---
name: mohitagw15856/downloads-triage
source: https://app.decimal.ai/s/mohitagw15856-downloads-triage@1/SKILL.md
source_sha256: 1421aab5dede
---

# Downloads Triage Skill

The Downloads folder is where files land, not where they live — but without a triage habit it becomes the household junk drawer: installers from 2023, seventeen copies of the same logo, that PDF you needed once. The rescue is bulk-first: age and type rules dispose of 80% without item-by-item decisions ("installers older than a month: delete all"), the keepers get filed by the folder rules, and a ten-minute weekly sweep keeps the count near zero forever.

## What This Skill Produces

- **The bulk rules** — age × type classes that clear most of the pile in a few decisions
- **The four buckets** — delete / file (with destinations) / action (it's really a task) / quarantine (unsure, dated, auto-expiring)
- **The safe-delete classes** — what's always safe (installers, re-downloadables) and the two check-first classes
- **The sweep habit** — the weekly ten-minute pass, plus the browser setting that helps

## Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:
- **The scale and vintage** — item count and oldest file; a 200-item month and a 4,000-item three-years get different opening moves
- **The filing destinations** — where keepers go (the [folder-structure-designer](../folder-structure-designer/SKILL.md) structure if one exists; the `_inbox` if not)
- **Known treasures** — anything important currently living in Downloads (tax documents in the junk drawer is common and worth asking about explicitly)

## Framework: The Bulk-First Rules

1. **Sort by type, sweep by class:** installers/DMGs/MSIs older than 30 days → delete all (re-downloadable by definition) · zips already extracted → delete · duplicate-numbered files (`logo(3).png`) → keep highest, delete rest · screenshots older than 90 days → near-always deletable, one scroll-through first. Four decisions, half the pile.
2. **Re-downloadable = deletable:** anything fetchable again (statements from the bank portal, PDFs from live links, installers) carries no storage obligation — the source is the backup. The keeper test is "would losing this cost anything," not "might I want it."
3. **The two check-first classes:** documents you created/edited (they may exist only here — file them), and anything money/legal/tax-shaped (file to their real home *now*; the junk drawer is where subpoenaed documents go missing).
4. **Quarantine ends the unsure-paralysis:** the genuinely uncertain go to `_quarantine-2026-07/` — dated, out of the way, deleted whole when the date is 90 days old and nothing was fetched from it. Deferred deletion with an expiry beats both agonizing and hoarding.
5. **The habit is the fix:** weekly ten-minute sweep (the bulk rules make it fast), downloads-ask-where-to-save turned on in the browser for documents (files land filed), and the empty-ish Downloads becomes self-maintaining — a full junk drawer attracts junk; an empty one shames it.

## Output Format

# Downloads Triage: [count] items, oldest [date]

## The Bulk Pass
| Class | Rule | Est. items |
|---|---|---|
[Installers >30d: delete · extracted zips: delete · dupes: keep-highest · screenshots >90d: scroll-then-delete]

## The Remainder Buckets
**File:** [item classes → destinations] · **Action:** [the files that are really tasks — into the task system] · **Quarantine:** [`_quarantine-[date]/`, expiry set]

## The Habit
[Weekly sweep, 10 min · browser ask-where-to-save for docs · the treasure rule: money/legal files never live here]

## Quality Checks

- [ ] Bulk rules cleared the majority before any item-by-item work
- [ ] Created/edited documents were separated from re-downloadables before deleting
- [ ] Money/legal/tax files got filed to real homes immediately
- [ ] Quarantine carries a date and an auto-expiry decision
- [ ] The habit is scheduled, not aspirational

## Anti-Patterns

- [ ] Do not triage item-by-item from the top — bulk classes first or the session dies at file 60
- [ ] Do not keep re-downloadables "just in case" — the source is the backup
- [ ] Do not delete created-here documents by class — they're the one irreplaceable category
- [ ] Do not let quarantine become the new junk drawer — no expiry, no quarantine
- [ ] Do not skip asking about treasures — tax PDFs in Downloads is the classic finding