# 5 · The inbox note

The library is read-only for staff and their assistants. The inbox is how it gets corrected: an assistant notices a gap or an error, writes a note, and a person reviews it before anything changes.

## How the inbox is set up

- **A separate folder or library where everyone can add files.** Staff can't edit the library, but they (and their assistants) can create new files here.
- **One file per note**, named `YYYY-MM-DD-short-topic.md` (for example `2026-10-28-new-lms-vendor.md`). Separate files mean two people never overwrite each other's notes.
- **One queue.** The owner moves each note into `00-meta/inbox.md` inside the library, where it's reviewed, decided and closed, then moves the note file to `processed/`.

## The note

```text
- **YYYY-MM-DD (who — which assistant)** — **Short title.** What is missing,
  wrong or out of date. Which library file it belongs in (or "no file fits").
  Source: a URL, a document, or "per <role>, YYYY-MM-DD". The exact fix, if
  there is one, as before → after. Anything the assistant asked the user,
  and the answer (or "asked; user deferred").
```

Example:

```text
- **2026-10-28 (Membership Coordinator — Claude)** — **Early registration
  deadline moved.** `03-programs/annual-conference.md` says the early rate
  "usually runs through January"; the 2027 site says February 15. Source:
  conference.example-association.org/register, read 2026-10-28. Fix: keep the
  usual-pattern sentence and add "For 2027, the early rate ends February 15
  (conference website)." Asked the user whether the change is permanent;
  they don't know yet.
```

## What counts as a note

File one when any of these happens during real work:

- **Something was missing.** The library didn't cover what the assistant needed, so it answered from general knowledge or had to ask.
- **Something was wrong or out of date.** A fact didn't match its source, another file, or what the user said.
- **The user knew something the library doesn't.** A new vendor, a changed date, a decision and the reason for it, who owns a process now.
- **The answer rested on something provisional.** A `[TBD]`, or a file marked `draft`.
- **Housekeeping.** A broken link, a stale date, a term missing from the glossary.

Not a note: a question the library was never meant to answer (legal advice, one person's records, general knowledge), or a personal preference about wording that no rule supports.

## Ask once, then file

If the gap sits in the user's own area (their team's process, a vendor they manage, a decision they were part of), the assistant asks once, briefly: can you fill in the missing fact, or tell me where it's written down? The answer goes in the note, with the person's role and the date. That turns a lead the owner would have to chase into a change they can approve.

## What happens next

1. The owner gathers new note files into the queue (`00-meta/inbox.md`).
2. For each one, they decide: apply as written, apply with edits, ask someone, or close with a reason.
3. **A person approves every change before it is applied.**
4. The entry is closed, and the note file moves to `processed/`.

A redundant note costs a minute at review. A missed one costs the next person the same detour.