folder-structure-designer

Folder Structure Designer Skill

Folder structures fail by ambition: seven levels deep, a taxonomy only its author understands, and within a month everyone files into misc/ or nowhere. The structure that survives is shallow (three levels max), organized by how people look for things (purpose, then project — not file type, not org chart), and honest about human behavior: there's an _inbox for the undecided, a placement rule for every top-level folder, and search is embraced as half the system rather than defeated.

What This Skill Produces

• The structure — top levels with per-folder placement rules ("goes here if…"), three levels deep maximum
• The conventions — _inbox for undecided, _archive per area, the naming rule (see [filename-convention](../filename-convention/SKILL.md))
• The one-page guide — the structure explained in ten lines, postable where the team will see it
• The migration-lite plan — new structure now, old mess frozen and drained opportunistically (never the big-bang reorganization that stalls at 30%)

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• Who files and who finds — team size, roles, and the honest filing culture (a structure for five diligent people differs from one for forty rushed ones)
• The retrieval questions — the actual "where is the…?" questions of the last month; structure follows retrieval, not theory
• The existing mess — top-level inventory of what exists now, and any folders that genuinely work (survivors get kept, not redesigned)
• Boundaries — what does NOT belong here (personal files, another team's domain, things that live in tools)

Framework: The Structure Rules

1. Organize by seek-path, not by file type: people look for "the Acme contract," not "PDFs" — top level mirrors the retrieval questions (Clients / Projects / Team Ops / Reference), never (Documents / Spreadsheets / Images).
2. Three levels, then stop: Clients / Acme / Contracts — anything needing level four becomes a naming problem instead (dates and descriptors in filenames). Depth is where filing compliance dies; every level halves it.
3. Every folder gets a placement rule: one "goes-here-if" sentence per top-level folder, written on the guide. A folder whose rule can't be written in one sentence is two folders or zero.
4. _inbox absorbs the undecided: filing friction comes from placement doubt — the _inbox at root accepts anything instantly, and a weekly ten-minute drain files it properly. Undecided-with-a-home beats misfiled-forever; the underscore keeps it sorted to the top.
5. Search is half the system: the structure's job is browsability of the current and shared; history goes to _archive (per area, by year) where search — not browsing — retrieves it. Structures that try to make everything browsable forever collapse under their own history.

Output Format

Folder Structure: [drive/team]

The Structure

[Top levels with children to depth 3, each top-level annotated: "→ goes here if …"]
_inbox/        → anything, when unsure — drained weekly

The One-Page Guide

[Ten lines: the placement rules · the naming rule · the _inbox habit · the archive-by-year rule · "when unsure: _inbox, not misc"]

Migration-Lite

[Old root frozen as _pre-2026/ (read-only norm) · new filing starts today · drain rule: whenever you fetch an old file, refile it · no big-bang weekend]

Quality Checks

• [ ] Top level mirrors the team's actual retrieval questions
• [ ] No path exceeds three levels
• [ ] Every top-level folder has a one-sentence placement rule
• [ ] _inbox exists with a named drain cadence and owner
• [ ] Migration is freeze-and-drain, not big-bang

Anti-Patterns

• [ ] Do not build taxonomy for taxonomy's sake — every folder must earn its rule
• [ ] Do not organize by file type — nobody seeks "spreadsheets"
• [ ] Do not exceed three levels — depth is where compliance goes to die
• [ ] Do not attempt the big-bang reorg — it stalls at 30% and leaves two messes
• [ ] Do not create misc/ — that's _inbox without the drain, i.e., the old problem with a new name