Your First Organize

Imagine this directory:

Downloads/
├── invoice.pdf
├── vacation.jpg
├── backup.zip
├── data.json
├── model.stl
├── experiment.rs
├── notes.xyz
└── my-project/
    ├── Cargo.toml
    └── src/

1. Preview

Nothing is mutated by this — it only prints a plan:

sift organize ~/Downloads

invoice.pdf      → Documents/
vacation.jpg     → Images/
backup.zip       → Archives/
data.json        → Data/
model.stl        → 3D/
experiment.rs    → Code/
notes.xyz        → Other/
my-project/      → protected: software project

No changes made.
Run with --apply to execute.

my-project/ is left alone entirely — it contains Cargo.toml, which marks it as a software project. See Protected Paths.

2. Apply

Happy with the plan? Run the same command with --apply:

sift organize ~/Downloads --apply

✓ Applied successfully

7 files moved
7 directories created
1 entry skipped
0 failures

History
  hist-...

The hist-... id is what you’d use to undo this specific operation.

3. Undo

Changed your mind?

sift undo hist-...

✓ 7 items restored

Undo re-verifies the live filesystem before restoring anything — see History and Undo for exactly what it checks and when it refuses.

What just happened

• Classification was by file extension (the default type strategy) — see Classification.
• Nothing was overwritten, merged, or force-deleted at any point — see Safety Model.
• You could have asked why a specific file would move before applying anything, with sift explain ~/Downloads/invoice.pdf — see Explain.

Next

• Want this to happen automatically for new files? See Watch → Overview.
• Want different rules for this folder? See .sift.toml.