Downloads Triage

Empty the three landing zones, oldest item first:

Most items are documents bound for the archive at ~/Documents, which has its own rules. Read both before classifying anything, every run, since they change:

• ~/Documents/CLAUDE.md: the naming convention (Author or Source - Title - Detail.ext), formats, duplicates, subfolder policy.
• ~/Documents/.claude/skills/filing-guide/SKILL.md: what each folder is for, and the tiebreakers.

Nothing moves, gets renamed, or goes to the Trash until the user approves the table.

Do not use when

• Filing or auditing files already inside ~/Documents: that is the Documents project's triage-documents skill, run from ~/Documents.
• Routing notes already in the vault's inbox/: that is /inbox-triage.

Invocation

• /downloads-triage: a batch of 10 (default).
• /downloads-triage 20: a batch of 20. The range is 5–25; clamp anything outside it to the nearest bound and say so. Use: $ARGUMENTS

Step 1: Gather the batch

One sweep across all three folders, oldest modification time first, top level only. A folder on the Desktop or in Downloads is one item.

ic="$HOME/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Downloads"
for pair in "dl|$HOME/Downloads" "icdl|$ic" "desk|$HOME/Desktop"; do
  tag=${pair%%|*} dir=${pair#*|} t=$'\t'
  find "$dir" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 \
    -not -name .DS_Store -not -name .localized -not -name '.obsidian' \
    -exec stat -t "%F %T" -f "%Sm$t$tag$t%z$t%N" {} +
done | sort | head -10   # replace 10 with the batch size N

Report the total count across the three folders, not just the batch.

Skip these, and list them under the table instead of in it:

• In-progress downloads: a *.download bundle, or a file modified in the last ten minutes. Safari is still writing it.

For each item in the batch, look only as far as you need to classify it: filename, size, mdls -name kMDItemTitle -name kMDItemAuthors -name kMDItemWhereFroms, and for a PDF its first page (Read with pages: "1"). Files in iCloud may be cloud-only; a plain read downloads them on demand, which is expected.

Check for a copy that's already filed. For each file, look for one of the same size in the archive, then confirm with md5 -r:

find ~/Documents -type f -size "$(stat -f %z "$f")c" \
  -not -path '*/.git/*' -not -path '*/Traveller/*' -not -path '*/sohg/*'

If the hashes match, the item is a duplicate and its destination is the Trash.

Step 2: Recommend a destination

Choose exactly one for each item:

For an installer, check /Applications before recommending the Trash: mdls -name kMDItemVersion "/Applications/<App>.app". If the installed version is at least the installer's version, it's spent.

Personal financial, medical, and government records (bank, insurance, tax, and health statements) go to Docs/Finance/…, Docs/Health/, or Docs/Personal/ per the guide. Never recommend the Trash for one unless an identical copy is already filed.

Step 3: Present the table

Exactly these five columns:

| #  | Item                               | Dest                 | New name                                          | Rationale                     |
|----|------------------------------------|----------------------|---------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| 1  | icdl · steppe-empires-worksheet.pdf | Docs/Games/         | Grainbound - Steppe Empires - Worksheet.pdf       | Worldbuilding worksheet set   |
| 2  | dl · Obsidian-1.15.0.dmg           | Trash                | —                                                 | 1.15.0 installed              |
| 3  | icdl · Search Health for Recovery.png | Docs/Images/      | —                                                 | Screenshot, keep as reference |
| 4  | desk · Build & Price Your 2027 Civic… | Docs/Maintenance/ | Honda - 2027 Civic Sedan - Build and Price.pdf    | Vehicle purchase research     |

Prefix each item with its folder tag. Write — in New name when the name stays the same. When several items share a source and destination (a worksheet series, say), still give each its own row, then point out the pattern under the table so a single override can cover them all.

Then say: "Approve all, override any rows, or ask to see specific items by number."

Step 4: Handle the response

The user can mix these in a single reply:

• Approve all ("go", "looks good"): go to Step 5.
• Drill down ("show me 3"): give the metadata, the first page or opening lines, any hash match, and a fuller rationale. Then wait.
• Override ("2 is Keep", "1 goes in Reference"): before changing anything, ask "What made you think <their choice> over <the recommendation>?" The answer may cover other rows. Re-present every affected row, then ask "Final batch—ready to move?"

Corrections apply to this batch only. If one sounds durable (a folder rule, a naming habit), suggest recording it in the filing guide or memory, not in this skill.

Step 5: Execute

Work through the items one at a time, so a failure can be traced to a single item.

• Move and rename with mv -n "<src>" "<dest dir>/<new name>". -n never overwrites. If the destination name already exists, compare with md5 -r. Identical means the item is a duplicate: trash the source and report it. Different means stop on that row and ask.
• Trash with trash "<src>" (/usr/bin/trash, so it can be undone). Never rm.
• Vault inbox: mv -n into ~/notes/inbox/. Obsidian picks it up from disk. Add no frontmatter, since routing is /inbox-triage's job.
• Traveller: mv -n. PDFs are gitignored there by design. Commit nothing.
• Create a destination subfolder only if the filing guide's subfolder policy allows it, and ask first.

After the batch, verify each row: the source is gone, and the destination exists (or, for the Trash, the item is in ~/.Trash or iCloud's Recently Deleted). Allow a moment for iCloud moves before reporting a failure, and look at the destination before calling one.

If anything landed in ~/Documents, refresh its indexes:

cd ~/Documents && task index

Leave the Documents repo's changes uncommitted for the user.

Step 6: Report

Filed 8, trashed 2:
- steppe-empires-worksheet.pdf → Docs/Games/Grainbound - Steppe Empires - Worksheet.pdf
- Obsidian-1.15.0.dmg → Trash
- …

Skipped: Obsidian-1.15.0.dmg.download (in progress)
23 items left across Downloads, iCloud Downloads, and Desktop.

Report a row as done only if it passed verification. Name any row that failed, and what failed.

Rules

• Never move, rename, or trash anything before the table is approved.
• Never rm. The Trash is the only way anything gets deleted.
• Never overwrite. That means mv -n, plus a hash check on any name collision.
• Never edit a file's contents. Notes bound for the vault get no frontmatter.
• Never commit in ~/Documents, the vault, or Traveller/.