1 files changed, 91 insertions, 19 deletions

diff --git a/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-03-post-0.1.0-usability.md b/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-03-post-0.1.0-usability.md
index 98a2cd7..8a8f691 100644
--- a/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-03-post-0.1.0-usability.md
+++ b/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-03-post-0.1.0-usability.md
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ taking that too literally.
 | 20 | Thread view does not match the user's mental model | presentation | L | **done** 2026-08-10, as the card list; see 53 |
 | 21 | Default shortcuts are not sensible enough | discoverability | S | open |
 | 22 | Translatability audit and i18n wiring | correctness | M | open |
-| 23 | No way to save a search query from the UI | workflow | M | open |
+| 23 | No way to save a search query from the UI | workflow | M | open; design given by the user 2026-08-13. Needs one decision: how a pinned query is marked in the config |
 | 24 | No right-click actions on the thread list | discoverability | S | **done** |
 | 25 | No select-all, and bulk actions are undiscoverable | workflow | S | **done** |
 | 26 | No way to add or remove an arbitrary tag from the UI | workflow | S | **done** |
@@ -145,6 +145,7 @@ taking that too literally.
 | 78 | No way to build a rule from something visible in a message | workflow | M | open; wants 76 first, so the created rule lands in a form that can hold it |
 | 80 | A rule with many conditions squeezes the rule list to one visible row | defect | XS | **done** 2026-08-13 on `rule-builder`, unreleased. Follows item 76 |
 | 79 | Opening the rules dialog and saving destroys the first rule | defect | XS | **fixed on `rule-builder`** 2026-08-13, unreleased. Shipped in 0.16.0; damaged one real rule, repaired by hand |
+| 81 | No way to turn a saved query into a tagging rule | workflow | S | open; split out of 23 on 2026-08-13 and depends on it. Writes to the shared rules file, so it spans this repo and `mailctl` |
 
 Sizes are rough: XS under an hour, S a sitting, M a session.
 
@@ -214,27 +215,61 @@ does not appear there is not translatable, whatever the source looks like.
 There is no way to keep a query you have just written without editing
 `qtmaildir.conf` by hand.
 
-**Approach, and one real design question.**
-
-- A "save this query" action that names the current query bar contents and adds
-  it to `[queries]`.
-- The user's own suggestion for presentation: **a few sensible ones as buttons,
-  the rest behind a menu.** Today `SavedQueryBar` shows them all, which does not
-  scale past a handful.
-
-**The design question is where the write goes.** `qtmaildir.conf` is hand-edited
-and owned by the user, and item 1 established the rule that machine-written
-state belongs in `uistate.conf` instead, precisely because QSettings preserves
-neither comments nor key order and would quietly reformat the file on write.
-Saved queries are not machine state though: they are user intent, they belong
-with the hand-written ones, and splitting them across two files so the UI can
-avoid touching one would be worse than either option. Decide explicitly, and
-say so in the README whichever way it goes.
+**Design (user, 2026-08-13).** The user described the shape they want, which is
+more specific than the original sketch and settles the file question below.
+
+- A **Save query** button beside the search bar. It opens a dialog on the
+  current query bar contents, where the query gets a **name**, an **account
+  scope**, and whatever else is worth editing before it is kept.
+- **Two tiers, presented differently.** Queries like Inbox and Unread stay
+  visible as buttons; user-made ones like "all messages from one correspondent"
+  go behind a menu. Today every entry in `[queries]` becomes a button
+  (`src/mainwindow.cpp:557`), which is the thing that does not scale.
+- If the tiers split, **the button row moves to a row of its own**, rather than
+  sharing the query row with the account box, the sort dropdown and the query
+  bar.
+
+**There is no built-in default set, and that is the first thing to decide.**
+Nothing in the code distinguishes a default query from a user-made one: every
+entry in `[queries]` is user-written config and is rendered identically. Sent is
+the lone exception and is not in `[queries]` at all, it is built from
+`allSentQuery()` (`src/mainwindow.cpp:579`). So the two tiers need a mechanism
+that does not exist: either a per-query `pinned` flag or a `[general]`
+`pinned_queries` list naming the ones that get buttons. This is a config format
+decision and it belongs to the user.
+
+**The file question is settled by the design.** The original entry left open
+whether the write goes to `qtmaildir.conf` or `uistate.conf`. A query the user
+named and scoped in a dialog is user intent, not machine state, so it goes in
+`qtmaildir.conf` beside the hand-written ones; splitting them across two files
+so the UI can avoid touching one would be worse than either option. **State the
+cost in the README:** QSettings preserves neither comments nor key order, so the
+first save from the UI reformats a hand-edited file. That is item 1's rule
+applying in the opposite direction, and it is a real loss for a user who
+comments their config.
+
+**"Save as a filter" is deliberately not part of this item.** The user raised it
+as an option: the same dialog could write the query out as a tagging rule, the
+reverse of item 77's Preview in list. It is left out because a rule is not a
+view. Rules live in `~/.config/mailrules/rules.json`, which has two independent
+implementations that agree by test rather than by shared code, and a `post-new`
+hook applies them to real mail every ten minutes. Writing one is a two-repo
+commitment with a live blast radius, and folding it in here would make a
+presentation change carry that risk. It is item 81.
 
 **Relation to item 10.** Item 10 is postponed, but its second half proposed
 exactly this: "saved queries that carry their own account scope, so one action
-gets there". If saved queries gain an account scope here, item 10 may be
-answered as a side effect rather than needing its own work.
+gets there". The 2026-08-13 design puts account scope in the save dialog
+outright, so item 10's remaining complaint is answered as a side effect rather
+than needing its own work. `Account::scopedQuery()` (`src/config.cpp:42`)
+already composes the scope, so this is a UI question, not a query question. Do
+not reopen item 10 to do it: the user postponed it and asked that the remaining
+work not be proposed unprompted.
+
+**Constraint:** the button row is built inline in `MainWindow`
+(`src/mainwindow.cpp:554-587`). There is no `SavedQueryBar` class and there
+never has been, whatever an older revision of this entry said. Moving the
+buttons to their own row is a change to that layout code.
 
 ## 36. `test_mainwindow` cannot reach the worker
 
@@ -527,6 +562,43 @@ in CLAUDE.md.
 
 **Size: M.**
 
+## 81. No way to turn a saved query into a tagging rule
+
+**Observed (user, 2026-08-13):** raised while describing item 23. The save-query
+dialog could optionally keep the query as a tagging rule as well as a saved
+query, "going the opposite route of creating a filter in the dialog and running
+a preview first". Item 77 shipped that opposite route: a rule in the dialog can
+be previewed in the thread list. This is the same journey backwards, from a
+query the user has already run and can see the results of, to a rule that tags
+it from then on.
+
+**Why it is its own item rather than part of 23.** A saved query is a view and
+costs nothing if it is wrong. A rule is applied to real mail by a `post-new`
+hook every ten minutes, and lives in `~/.config/mailrules/rules.json`, which has
+two independent implementations that agree by test rather than by shared code.
+Item 23 is otherwise a presentation change; folding this in would make it carry
+a two-repo commitment and a live blast radius. Kept separate so 23 can ship
+without it.
+
+**Approach.** A checkbox or a second button in the save dialog that hands the
+query to `TagRules` alongside the `[queries]` write, with the tags to apply
+asked for at that point: a rule needs an action, and a saved query has none.
+Preserve unknown fields, per "Changing the shared rule format" in CLAUDE.md.
+
+**Constraints.** A stored query carries no scope: the hook supplies `tag:new`
+and parenthesises the query, because `tag:new and a or b` binds as
+`(tag:new and a) or b`. A saved query written for a view is frequently a
+disjunction, so this is the common case here rather than an edge one, and a
+rule made this way is scoped differently from the query the user just ran. Say
+so in the dialog. The hook also refuses to remove `unread` or `inbox`, so a
+dialog that offers to write such a rule produces one the hook will not honour;
+that is the correct direction, but it has to be said in the UI rather than
+failing silently.
+
+**Depends on item 23**, which builds the dialog this hangs off.
+
+**Size: S** on top of 23, and not meaningful before it.
+
 ## Deferred, unsized, or split out
 
 Items noted while triaging but not part of the original list. Same numbering