09. Triage Board — sorting into 4 receivers

The Triage Board is a separate screen for manually sorting files: "clear the inbox into 4 bins." This is not deduplication: files are moved (mv), not merged. The idea is like sorting mail or a photo archive: you page through a source directory and, with each press of 1–4, drop a file into one of four "bins" (these might be "delete", "archive", "process", "keep").

Opened with Shift+F12, or ` F12 from commando.

Anatomy of the screen

╔═ SOURCE ═══════════════════════════╗  ╔═ 1 ═══════════════╗  ╔═ 3 ═══════════════╗
║ /tank/inbox                         ║  ║ /tank/photos/2024 ║  ║ /tank/junk-bin    ║
║ ..                                  ║  ║ ..                ║  ║ ..                ║
║ ▸ IMG_3120.HEIC                     ║  ║ IMG_0001.HEIC     ║  ║ old-test.log      ║
║   IMG_3121.HEIC                     ║  ║ IMG_0002.HEIC     ║  ║                   ║
║   notes-draft.txt                   ║  ║ ...               ║  ║                   ║
║   video.mp4                         ║  ╚═══════════════════╝  ╚═══════════════════╝
║ * trash-me.bin                      ║  ╔═ 2 ═══════════════╗  ╔═ 4 ═══════════════╗
║ ...                                 ║  ║ /tank/archive     ║  ║ /tank/processing  ║
║                                     ║  ║ ..                ║  ║ ..                ║
║                                     ║  ║ ...               ║  ║ batch-001/        ║
║                                     ║  ║                   ║  ║                   ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════╝  ╚═══════════════════╝  ╚═══════════════════╝
 Triage Board
 Tab/←→ panel · ↑↓ file · Enter enter · Insert batch · 1-4 send · a+N receiver · S save · u undo · Esc exit

Five panels:

SOURCE (center) — the directory being sorted.
1, 2, 3, 4 (corners) — the four receivers. Each has its own path.

Focus (the highlighted frame) moves between all five panels with Tab or ←/→. The number keys 1–4 send the focused file/batch to receiver N.

The Board's state (which directories are assigned to the receivers, where the cursor is) is preserved between sessions (see "Saving the layout" below).

Full Board key table

Key	Action
Tab or →	Focus the next panel (Source → 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → Source)
Shift+Tab or ←	Focus the previous panel
↑ / ↓ or k / j	Move the cursor in the active panel
PgUp / PgDn	Move the cursor by ±15
Home / End	Cursor to the start / end of the list
Enter	Enter the subdirectory under the cursor
Backspace	Go up to the parent directory
Insert	Mark the file under the cursor into a batch (`*`); the next 1–4 sends the batch
1 / 2 / 3 / 4	Send the file (or the Insert batch) from focus to receiver N
a / A + digit	Make the current directory of the focused panel the directory of receiver N
S	Save the Board layout (receiver directories) to `board.json`
u / U	Undo the last move
Esc	Exit the Board, return to commando
Shift+F12 or ` `F12`	The same exit (the combination that opens the Board)
q / Q	Save the layout and quit the application

A typical scenario

1. Assign the desired directories to the receivers

You open the Board; by default all four receivers are empty. To assign a receiver:

Tab — focus receiver 1.
Backspace / Enter — navigate to the directory you want (for example, /tank/archive).
a + 1 — "the focused panel's current directory = receiver 1".
Repeat for 2, 3, 4 (or fewer, if you don't need all of them).

2. Switch to the source and start sorting

Tab until focus is on "Source".
Backspace / Enter — open the source directory you want (for example, /tank/inbox).
With the cursor on a file → press 1, 2, 3, or 4 — the file moves to the corresponding receiver.

The file is moved in the background (a separate thread). The status line shows the number of moves queued. You can keep sorting the next files without waiting for the current one to finish.

3. Batch move (Insert batch)

If you need to send several files to one receiver:

On each file — press Insert (a * appears at the start of the line).
When the batch is assembled — press 1, 2, 3, or 4 once.
The whole batch moves to the receiver.

4. Saving the layout

S, or exiting via q/Esc, writes the layout to ~/.local/state/dedcom/board.json: the paths of the four receivers and the source cursor. The next time you open the Board, the same receivers are in the same places.

Undo (`u`)

u / U in the Board reverses the last move (and the Insert batch): the files are returned to their original paths. The move_log journal records each operation separately — you can press u several times in a row to undo several of the most recent steps.

Cross-device — does not work

Moving between different ZFS datasets is impossible (refused; see §08 Cross-device).

This means: the receivers must be in the same dataset as the source. To move a file from /tank to /rpool, use rsync by hand, as the dedcom error advises.

Inline triage in commando — without opening the Board

In ordinary commando mode there is a shorthand triage operation that does not require opening the Board:

In commando (any Files panel):
  1. Cursor on a file → press m (or M)
  2. Cursor on a receiver directory in ANOTHER panel → press 1, 2, 3, or 4
     (this simply marks which panel to use as the receiver)

  The file is moved in the background.

Use this when you need to quickly move one or two files from the current panel to another panel — without the full-screen Board. Under the hood it is the same move_to/evacuate_then_publish, the same move_log, the same u (Undo).

Inline triage and the Board are compatible: both write to a single move_log, and Undo works for both.

When to use the Board, when inline triage?

Scenario	What to use
Sort a large inbox (tens to hundreds of files)	Board — all four bins in view
Move one or two files "in passing" within commando	Inline triage (m + 1-4) — no screen switch
Regular sorting (the same distribution every time)	Board — the receivers are remembered

Why this exists at all

The Triage Board is a separate module, not part of the deduplication pipeline. It is in DedupCommando for two reasons:

"Dedup is not enough." Often, alongside identical files, there is simply junk / archive / "sort later" — which is a move, not a merge. Without triage you would have to leave dedcom and run mv by hand.
Preparation for dedup. If you sort files into the right directories before a scan, the future duplicate groups will be more compact (for example, move all 2024 photos into /tank/photos/2024 in a single step → the next scan finds the copies in one folder).

What's next

§05 Commando — managing panels in the ordinary mode.
§08 Actions — what distinguishes dedup from a move.
§13 Troubleshooting — if a move does not work.

Published from docs/manual/09-triage-board.md at v0.9.2 · last changed 2026-06-23