1
A job arrives at the INBOX and rides the belt.
2
It reaches the FILTER. The filter reads the job.
3
Code goes east to the engineer. Everything else goes south to the generalist.
4
The right specialist does the work. You never touched it.
// FIELD MANUAL · ONE SIGNPOST
Filter & route work
Code goes to the engineer. Everything else goes to the generalist. You never sort by hand.
01The whole idea
You have two specialists. Jobs of both kinds arrive at one door.
A filter is a signpost on the belt. It reads each job and points it down one lane. It never holds work, never drops work, and never asks you anything once it’s set.
02What it can tell apart
The filter reads the text of the job and calls it one of exactly three things:
CODEwrite, fix, refactor, ship
RESEARCHfind out, compare, dig up
EVERYTHING ELSEthe default lane
A LANEone belt leaving the tile
If a job reads as both code and research, code wins. If it reads as neither, it takes the EVERYTHING ELSE lane. That lane is required — without it the tile shows NO DEFAULT LANE — CLICK until you pick one.
// ADDRESSED WORK SKIPS THE FILTERA job you sent to a named agent already knows where it’s going. It rides straight to that agent’s bay and the filter never sees it. Filters sort the unaddressed work — the jobs that just arrive.
03Build one
Open REFIT STATION. Everything below is under PROP 6, belts are BELT 7.
- Put down four things
Place an INBOX, a FILTER, and two BAYs — one to the east of the filter, one below it. Leave gaps for belt.
machines down, gaps left for belt - Run the first lane
Take BELT 7. Click the INBOX, then the FILTER. Then click the FILTER, then BAY A. The belt runs through the filter’s square: in one side, out the other.
INBOX → FILTER → BAY A, straight east - Run the second lane
Click the FILTER, then BAY B. The belt leaves the filter’s square on a different side and turns toward BAY B. Two belts out of one tile = two lanes.
a second exit, south, turning east - Tell the filter what goes where
Click the FILTER tile. Point CODE at the engineer’s lane and EVERYTHING ELSE at the generalist’s. RESEARCH can go either way. Hit ▸ SAVE ROUTES.
three rows, one lane each
Give each bay an agent. When both belts glow, the filter is live. Send a coding job and a shopping-list job and watch them part ways at the tile.
// OR SKIP ALL FOUR STEPSThe LINES tool 9 has two ready-made filter layouts: SORTING OFFICE and TRIAGE DESK. One click drops the whole thing.
04Mid-line filters read the last output
A filter doesn’t have to sit right after the INBOX. Put one between two desks and it sorts what the first desk produced — not the original message. A researcher whose notes turn out to be a code problem can hand off to the engineer without anyone deciding that in advance.
05Something’s not running
NO DEFAULT LANE — CLICK
The filter doesn’t know where “everything else” goes. Click the tile and pick a lane for EVERYTHING ELSE.
NOT ON A BELT — MOVE IT
The filter tile has no belt through it. Move it onto the line, or run the belt through its square.
NOT FED
A belt is clipping the corner of the filter instead of going through. In one side, out the other.
NO AGENT — CLICK
One of the destination desks is empty. A lane to an empty desk stays dark.
06Questions people actually ask
Can I filter on my own keywords?
Not yet. The filter knows three kinds of work: code, research, everything else. For anything finer, put a specialist first in line and let their output decide the lane — a mid-line filter reads what they produced.
What happens to a job the filter can’t classify?
It takes the EVERYTHING ELSE lane. A filter never drops work and never parks it.
Can one filter have three lanes?
Yes. Run three belts out of the tile on three different sides. CODE, RESEARCH, and EVERYTHING ELSE can each have their own lane.
Does the filter cost anything?
No. Sorting is done by the station itself, not by a model call. Only the desk that does the work spends money.