File The Inbox

Bounded pass

Never file the whole inbox in one run if it is large. Take the oldest items first, cap the pass at what you can do carefully, and say what is left.

Steps

1. glob_files /brain/inbox/ and read the oldest unfiled items.
2. For each, apply capture-to-page. The contract does not relax because this is a batch.
3. Move filed material out of the inbox — into the page it became, or to /brain/archive/ if the raw form is worth keeping. An inbox that never empties stops being read.
4. If an item cannot be filed because the owner or the decision is unclear, leave it and create a task naming who could answer. Do not guess to clear the queue.
5. Update the Sources row's last_ingested_at for anything that came from a tracked source.

Woken by a Sources row

Work only the source that fired. Read its location, file what is there, then update the row's last_ingested_at and status. Never insert a Sources row during this pass — intake creates them, and inserting would wake you again.

Do not

• Do not file five thin pages from one thread. One decision, one page.
• Do not delete inbox material you could not file. Unfiled is a state; deleted is a loss.
• Do not let batch pressure lower the bar. A hundred bad pages is worse than ten good ones and an honest backlog.