-dashboard]]
### Leave in Inbox.md (1)
8. "Book dentist appointment" — actionable, no vault home. Move to a project or handle directly?
---
Reply "all" to apply everything, or pick item numbers to skip.
After applying, I'll clear routed entries from Inbox.md.
Applying
After user confirms:
- For each confirmed route: write to destination file (append to log, or create from template)
- For new files created from template: pre-fill what's known from the inbox entry; leave placeholders for unknowns
- Remove routed entries from Inbox.md (leave only unrouted / deferred / user-rejected items)
- Report: "Routed N entries, created X new files. Inbox.md now has Y remaining items."
Wikilink convention
When creating or updating a file, add the relevant cross-link back. If you create People/alex-smith.md from an inbox entry about a dinner, and that dinner has a restaurant note, link them:
In People/alex-smith.md — under "Associated notes": [[Restaurants/sf/nopa]]
In Restaurants/sf/nopa.md — under "Associated notes": [[People/alex-smith]]
Don't exhaustively link everything; only link when the connection is load-bearing (you'll want to navigate between them).
Don't
- Don't route without showing the triage report first — always confirm before writing
- Don't delete Inbox.md entries you're not routing (user may want to process them differently)
- Don't create a People/Places/Restaurants file for a one-off mention that doesn't warrant a permanent file (e.g., "mentioned a barista who was rude" doesn't need
People/rude-barista.md)
- Don't invent wikilinks to files that don't exist yet — only link to files you're creating in this same triage run or that already exist
- Don't triage coach-level inbox files — those are handled by
vault-pull-inbox
- Don't run if Inbox.md doesn't exist or is empty — tell the user: "Inbox.md is empty. Nothing to triage."
Why this matters
Every hour a note sits unrouted in Inbox.md is an hour it can't cross-link, can't be found by search, and can't inform a coach. A full inbox is friction. An empty inbox is a cleared mind. This skill is the mechanism that keeps the vault a living system rather than a notes graveyard.
