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diff --git a/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-03-post-0.1.0-usability-closed.md b/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-03-post-0.1.0-usability-closed.md
index 33bba8b..26f90fa 100644
--- a/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-03-post-0.1.0-usability-closed.md
+++ b/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-03-post-0.1.0-usability-closed.md
@@ -9742,3 +9742,68 @@ scoping and its trash-aware visibility all stay exactly as they are.
 
 **Closed 2026-08-29**, unreleased, the two built together. See the status table in the open file for what shipped.
 
+## 189. The message bar carries only Reply, Forward and Delete
+
+**Observed.** The user asks for more of the standard message actions on the
+pane's own bar, now that items 185 and 186 established it as where actions on
+the displayed message live:
+
+- **Star (Important)**, per message or selection
+- **Archive**, per message or selection, possibly moved off the main toolbar
+  the way Delete was
+- **Mark all read**, raised as a question rather than a request
+
+**Cause.** Nothing is broken. The bar was filled with the reply pair when it
+was built (items 139 to 141) and has gained a branch at a time since: Edit
+draft for a draft (157), the trash trio and Delete (185, 186). Its rule has
+never been written down, which is why the third of these does not obviously
+fit.
+
+**The rule the bar has actually followed, stated.** An action belongs on the
+bar when it acts on **what the pane is displaying**. That is why Compose is on
+the main toolbar and Reply is not (item 140), and it is what made Delete's move
+correct in item 186.
+
+**So two of the three fit and one does not.**
+
+- **`flag`** is selection-scoped and is a toggle over the displayed message.
+  It fits with no decision needed.
+- **`archive`** is selection-scoped and fits the same way. The open part is
+  only whether it LEAVES the main toolbar, as Delete did, or appears on both.
+  Delete left because a duplicate reads as two different controls when the
+  toolbar is icon-only; the same argument applies here.
+- **`mark_all_read` does NOT fit.** It is the one action in the window that
+  deliberately ignores the selection (`markAllRead()`, "Every row, not the
+  selection"), and it is gated on the query being COMPLETE rather than on
+  anything being displayed. Putting a view-wide action on a bar whose every
+  other entry acts on one message is how a user marks a thousand threads read
+  meaning to mark one. This is the user's own `#discuss` and the answer from
+  here is: leave it on the main toolbar.
+
+**Approach.** Add `flag` and `archive` to the ordinary branch of
+`refreshMessageBarActions()` beside Reply, Forward and Delete. Decide with the
+user whether `archive` also comes off the main toolbar. Leave `mark_all_read`
+where it is unless the user overrules the reasoning above.
+
+**Constraints.**
+
+- **The trash branch must not grow with it**, though the reason is narrower
+  than it first looks. Delete already strips `inbox` alongside `unread` (the
+  `sendMove()` call in `trashMessages()`, since 2026-08-26), so on mail THIS
+  application deleted, Archive is genuinely a no-op, as the user observed.
+  The gap is mail trashed by ANOTHER client: nothing rewrote its tags, so it
+  can sit in a trash folder still carrying `inbox`. That is the same reason
+  the trash view is path-based rather than `tag:deleted`. On such a message
+  Archive is a real write that strips `inbox`, counts an unsynced change and
+  rewrites the Maildir filename under `synchronize_flags`, all with no visible
+  effect, which is item 168's shape exactly. Star is harmless there but adds a
+  fifth button to a bar that is already three. Whatever is added goes on the
+  ORDINARY branch only.
+- **Five buttons is the practical ceiling** on an icon-only bar next to the
+  view controls, so this is close to full. Anything after this needs the
+  overflow question answering rather than one more icon.
+- **Every action added must carry a distinct icon**, which the existing test
+  enforces for anything reachable from a toolbar. `flag` and `archive` already
+  have their own.
+
+**Closed 2026-08-29**, unreleased. Star and Archive added to the ordinary branch; Archive left the main toolbar; `mark_all_read` stays there by the user's decision, and the assertion that it does is now in the suite.