Rules

Explicit [[rules]] in a .sift.toml always win over the active strategy for a matching file.

explicit rule
     ↓
organize strategy
     ↓
built-in behavior

Fields

[[rules]]
name = "Trash tmp files"      # optional — falls back to `pattern` for display
pattern = "*.tmp"
action = "Trash"               # Move, Trash, or Skip
destination = "Archives"       # required for Move, invalid for Trash/Skip
priority = 100                 # higher runs first
enabled = true
description = "Trash all .tmp files"  # optional, for humans

Field	Required	Notes
pattern	yes	Glob matched against the filename.
action	yes	"Move", "Trash", or "Skip" — any other value is a config error at load time.
destination	only for Move	A relative path beneath the target directory.
priority	yes	Integer. Higher runs first; ties keep file order. See Rule Priority.
enabled	no (defaults false)	A rule must be explicitly enabled to ever match.
name	no	Display label; falls back to pattern if blank.
description	no	Free text, shown in explain/config check output.

Actions

Action	Meaning
Move	Move to a relative destination beneath the target directory.
Trash	Send the matched file to the OS trash when applied.
Skip	Explicitly leave the file untouched.

Destination safety

A Move rule’s destination cannot escape the target directory: absolute paths, .., unsafe root components, and symlink escapes are all rejected — both when the config is loaded and again, independently, by the executor immediately before any mutation.

Same-name collisions

A rule’s Move goes through the exact same collision handling as strategy-based moves (see Safety Model):

• an existing directory, symlink, or broken symlink at the destination always blocks the move outright;
• an existing regular file with byte-identical content makes the source a redundant duplicate — trashed, not moved;
• an existing regular file with different content still gets the source moved, just under a disambiguated name ("name (1).ext").

Related

• Rule Priority — how multiple enabled rules matching the same file are resolved.
• .sift.toml — the full file shape rules live inside.