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SiftSift

Explain

Terminal window
sift explain ~/Downloads/invoice.pdf

sift explain never mutates anything — it’s the read-only counterpart to organize, scoped to exactly one file. See Explainability for the full output shape (policy, strategy, classification, destination, decision, and every safety check) and how it behaves with a matching rule.

Choosing the policy root

Section titled “Choosing the policy root”
Terminal window
sift explain ~/Downloads/invoice.pdf --root ~/Downloads

--root is the directory whose .sift.toml (or global/default policy) applies. It defaults to the file’s own parent directory and is never discovered by walking further up the tree — see Configuration Lookup.

JSON

Section titled “JSON”
Terminal window
sift explain ~/Downloads/invoice.pdf --json

See JSON and Scripting.

Section titled “Related”
  • Doctor — directory-wide, finding-focused diagnostics instead of one file’s decision.
  • Configuration → Overview — validating a whole policy instead of one file’s outcome (sift config check).