How triage works (3 layers)

Triage — three layers

The portal homepage isn’t a single big form — it’s a funnel that tries three increasingly intelligent ways to get a requester to the right ticket template. The goal: by the time the form opens, 80% of the routing/categorisation work is already done.

Layer 1 — the wizard tree

The leftmost panel on the portal home is a decision tree. “Is it about a person? An asset? A building?” — each branch narrows toward a category, and the leaves are either ticket templates or catalogue items.

The tree is editable in Helpdesk → Triage (admin). You can add, rename, reorder branches and bind any leaf to a template slug or catalogue category.

This is the “I prefer to be told what to do” path — works well for new staff, supply staff, and pupils.

Layer 2 — the smart catalogue

The catalogue page lists every requestable item, grouped by department. A requester clicks the item, sees the form, fills it in, submits — exactly like ordering from a menu.

Use this for things that fit a catalogue item mental model: laptop loan, meeting room booking, software install request, building access card. They typically have a price/cost or a delivery time.

Layer 3 — AI-assisted free-text search

The search bar at the top of the portal home is the fastest path for anyone who already knows what they want. As they type (“printer broken”, “new staff laptop”), suggestions appear below.

This is the TriageClassifier at work. It scores the input against every active ticket template’s label, summary, slug, and default tags. Weighted matches (long keywords beat short ones) produce a top-3 list with confidence scores.

By default it runs on keyword scoring — works fine without an LLM key. To upgrade it to LLM-backed classification, configure an Azure OpenAI provider; the classifier swaps to generateStructuredOutput() calls automatically.

Which layer wins?

All three coexist. A power user types into the search bar; a new starter follows the wizard; someone browsing for software clicks through the catalogue. Pick the templates and tree carefully, and any path will get them to the right form.

Tuning tips

• Keep template summaries short and keyword-rich — “Pupil’s device is broken or lost” beats “Use this template for any device-related issues”. The classifier gives long words extra weight.
• Use default tags to surface templates against common terminology you don’t want in the visible label — e.g. tag a “Repair printer” template with toner cartridge jam.
• Audit the catalogue twice a year — items requested zero times in 12 months should probably be retired.