---
type: folder-readme
tags: [meta, agent, inbox]
author: alexandria
---

# inbox

The **staging queue** — content captured but not yet filed. Items are `type: inbox-item`, `status: pending`, named `YYYY-MM-DD-HHmm <label>.md`, and each holds a `## Manifest` (a best-effort routing plan) plus the verbatim `## Raw content`. Binaries go in `Agent/inbox/Files/` — capital **F**, matching every other `Files/` folder; never create a lowercase `files/`, which collides on case-insensitive macOS and makes `git add` silently drop the files.

**Capture here is a durability guarantee, not a filing decision.** Writing the item and committing it immediately means the content and the plan are safe in the vault even if the session ends right there. What it deliberately does *not* do is route anything into the pillars unattended — that judgement needs approval, and it happens on the drain.

**This queue has a drain obligation.** Nothing routes itself out. Pending items are counted and reported in every brief, so a backlog is visible rather than quietly permanent — an inbox nobody empties is a slower way to lose things.

To drain: say **"process my inbox"**, or see [[AGENTS#Processing the inbox (fan-out)]]. The drain re-validates each item's manifest against the *current* vault before applying it — state moves while an item sits here, so a plan written at capture time is a starting point, not an answer. Each item is deleted as it is filed; git history preserves it.

Direct filing into the pillars remains the default and the rule. This queue is for bulk intake and for deliberate no-judgment capture — never a destination an agent may choose when it could route the content properly instead.
