Shitbox Triage

Shitbox Triage

Clean Joel's personal Front inbox without becoming a reckless email cannon. This is the light-process counterpart to aih-triage: Brain first, metadata first, executive summary always, mutate only boring trash or explicitly approved actions.

Session status

Set the Pi session name to 📥 Front Shitbox Sweep for active sweeps. Keep it stable. Use status/progress rows when available instead of renaming for every phase.

Useful phases:

• Brain Map — read/export inbox interest rules
• Queue Scan — pull metadata snapshot
• Digest Shape — group by signal/digest/trash/risk/conditional
• Safe Archive — archive obvious trash only
• Context Fetch — fetch bodies for risk/signal/ambiguous groups
• Operator Report — executive summary with grouped links
• Rule Capture — update Brain interest map when Joel corrects the sweep

Core taste

Joel wants:

1. Executive summary: counts, what changed, what matters next.
2. Context: profile/window/source, caveats, rate limits, token/path receipts.
3. Reasoning: why each group was archived, kept, fetched, or escalated.
4. Grouped items: related threads batched by type, not flat ticket dumps.
5. Front links: https://app.frontapp.com/open/<conversation-or-message-id> for every actionable item and archive group.

Do not just say "archived 20." That is receipt-only sludge. Give the shape above.

Brain map

Canonical interest map:

/Users/joel/.brain/areas/joel-inbox-interest-map.svx

Runtime export:

shitrat inbox rules export
# writes ~/.shitrat/inbox/context/interest-map.json

The Brain map defines:

• signal — show now or fetch body
• digest — summarize, don't show individually
• temptation — interesting/desirable but bad for attention/spending
• trash — archive or unsubscribe
• conditional — depends on subject/body/seasonal context
• risk — never archive from metadata only
• unknown — ask or fetch

Use Brain as judgment context, not a dumb keyword broom. If Joel corrects a category, update the Brain map or add a note under /Users/joel/.brain/resources/inbox-triage-preferences.svx.

Default commands

secrets lease shitrat_front_private >/dev/null
shitrat inbox rules export
shitrat inbox snapshot --profile joel-combined --metadata-only --refresh --since-hours 24 --limit-per-lane 40 --max-pages-per-lane 3 --max-requests 100
shitrat inbox pull --profile joel-combined --metadata-only --refresh --format ndjson --headless --out /tmp/shitbox.ndjson
shitrat inbox janitor prompt --mode daily --events /tmp/shitbox.ndjson

If the secret is missing, add it to agent-secrets. Never print the token.

Sweep workflow

1. Read Brain first

   • /Users/joel/.brain/areas/joel-inbox-interest-map.svx
   • /Users/joel/.brain/resources/inbox-triage-preferences.svx when present
   • active project notes if a thread maps to current work

2. Export rules

   • Run shitrat inbox rules export so the CLI annotates metadata with current Brain rules.

3. Pull metadata

   • Use shitrat inbox pull ... --metadata-only first.
   • Do not fetch full bodies for everything.
   • Keep request budgets and Front rate limits in the report.

4. Group before acting

   • Group by bucket and context:
     • money/account/security/legal/travel/family/work: keep/fetch
     • human asks: keep/fetch
     • active project/person: keep/fetch or digest with links
     • digests/newsletters: summarize then archive when low-risk
     • retail/temptation: archive and maybe summarize good sales
     • deterministic trash: archive

5. Archive only boring safe stuff

   • Safe: promos, duplicate notification copies, routine app digests, read-later newsletters, delivery noise, low-risk social metrics.
   • Not safe from metadata only: money, security, account access, legal, calendar logistics, real humans, current-project asks, family/school/health.

6. Fetch bodies when needed

   • Fetch only signal, risk, and ambiguous conditional threads.
   • Use body reads to extract dates, account, app, amount, due date, required action, or why it is safe to archive.

7. Report in Joel's preferred shape

   • Executive summary
   • Context
   • Reasoning
   • Grouped archive receipts
   • Still-open links grouped by why they remain open
   • Proposed rule/Brain updates

8. Capture learnings

   • If Joel says "yes archive those," "keep those," "I like summaries like X," or corrects a bucket, update Brain first.
   • Durable process changes belong in this skill.

Report template

## Executive summary
- Archived: <n>
- Kept/fetch-needed: <n>
- Top things that matter: <3 bullets>

## Context
- Profile/window: joel-combined, <hours>
- Source: Front via shitrat inbox
- Brain maps used: <paths>
- Rate limit/errors: <receipt>

## Reasoning
- <group>: why archived/kept/fetched

## Grouped archive receipts
### <group>
- <subject> — <why> — <Front URL>

## Still open / needs review
### Money/account/security
- <subject> — <why kept> — <Front URL>

### Human/work/calendar
- <subject> — <why kept> — <Front URL>

## Rule candidates
- Add/update `<rule-id>` because <evidence/correction>

Hard rules

• Front is queue truth.
• Brain is preference/context truth.
• Metadata first; body fetch only where it changes a decision.
• No sends, replies, assigns, tags, unsubscribes, or ambiguous archives without explicit approval.
• Do not archive money/security/account/legal/calendar/human-work threads from metadata only.
• Always include Front links in the operator report.
• Preserve secrets. Never echo shitrat_front_private.
• If the CLI returns stale inbox IDs or 404s, fix the profile/config or use the current token path; don't handwave.

Installing / related

• CLI repo: /Users/joel/Code/joelhooks/shitrat-cli
• Interest map exporter: packages/cli/src/inbox/interest-map.ts
• Front snapshot/pull: packages/cli/src/inbox/front-snapshot.ts
• Janitor prompt surface: packages/cli/src/commands/inbox.ts