# Set a conversation's priority

Mark a conversation Urgent, High, Normal or Low. Your turn shows the most important first, and Rookery suggests High when it should be.

Getting started · Updated October 17, 2026 · https://userookery.com/help/priority/

Every conversation has a priority: **Urgent**, **High**, **Normal** or **Low**. Most mail is Normal and shows nothing. The rest carries a chip with a word and an arrow: **⇈ Urgent**, **↑ High**, **↓ Low**.

## Change it

- **In a conversation:** click the priority chip beside the sender's name (or **Normal**) and pick one.
- **From the keyboard:** press `p`, then `1` for Urgent, `2` for High, `3` for Normal or `4` for Low. It works in a conversation, on the row you're on in the inbox, and on everything you've selected.

Anyone who can reply in the inbox can change it. Someone who can only read sees the chip, and can ask anyone who can reply there. Every change is a line in the conversation's history: "Maya changed priority from High to Urgent".

## Rookery suggests High

When an email is urgent, or comes from a VIP with a complaint or a cancellation, or the sender sounds fed up, Rookery suggests **High**. It shows as a dashed green **High?** chip until someone decides: click **Keep High** to keep it, or pick another level. Rookery only ever suggests High, never Urgent or Low.

A suggestion already counts for the order of Your turn, just after the conversations a person or a rule set to High. Urgent mail isn't buried while it waits for someone to look, and a guess never outranks a decision.

## Rules set it too

A [rule](https://userookery.com/help/routing-rules/) can set a priority ("When the sender is a VIP… priority Urgent"). The history says which rule set it. A person's choice always wins: rules only run on new mail, and never change a priority someone picked.

## Where it shows

- **Your turn** and **Up for grabs** sort by priority, then by who has waited longest.
- **Filter → Priority** shows only one level, counting Rookery's suggestions.
- To mark a customer as a VIP, open their page in **People** and click **Mark as VIP**.

## For developers

The API's `list_conversations` and `get_conversation` return `priority`, and `set_priority` changes it. See the [API reference](https://userookery.com/developers/).