Rule Priority

Rules are evaluated in descending priority order — highest first. The first enabled matching rule wins, and no other rule is considered after that for the same file.

[[rules]]
enabled = true
priority = 100
pattern = "*.tmp"
action = "Trash"

[[rules]]
enabled = true
priority = 90
pattern = "*.zip"
action = "Move"
destination = "Archives"

Given both rules above, a file matching *.tmp is always trashed by the first rule — its higher priority (100 > 90) means it’s checked first, and once a rule matches, evaluation stops for that file.

Ties

Rules with equal priority keep their original file order — the one written first in .sift.toml is checked first.

Disabled rules are invisible

A rule with enabled = false (the default if omitted) is never evaluated at all — not even as a lower-priority fallback. It’s as if the rule weren’t in the file.

Rules beat the strategy, always

Regardless of priority values between rules, any enabled matching rule takes precedence over the directory’s strategy (type, date, audio, …) for that file. The strategy only ever applies to a file that no enabled rule matches.

Checking what would actually match

sift explain ~/Downloads/archive.zip

Shows the exact matching rule (if any) instead of the strategy’s classification — see Explainability.

Related

• Rules — full field reference and destination safety.