Facile 4p conrotatory imino-Nazarov cyclization of a 1-aminopentadienyl cation generated from condensation an aldehyde and secondary aniline in the presence of a catalytic amount of a Lewis acid has been developed. Silver(I)catalyzed intramolecular arene trapping of the resulting cyclic oxyallyl cation leads to formation of tricyclic indolinefused cyclopentanone. The use of lanthanide salts allows transformation after the initial trapping to afford tetrahydroquinoline-fused cyclopentenone in a concise manner.Five-membered carbocyclic scaffolds are ubiquitous in both natural products and biologically important molecules. [1] Development of facile cyclization reactions which allow rapid construction of five-membered carbocyclic frameworks has thus attracted immense interest in the synthetic community. In this context, the classical Nazarov reaction, involving 4pe À conrotatory electrocyclization of pentadienyl cation, arguably represents one of the most efficient methods to access a diverse array of carbocycles. [2] The synthetic utility of the Nazarov cyclization is further enhanced by the possibility of trapping the oxyallyl cation with nucleophiles both intra-and intermolecularly in a process termed the interrupted Nazarov reaction. [3] Recent years have seen a wide range of nucleophiles being employed to capture the cation, thus rendering the formation of highly functionalized cyclopentanones as well as intriguing polycyclic skeletons which contain five-membered carbocycles. [4] A relatively new variant of the Nazarov reaction which has received less attention is the imino-Nazarov cyclization, which essentially involves electrocyclic ring closure of the pentadienyl system bearing an imino group instead of the conventional ketone functionality. Since the pioneering work reported by Tius et al. on the lithiated imino-Nazarov reaction, [5] literature examples pertaining to this special class of Nazarov reaction remain scarce. The lack of success in developing an imino-Nazarov cyclization stems from the inherent challenge associated with higher stability of the pentadienyl cation, relative to the corresponding cyclic allyl cation, owing to stabilization by a nitrogen atom. [6] Later, Tius and co-workers disclosed the use of enamine-iminium ion formation in facilitating an imino-Nazarov cyclization. [7] The work of Hsung and co-workers on gold-catalyzed cyclization of allenamides demonstrated that diminishing nitrogen stabilization through incorporation of an electron-withdrawing tosyl group proved to be an effective solution to drive the electrocyclization forward. [8] More recently, the group of West reported silver-assisted ring opening of 2,2-dichlorocyclopropanes to access a 3-aminopentadienyl cation capable of undergoing imino-Nazarov cyclization, including a few examples of interrupted process (Scheme 1). [9] Our recent interest in the synthesis of cyclopentanoid compounds [10] prompted us to investigate the possibility of a diene iminium ion, of the type shown in Scheme 1, to undergo an imino-Nazarov cycl...