# Add things automatically

> Send new entries to a block from a shortcut, an email or a file, without opening the app.

A [block](https://docs.ownsite.me/blocks) usually grows because you or a visitor add to it. It can also fill itself: a block can take new entries from **a web address, an email address, or a file you upload**, so things land in it without you opening the app.

A private spending page is the common case: your phone sends each tap-to-pay purchase, your card's alert emails forward themselves, and you drop in a statement now and then. It stays general, though: a reading list fed by forwarded links uses the same pieces.

Nothing it receives is ever shown anywhere unless the page is public. On a private page, only you see it.

## What a received entry becomes

An inbox has a **kind** that decides which built-in reader runs and the exact fields each entry is written with. The block must have those fields (ask your AI for a page "with a date, an amount, a merchant and a category", or let it add them). Anything a reader cannot turn into those fields is not written: it goes to **Needs review** instead, never guessed.

- **Spending** (the default). Reads an Apple Pay / Shortcuts entry, a bank purchase-alert email, or a statement CSV into these fields:
  - `date` - the day, as `YYYY-MM-DD`
  - `amount` - a number, with spending positive
  - `merchant` - where it was spent
  - `card` - the last four digits, when the source has them
  - `source` - where it came from (`apple-pay`, `email`, `csv`)
  - `category` - filled by the block's own rules (a built-in merchant list, plus anything you teach it), not by a reader
- **Links** (a reading list fed by forwarded links). Reads the first link out of a message into `url`, `title` and `source`.

Your AI sets the kind when it turns the inbox on (`set_inbox`), and `get_inbox` shows which kind is on, the fields it writes, and any the block is still missing.

## Turn it on

Open the block's page, choose **Content**, open the block, and press **Add automatically**. Pick one or more of:

- **Web address** - for a shortcut on your phone, or any tool that can send a web request.
- **Email** - forward messages to an address, like your bank's purchase alerts.
- **Upload a file** - a spreadsheet export (CSV) you import yourself.

Each one has an on/off switch, a **Copy** button for its address, and **Get a new address** if you ever need to change it (the old one stops working at once). You can also ask your AI: "turn on the web address for my spending page."

## Send from your phone (Shortcuts)

On iPhone, the **Shortcuts** app can send a purchase to your web address:

### 1. Copy the web address

From the block's **Add automatically** panel.

### 2. Make an automation for your cards

In Shortcuts, open **Automation**, press **+** and choose **Wallet** (called **Transaction** on some versions). Pick the cards to follow and choose **Run Immediately**.

### 3. Add a "Get Contents of URL" action

Press **New Blank Automation**, search the actions for **Get Contents of URL**, add it and paste the address. Under **Show More**, set the method to **POST** and the request body to **JSON**.

### 4. Fill in three fields

Add these keys. For each value, tap it and pick from **Shortcut Input**:

```json
{
  "amount": "Amount",
  "merchant": "Merchant",
  "card": "Name"
}
```

Key names can be any case. `date` is optional; without it, today is used.

### 5. Try it

Pay once with Apple Pay. The entry appears in the block within seconds.

## Forward emails

Forward (or auto-forward) messages to the block's email address. The block reads what it can - for a spending block, a bank's purchase alert - and files anything it cannot read under **Needs review** for you to decide. Emails are checked for a valid sender before anything is recorded, the message is read as plain text only, and the original is deleted right after.

## Upload a file

Press **Upload a file** and choose a CSV. Common bank and card exports are recognised automatically; for anything else, you confirm once which columns are the date, the description and the amount. You see a preview before anything is imported, and a row that is already there is skipped.

## Categories, and "Needs review"

Entries are sorted into categories by simple, fixed rules - a built-in list of common merchants, plus anything you teach it. When you change an entry's category, keep **Remember for this merchant** on and the next one from the same place gets that category. Nothing is sent to an AI to do this.

Anything the block cannot read - an email it did not understand, a verification code, a sender it could not trust - goes to a **Needs review** list on the page, with a count on the tab. Open it and press **Add** to record it (the fields are filled in from what was read) or **Dismiss**. Items there disappear after 30 days.

## Keeping the address private

The address is the key: anyone who has it can add entries to that one block, but nothing else - they cannot read, change or delete what is there. Keep it to yourself, and use **Get a new address** if it ever leaks.