FBI Sentinel Gold User Guide: The FBI's Top Secret Case Management System

This annotated edition reproduces the FBI's Sentinel Gold User Guide (Version 1.11, May 24, 2023), obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Sentinel Gold is the Top Secret/SCI component of the Bureau's primary case management system, operating on the FBI's classified SCINet network. Of the document's 46 pages, substantial portions have been redacted under FOIA Exemption 7(E), but what remains reveals the workflows, approval chains, classification markings, and cross-domain transfer procedures that govern daily FBI intelligence work at the highest classification levels. This Nimble Ultra edition includes a historical introduction tracing the FBI's path from paper files through the failed $170M Virtual Case File project to Sentinel's 2012 deployment, context on the FD-1023 confidential human source form and the 2023 congressional controversies, a glossary of 27 intelligence and classification terms, and an appendix documenting 11 notable cases where the FBI's FOIA responses have been disputed or found inadequate by federal courts.