# File Music > File away newly-added sheet music, recordings, and source files that have been dropped loose in Music/ (or left loose at the top of Music/Scores/) into their correct spot in the library, and fix non-conforming filenames on newly-added Musescore files. Trigger on "file away the new music", "sort the music inbox", "process what I dropped in Music", "clean up Scores root", "check the new Musescore files", or /file-music. - Skill: `phkoonce/file-music` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add phkoonce/file-music` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/phkoonce/file-music/raw - Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS) - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: phkoonce (https://skillmd.com/u/phkoonce) - Updated: 2026-09-22 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/phkoonce/file-music --- # File away new music Philip's `Music/` library was reorganized on 2026-08-30 (full history and rationale: the `music-reorg-plan` memory / its linked artifact). The habit going forward: drop new files straight into `Music/` (top level) — no separate "Inbox" folder needed — and run this skill to route them to the right place with a sane name. ## 1. Find what's unfiled Three places to check, every run: - **`Music/` top level** — anything that isn't `Scores/ Source/ Concerts/ Recordings/ Reference/` (or `.DS_Store` / `Icon*` junk) is unfiled. - **`Music/Scores/` top level** — anything that isn't one of the existing category folders (list them with `ls`) is a stray score that needs a home. This happens even without the user doing anything odd — e.g. a PDF airdropped straight into Scores/. - **`Music/Source/Musescore/`** — new arrangements land here directly (it's already the right folder, nothing to move) but often keep whatever name Musescore's export gave them. Check recency, not location — see §4. ```bash ls -la "/Users/philip/My Drive/Music" ls -la "/Users/philip/My Drive/Music/Scores" ``` If both are clean, say so — but still run the Musescore naming check in §4 before concluding there's nothing to do. ## 2. Classify each loose item | Kind | Destination | |---|---| | Sheet music (PDF score/parts) | `Scores/` — see §3 for exactly where | | Notation source (`.mscz`/`.mscx`) | `Source/Musescore/` — check filename conformance per §4 | | Notation source (`.ly`/`.ily`) | `Source/LilyPond/` | | Notation source (`.sib`) | `Source/Sibelius/` | | Other source bundle/zip of the above | `Source/`, flat | | Audio/video (`.mp3 .m4a .aif .wav .mp4 .mov`) | `Recordings/`, flat. Never `Concerts/` — see note below | | Equipment/technique/method material not tied to one piece (mouthpiece charts, embouchure PDFs, etc.) | `Reference/` | | Anything you can't confidently identify | leave in place, list under "needs a decision" in your summary | **`Concerts/` is hands-off.** Philip manages that folder himself — don't file anything into it and don't reorganize what's there. If something loose looks like it's clearly concert material (a program, setlist, or a recording tied to a specific dated event), don't move it — just point it out in your summary and ask whether it belongs in `Concerts/` and where. ## 3. Placing sheet music inside Scores/ Read the file (PDF reading works fine with the Read tool) to get composer, title, and instrumentation before deciding — don't guess from the filename alone unless it's already unambiguous (e.g. contains "8hn" or "for four trombones"). **Folder-naming rules** (settled decisions from the 2026-08-30 reorg, still in force): - Same-instrument ensembles: ` - NNtet/`, two-digit zero-padded count, plain ASCII hyphen, flat (no `N Horns/` sub-layer) — e.g. `Horn - 04tet`, `Trombone - 08tet`, `Brass - 05tet`. - Mixed-instrument ensembles: ` and - NNtet/` (e.g. `Horn and Tuba - 05tet`) sized by total performers; `Mixed - NNtet/` only for odd cross-family combos that don't fit a named pairing. - Non-count categories, use as-is, don't invent count variants of these: ` - Solo/`, ` - Etudes/`, `Horn and Piano/`, `Horn and Wagner Tuba/`, `Horn, Tenorhorn and Tuba/` (the Lake Brass book — augmented pieces needing euph/tenorhorn/tuba/perc go here even if a horn-only reading would look like 12tet), `Choir/`, `Orchestra/` (flat), `Piano/`, `Large Mixed Ensemble/`, `Brass and Organ/`. - Run `ls "Music/Scores"` to get the live, current list — it's the source of truth, not this table (folders may have been added since this was written). - **New category needed?** If nothing fits, create ` - NNtet/` (or a descriptive non-count name) following the same pattern. This is a small taxonomy change — call it out explicitly in your summary rather than doing it silently. **Depth rule:** a lone PDF (single file — including a combined "Score_and_Parts" PDF) stays a flat file directly in its category folder. Only wrap a piece in `Composer/Piece/` when it's genuinely multiple files (separate score + separate parts). Don't create a `Composer/` folder for a single lone file. **Determining ensemble size:** check the filename for a count token first (`8hn`, "for four trombones", etc.). If that's missing or ambiguous, open the PDF and read the instrumentation/part list, or count how many distinct part files ship with the piece. **Filename:** the existing library is *not* uniformly formatted (mix of `Composer - Title.pdf` and `Composer Title.pdf`, some with extra descriptive suffixes) — don't run a renaming pass for its own sake. Keep the incoming filename if it already legibly carries composer + title. Only clean it up when it's actually broken: strip emoji (follow the precedent from the reorg — a horn emoji collapsing two files to the same case-insensitive name got mapped to `(horn)`/`(piano)` instead of being dropped), trim obvious copy artifacts (`-2`, `(1)`, duplicate extensions), fix mangled encoding. ## 4. Naming files in Source/Musescore New arrangements get dropped straight into `Source/Musescore/` — don't move them, just fix the name if it needs it. Check this on every run, even if §1 found nothing else. **Find candidates by recency, not by scanning all ~400+ files:** ```bash ls -lt "/Users/philip/My Drive/Music/Source/Musescore"/*.mscz | head -40 ``` Work down from newest until you hit a run of files that already conform (see below) — those predate this workflow, stop there. **Conformance pattern:** `Composer - Title[ (key/catalog)] - [ [status tag]]*[ (variant)].mscz` — the name splits on " - " into composer / title / an instrumentation segment whose first token matches one of: | Token shape | Meaning | |---|---| | `Nhn` | N horns | | `Nhn+Mtba` | N horns + M tubas (also seen: `+2tba`, `+3tba`, `+4tba`) | | `Ntbn` | N trombones | | `saxN` | N saxophones | | `strN` | N strings | | `recN` | N recorders | | `wwN` | N woodwinds | | `brN` | brass ensemble of N (mixed brass, not all one instrument) | | `Nvv` / `SATB` | N voices / 4-voice choir | | `hn+pno`, `pno`, `voice+pno`, `strings+pno` | mixed instrument + piano/voice combos | | `orch`, `winds`, `band` | orchestra / wind ensemble / concert band | | `misc` | genuinely unclear/mixed instrumentation — an accepted fallback, not an error; don't "fix" an existing `misc` file unless you can pin down something more specific than whoever filed it originally could | Trailing extras after the instrumentation token are fine and don't affect conformance: bracketed status/source tags (`[condensed]`, `[WIP]`, `[click]`, `[cues]`, `[uncut]`, `[tacet]`, `[LB]`, `[TiFiCo]`, `[TiFiBläser]`, `[PJBE]`, `[PTX]`, `[King's]`) and parenthetical key/variant tags (`(Bb)`, `(Eb)`, `(v2)`). **If a file doesn't conform,** pull composer/title/instrumentation from the file itself rather than guessing from Musescore's export name — a `.mscz` is a zip: ```bash unzip -p ".mscz" META-INF/container.xml # -> full-path of the real .mscx inside unzip -p ".mscz" "" # the actual score XML ``` In the `.mscx`: composer/title come from `` / `` — fall back to the title-frame text in the opening `` if those tags are empty or placeholder junk ("Composer / Arranger", "Untitled score", etc). Instrumentation comes from counting `` entries and reading each one's `trackName`/`longName`/`instrumentId`, grouped by instrument family and mapped to the token table above. Propose the corrected filename as a same-folder rename (old → new, nothing moves) and fold it into the plan in §6 alongside any Scores/ moves. If Source/Musescore ever has a real backlog of non-conforming files (not just the last few drops), don't do this one-by-one by hand — fall back to the purpose-built pipeline: `~/drive-tools/musescore_inventory.py` → `musescore_propose_renames.py` → `musescore_do_rename.py` (same propose-a-plan-then-apply-it shape as everything else in this skill, just with the composer/instrument heuristics already coded up). ## 5. Check for duplicates before moving Before finalizing a destination, `find`/`grep` the target folder (and its near neighbors — e.g. also check `Horn and Tuba - 05tet/` when filing into `Horn - 05tet/`) for a piece that's plausibly already there. If a same-named file already exists at the destination, compare with `md5`: - identical → this is a duplicate, don't move it; note it as a candidate for deletion but don't delete without asking. - different → treat as a genuine collision, flag it, don't overwrite. ## 6. Propose, then confirm, then execute Moving (or renaming) files in a live Drive folder isn't cheaply undoable (Drive trash retention aside), so don't just start changing things. Build a short plan — a table of `file → destination or new name` (noting any rename, any new category folder, any suspected duplicate) — covering both Scores/ moves and Musescore renames together, show it to the user, and wait for a go-ahead. This mirrors how `music_move.py` defaults to a dry run. Once confirmed, execute with plain `mkdir -p` + `mv` (this is a handful of files at a time, not a batch reorg — no need for the `move_list.tsv`/`music_move.py` machinery). Never overwrite an existing destination file; skip and report instead. If the inbox has piled up into a large, varied batch (dozens of files) rather than a handful, say so and suggest falling back to the `~/drive-tools/build_move_list.py` + `music_move.py` pipeline (or, for Musescore renames, §4's `musescore_inventory.py` → `musescore_propose_renames.py` → `musescore_do_rename.py` pipeline) instead of doing it file-by-file. ## 7. Report Summarize what moved or got renamed where, any new taxonomy folder created, any suspected duplicates left for the user to confirm deletion of, and anything left unfiled or unrenamed because it couldn't be confidently classified.