Configuration Reference

Narrative documentation lives under Configuration and Strategies — this page is the terse, field-by-field lookup.

Top level

Field	Type	Default	Notes
version	integer	1	Only 1 is supported by this build.

[organize]

Field	Type	Default	Valid with
strategy	"type" | "date" | "audio" | "video" | "photos" | "documents"	"type"	—
unknown	"other" | "skip"	"other"	type only
template	string	—	date, audio, video, photos, documents (required); invalid for type
date_source	"modified"	"modified"	date only

[watch]

Field	Type	Default when omitted	Valid range if set
stability_seconds	integer	2.5 seconds	1–300

[[rules]] (repeatable)

Field	Type	Required	Notes
pattern	string (glob)	yes	Matched against the filename.
action	"Move" | "Trash" | "Skip"	yes	Any other value is a load-time error.
destination	string (relative path)	only for Move	Cannot escape the target directory (.., absolute paths, and symlink escapes are rejected).
priority	integer	yes	Higher runs first; ties keep file order.
enabled	boolean	no (default false)	A disabled rule is never evaluated.
name	string	no	Display label; falls back to pattern.
description	string	no	Free text, shown in explain/config check.

Template placeholders by strategy

Strategy	Placeholders
date	{year} {month} {day} (fixed-width digits)
audio	{artist} {album} {album_artist} {genre} {track} {title} {year}
video	{resolution} {width} {height} {codec} {year} {duration}* {fps}*
photos	{camera} {year} {month} {day}
documents	{author} {title} {year} {month} {day}

* {duration}/{fps} are only ever populated via the optional ffprobe backend — see Video.

A file missing a field its template references is always skipped with a clear reason, never assigned a guessed/fallback value.

Resolution order

1. <directory>/.sift.toml
2. global config (~/.config/sift/config.toml on Linux)
3. built-in defaults

See Configuration Lookup for the recursive-subfolder exception.

Unknown fields

Every table (RawConfig, [organize], [watch], each rule) rejects unrecognized keys as a hard error at load time — a typo in a file that can drive automatic mutation is never a silent no-op.