# Label real Records (/docs/guide/label-records) A Record is one piece of text with an id. Its `state` is what the model reads, and it can be a string, an object or an array, so the subject and sender can stay as fields: ```json title="records.jsonl" {"id":"msg-1","state":{"subject":"Charged twice","sender":"anna@example.com","text":"You charged my card twice this month. I want the second charge refunded now, and I want to talk to an actual person, not a bot."}} {"id":"msg-2","state":{"subject":"Export question","sender":"ben@example.com","text":"Hi, how do I export my projects to CSV? I found the export button but it only gives me JSON."}} {"id":"msg-3","state":{"subject":"Re: invoice","sender":"dan@example.com","text":"Is the invoice from March going to be corrected or should I just pay it? Somebody promised a call back last week."}} ``` `siftline label` judges each one and writes a Decision line to stdout: ```bash npx siftline label recipe.json records.jsonl > decisions.jsonl ``` ```json title="decisions.jsonl" {"format":1,"id":"0192f3c2-7b1e-7c4a-9f0e-000000000001","recordId":"msg-1","recipe":{"name":"support-inbox","version":1},"model":"jev-1.13.0","judgedAt":"2026-09-22T09:00:00.000Z","trimmed":false,"answers":{"category":"complaint","wants_human":true},"questions":{"category":{"confidence":1,"probabilities":{"complaint":1,"question":0,"other":0}},"wants_human":{"probability":0.99,"confidence":0.98}},"confidence":0.98,"review":false,"rule":null,"action":null,"usage":{"inputTokens":412,"outputTokens":60}} {"format":1,"id":"0192f3c2-7b1e-7c4a-9f0e-000000000002","recordId":"msg-2","recipe":{"name":"support-inbox","version":1},"model":"jev-1.13.0","judgedAt":"2026-09-22T09:00:00.000Z","trimmed":false,"answers":{"category":"question","wants_human":false},"questions":{"category":{"confidence":1,"probabilities":{"complaint":0,"question":1,"other":0}},"wants_human":{"probability":0.02,"confidence":0.96}},"confidence":0.96,"review":false,"rule":null,"action":null,"usage":{"inputTokens":404,"outputTokens":59}} {"format":1,"id":"0192f3c2-7b1e-7c4a-9f0e-000000000003","recordId":"msg-3","recipe":{"name":"support-inbox","version":1},"model":"jev-1.13.0","judgedAt":"2026-09-22T09:00:00.000Z","trimmed":false,"answers":{"category":"question","wants_human":false},"questions":{"category":{"confidence":0.58,"probabilities":{"complaint":0.27,"question":0.72,"other":0.01}},"wants_human":{"probability":0.25,"confidence":0.5}},"confidence":0.5,"review":true,"rule":null,"action":null,"usage":{"inputTokens":406,"outputTokens":59}} ``` Decisions come out in input order, whatever order the model answers in. Every line is parsed before the first call, so a bad Record costs nothing. Records are read from a file, or from stdin when the second argument is `-` or missing, so `label` sits at the end of a pipe. ## Reading a Decision [#reading-a-decision] * `answers` are the plain values, one per Question. This is what Rules and receivers read. * `questions` is the evidence: the confidence behind each answer, the probability of every label in Recipe order, and for a Score the model's expected value across the levels. * `confidence` is the lowest of those, and `review` is whether it fell under the Recipe's threshold. * `recipe` and `model` say which questions were answered and by what. * `rule` and `action` are `null` here. [Rules](/docs/guide/route-with-rules) fill them. ## Unsure Decisions [#unsure-decisions] Look at `msg-3`. The model leaned towards `question` at only 0.58, and was no surer whether the sender wanted a person. A Decision's confidence is the lowest across its Questions, 0.5 here, which is under the Recipe's threshold of 0.7, so the Decision carries `review: true`. It is still written, with its answers, because a low-confidence answer is still information. What is different is what happens next: an Unsure Decision selects no Rule and no Action, however you configure them. The hosted Siftline app sends these to a Review queue where a person answers instead. The toolkit has no queue, so filtering on `review` is your job: send those lines to a person, and let the rest flow on. ## Failures [#failures] A Record the model refuses is named on stderr and skipped; the run continues and exits `1` at the end. A rate limit or an outage that outlives the retries aborts the run, since a partial file with no marker is worse than none. If the model that answered differs from the one the Recipe pins, one warning names both. ## Sending [#sending] `label` never sends. With `--rules` each Decision names the Action its Rule selected, and that is all: the CLI holds no webhook URL and no secret. [Rules](/docs/guide/route-with-rules) come next. To send, pipe the Decisions into a short script that keeps its secrets in the environment: ```bash export SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL=... TICKETS_WEBHOOK_URL=... TICKETS_WEBHOOK_SECRET=... npx siftline label recipe.json records.jsonl --rules rules.json | node send.ts recipe.json ``` ```ts title="send.ts" // siftline label recipe.json records.jsonl --rules rules.json | node send.ts recipe.json import { readFileSync } from "node:fs"; import { createInterface } from "node:readline"; import { defineActions, dispatch } from "@siftline/actions"; import { parseDecision, parseRecipe } from "@siftline/core"; const recipe = parseRecipe(readFileSync(process.argv[2] ?? "recipe.json", "utf8")); // The ids rules.json selects. URLs and the secret come from the environment, never from a file; // an unset one fails here, before anything is sent. const actions = defineActions({ escalations: { kind: "slack_incoming_webhook", config: { url: process.env.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL ?? "" }, }, "linear-tickets": { kind: "webhook", config: { url: process.env.TICKETS_WEBHOOK_URL ?? "", secret: process.env.TICKETS_WEBHOOK_SECRET ?? "", }, }, }); for await (const line of createInterface({ input: process.stdin })) { if (line.trim() === "") continue; // `null` when the Decision went to Review or selected no Action: nothing to send. const sent = await dispatch(parseDecision(line), actions, recipe); if (sent !== null) console.log(`${sent.request.idempotencyKey} ${sent.response.status}`); } ``` It parses each line with `parseDecision` and calls `dispatch` once. A Decision that went to Review, such as `msg-3`, or whose Rule selected no Action, sends nothing. The Action ids MUST be the ones `rules.json` names; an id the Rules select but the script does not define throws. Node runs the `.ts` file as is from 22.18 on the 22 line, and from 23.6. On 22.14 to 22.17, add `--experimental-strip-types`. [Send an Action](/docs/guide/send-an-action) covers `defineActions`, `dispatch` and their errors. A failed send throws and stops the pipe. The lines before it were sent, and each request carries an `Idempotency-Key`, so a receiver can drop the repeats when you run it again. Next: [turn Answers into an Action with Rules](/docs/guide/route-with-rules).