# Inbox frames

> A section that collects new matches for a search, for people to sort.

An inbox is a section bound to a search. New matches wait in a tray beside it, marked new, until someone sorts them onto the board or dismisses them. Automation never rearranges the board: people do the sorting.

![A Triage section with cards sorted into it, and its tray beside it listing new matches for a search, with a card marked No longer matches and Keep and Remove buttons.](https://tack.social/_astro/inbox-light.tTWZiRms_RX7A7.webp)

## Making an inbox

Select a section on its own and choose **Inbox** in its bar. Write a search, as on GitHub, such as `repo:owner/name is:issue is:open no:label`, or start from one of the ready-made searches lists use too:

- **Labelled …**: when the repository has a label named like the section (“Docs” → `label:docs`), it’s the first idea
- **Open bugs**: `is:open label:bug`
- **Needs triage**: `is:issue is:open no:label`
- **Open pull requests**: `is:pr is:open`
- **Good first issues**: `is:open label:"good first issue"`

As you type, it counts the matches (“**14** matches now”), searching as you. A search in plain words gets a suggestion of what it probably meant, as in a list’s settings (see [Lists](https://tack.social/widgets/list.md)). If another inbox on the board already collects some of the same items, the editor says so (““Triage” already collects 5 of these”): each item then waits in just one tray, the one with the narrower search (fewer matches), so nobody sorts it twice.

Tick **Place new matches straight in** to skip the tray: Tack adds a [rule](https://tack.social/automation/rules.md) that puts new matches into the section as they arrive. Leave it off to review them first. (It needs a `repo:` in the search, as rules do.)

**Start collecting** turns the section into an inbox. To change the search later, choose **Edit query** in the tray; **Stop collecting** turns it back into a plain section, and removes the rule if it was placing matches straight in.

Any GitHub search works: see [Search syntax](https://tack.social/widgets/search-syntax.md).

## The tray

The tray sits beside the section and moves with it: on the right, or on the left if something’s in the way, and never over another section. With no room either side, or when you zoom far out, it folds into a pill on the section’s title (“3 new”), so it doesn’t cover the board; click the pill to open it anyway. It’s folded for people with view access, too. **Fold the tray away** folds it yourself.

The tray shows how many are new, how many match in all (“2 new of 6 matching”; point at it for the rest: on the board, dismissed, or in another inbox), and the search. Items waiting in another inbox’s tray instead are noted at the bottom (“2 more wait in “Docs””).

The tray lists matches that aren’t on the board anywhere and haven’t been dismissed, newest first. Ones that arrive while you’re watching slide in, marked **New**.

To sort an item:

- **Drag it out** onto the board, anywhere (into another section, say).
- **Click it** (or press `Enter`) to put it in the first free spot in the inbox section.
- **Dismiss** it with × (or `Delete`): “Dismissed #412 from Triage”, with **Undo**. Dismissed items are listed at the bottom of the tray, where **Bring back** returns them.

Cards sorted out of an inbox remember where they came from (see [Where cards come from](https://tack.social/automation/provenance.md)).

People with view access can see the tray and refresh it, but not sort or dismiss.

## Whose search

Like a widget, an inbox searches **as whoever’s looking**, with their own GitHub account, so two people may see different trays. People who aren’t signed in only see public items.

It refreshes every minute while someone’s looking, when GitHub says a repository it searches has changed, and on **Check for new matches**.