---
title: "Inbox and triage"
description: "Work your BackTalk inbox: the Inbox, Unread, Starred, Replied, Ignored and Spam views, filters and search, starring, bulk actions, and ignore reasons that train the filter."
source: https://backtalk.sh/docs/inbox
---
# Inbox and triage

Every mention BackTalk finds lands in the **Inbox** as a signal. The inbox is where you read them, decide what matters, and keep the rest out of your way.

## Views

The left rail switches between views, each with a live count:

- **Inbox** is your working queue: new and seen mentions that still need attention.
- **Unread** is only the ones you have not looked at yet.
- **Starred** is anything you flagged to come back to.
- **Replied** and **Ignored** are what you have already actioned.
- **Spam** holds filtered noise. The spam filter never deletes anything; suspected noise is filed here and can be rescued with **Not spam**.

## Filters and search

Under **Filters**, narrow the list by:

- **Source**: the platform a mention came from (Hacker News, GitHub, Reddit and the rest, plus **AI answers**).
- **Watchers / Keywords**: a tree that drills from a watcher down to its keywords, so you can read one project at a time.
- **Time**: last 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, or any time.
- **Sort**: urgent first (the default in Inbox and Unread), newest (the default in the other views), oldest, or most engagement.
- **Sentiment**, and once you have run AI scoring, **Priority**, **Category** and **Intent**.

Active filters show as removable chips above the list, with **Clear all** to reset. The **Search signals…** box does a free-text search over the title, snippet, author and URL, and combines with every filter.

## Triage a signal

Each row carries the mention plus quick actions:

- **Mark seen** takes it out of the unread count. Clicking through to the source marks it seen too.
- **Replied** records that you answered.
- **Ignore…** files it away and asks **why**. Pick a reason (**Not relevant**, **Job ad**, **Different product**, or **Spam**) and optionally add a detail like "about the band, not the SDK". Those reasons train the filter over time. **Un-ignore** puts it back.
- The **star** flags a signal for later; it has its own view.
- The tone control lets you correct the sentiment by hand when the automatic read is wrong.

Each signal shows a **sentiment chip** (positive, neutral, negative, or unknown). A dashed border means the free offline scorer estimated it; add an [AI provider key](/docs#ai) for a model-scored read plus priority, category and intent.

## Do it in bulk

Select several signals (or **Select all**) and a bulk bar appears to **Mark seen**, mark **Replied**, **Ignore…** with a shared reason, **Star** or **Unstar**, set the tone, or move spam back with **Not spam**. It is the fastest way to clear a backlog.

## New mentions while you read

When a sync brings in new signals as you are working, a notice appears at the top ("2 new signals have arrived since this page loaded") with a **Refresh** button, so the list never shifts under you mid-triage. If a teammate updates signals in a shared workspace, you see that too.

## Keep the noise out

To stop whole categories of noise before they reach the inbox, use per-keyword exclude terms on the [Keywords page](/docs/keywords) or the workspace-wide [global ignore lists](/docs/global-ignore).