Triage basics

Triage mode shows you one brief at a time and asks for one of three decisions: Act on it, Reference later, or Archive.

The three buckets

• Act on it: you will do something with this. Filed under To act on.
• Reference later: keep it, no action needed. Filed under Reference.
• Archive: done with it, and it drops out of your digest. Filed under Archived.

Anything you have not decided on yet sits in Untriaged. You can filter your library by any of these buckets from the dashboard.

Running a triage session

1. Open the dashboard and start Triage. The sidebar shows how many briefs are waiting.
2. A full-screen card appears with one brief on it and a count of how many are left.
3. Make a call with the keyboard or by clicking one of the three buttons.
4. Skiml advances to the next brief straight away.

When the queue empties, you land on You're at skim zero. New saves join the queue as their briefs finish.

Triage keys

• A or 1: Act on it
• R or 2: Reference later
• X or 3: Archive
• U: undo your last decision
• Esc: close triage mode

These four triage keys are fixed and cannot be rebound.

Undo

Press U right after a decision you regret and Skiml puts the brief back. The undo button also appears at the top of the card whenever there is something to undo.

Why triage matters

A brief you never sort is a brief you will not act on, and the pile grows either way. Triage is designed for speed rather than deliberation: read the summary on the card, pick a bucket, move on. If you want the whole brief before deciding, use Open full brief on the card.

Archiving also has a practical effect beyond tidiness. Archived briefs stop showing up in your email digest, so the digest keeps surfacing things you have not dealt with instead of repeating what you already closed out.