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-rw-r--r--docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-03-post-0.1.0-usability-closed.md171
-rw-r--r--docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-03-post-0.1.0-usability.md139
2 files changed, 173 insertions, 137 deletions
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 4a4b1ff..4f361bf 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
@@ -5140,6 +5140,177 @@ set explicitly. And the procedure's own first step, holding `/tmp/mbsync.lock`,
conflicts with hand-testing Delete, which auto-syncs; that surfaced item 125.
The procedure lives outside this repo, in the user's own documents.
+## 126. A link with `target="_blank"` does nothing when clicked
+
+**Observed (user, 2026-08-20):** "if I click on a link in a mail in the message
+pane, nothing happens." Then, on checking: a plain-text mail (a GitHub PR reply)
+opens its links correctly, while an HTML mail showing the link as a button does
+not.
+
+**That second observation overturned the first diagnosis and is the whole
+item.** This entry originally blamed `RequestInterceptor` blocking `https`.
+That was wrong: the interceptor does deny `https`, but only for resources the
+document FETCHES. A clicked link never becomes a request, because
+`acceptNavigationRequest` calls `QDesktopServices::openUrl` and returns false
+before anything is issued. If the interceptor were the cause, the GitHub link
+could not work either, and it does.
+
+**Cause (verified against the two messages the user named).** The difference is
+`target="_blank"`:
+
+| message | `target` | route taken | result |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| GitHub PR reply | none on any anchor | `acceptNavigationRequest` | opens correctly |
+| HTML newsletter | `_blank` on every anchor | `createWindow()` | silently dropped |
+
+An anchor with no target navigates the main frame, so it reaches
+`MessagePage::acceptNavigationRequest` as `NavigationTypeLinkClicked` and is
+handed to the browser. An anchor asking for a new window does NOT: Chromium
+routes it to `QWebEnginePage::createWindow()`, which `MessagePage` does not
+override, so the base implementation returns `nullptr` and the click is
+discarded. `acceptNavigationRequest` is never consulted, which is why no
+existing code sees it and nothing at all happens.
+
+Both messages render HTML, so this is not a text-versus-HTML distinction: the
+GitHub mail is `multipart/alternative` and its HTML part is what the pane shows.
+Marketing HTML uses `target="_blank"` almost universally, which is why it reads
+as "HTML mail is broken".
+
+**Approach.** Override `createWindow()` in `MessagePage` to hand the URL to the
+same path a plain link takes and return `nullptr`, so no window is ever created.
+
+**One trap, and it decides the shape.** `createWindow()` is called WITHOUT the
+target URL in Qt: the signature carries only a `WebWindowType`. The URL arrives
+afterwards, as a navigation request on the page the override is expected to
+return. Returning `nullptr` therefore discards the URL before it can be seen, so
+the override cannot simply read it. Two known ways around it, and this needs
+measuring before choosing:
+
+- Keep a `linkHovered` cache and use the last hovered URL. Cheap, and wrong if
+ the click arrives without a hover (keyboard activation, synthetic click).
+- Return a throwaway `QWebEnginePage` whose `acceptNavigationRequest` hands the
+ URL to `openUrl` and refuses, then deletes itself. Correct by construction,
+ since the URL arrives through the normal path, at the cost of a short-lived
+ page object.
+
+The second is the one to verify first: it reuses the code that already works for
+plain links rather than adding a second, differently-sourced route to the same
+action.
+
+**Constraints.**
+
+- **No second `QWebEngineView` may be created**, whatever shape this takes. The
+ pane renders a list into one view precisely to avoid one Chromium render
+ process per message.
+- **The pane must never navigate.** Whatever handles the URL must still refuse
+ the navigation, exactly as the plain-link path does.
+- **`m_allowRemote` stays false.** Nothing here needs the interceptor relaxed:
+ the URL goes to an external browser and the pane fetches nothing. The earlier
+ draft of this item proposed loosening the interceptor and would have weakened
+ the remote-content protection for no reason.
+- **A `mailto:` link is still item 123's question**, and marketing HTML carries
+ those with `target="_blank"` too.
+
+**Verification.** A test can assert that a `target="_blank"` anchor reaches
+whatever handler is chosen; it cannot assert the browser opened. The regression
+that matters is the routing, and it is invisible today because nothing observes
+`createWindow()` at all.
+
+**Size: S.**
+
+## 127. A link's context menu offers four browser actions that cannot work
+
+**Observed (user, 2026-08-20):** right-clicking a link still offers "Open in new
+tab", "open in new window", "save link", "copy link" and "select all". The user
+identified them as probable survivors of an earlier removal, which is exactly
+what they are.
+
+**Cause (verified).** Item 100 removed the page-level browser actions, and its
+list is explicit (`src/messageview.cpp:689-694`): `Back`, `Forward`, `Reload`,
+`SavePage`. Those four are what a standard menu offers on the PAGE. The
+link-specific actions are different `WebAction` values entirely
+(`QWebEnginePage::OpenLinkInNewTab`, `OpenLinkInNewWindow`, `DownloadLinkToDisk`,
+`CopyLinkToClipboard`), and Chromium adds them only when the menu is raised over
+a link. Item 100 was tested by right-clicking the page, so they were never in
+the menu it was filtering and were never considered.
+
+**Two of them are dead and two are not**, which is why this is not a single
+sweep:
+
+- `OpenLinkInNewTab` and `OpenLinkInNewWindow` cannot work at all. There are no
+ tabs, and a new window means a second `QWebEngineView`, which the pane
+ deliberately does not create (one Chromium render process per message is the
+ reason the pane renders a list into one view). Both are dead UI today.
+- `DownloadLinkToDisk` needs a `downloadRequested` handler, which item 114
+ records does not exist anywhere. It is dead for the same reason Save image is,
+ and should be decided WITH item 114 rather than separately.
+- `CopyLinkToClipboard` works and is useful. It is the user's entire workaround
+ for item 126 on the messages that fail, by their own description.
+
+**Approach.** Remove `OpenLinkInNewTab` and `OpenLinkInNewWindow` by pointer,
+the way `removeBrowserActions()` already does, so the removal survives
+translation. Keep `CopyLinkToClipboard`. Leave `DownloadLinkToDisk` to item 114.
+
+**This is downstream of item 126 and should follow it.** Note that
+`OpenLinkInNewTab` and `OpenLinkInNewWindow` fail through the SAME missing
+`createWindow()` that 126 is about, so fixing 126 may well make both of them
+start working. That would be worse rather than better: the pane must not open
+windows, and two menu entries silently doing what one click should do is not the
+design. Decide their fate after 126 lands, when it is known what they do rather
+than what they fail to do. Removing them first and adding one back afterwards is
+two changes to the same menu.
+
+**Constraints.**
+
+- **Filter by `pageAction()` POINTER, never by text.** Item 100 established
+ this and the reason is translation: the menu is Italian under `LANG=it_IT`
+ and a text match would silently stop matching.
+- **Stranded separators must still be swept**, which `removeBrowserActions()`
+ already handles; removing two adjacent entries is exactly the case that
+ leaves one behind.
+- **The call site cannot be tested**, per item 117: `createStandardContextMenu()`
+ returns nothing outside a real context-menu event. Assert on the filter
+ function against a menu built by hand, and state the gap rather than faking
+ coverage.
+
+**Size: XS**, and smaller still if done in the same sitting as 126.
+
+**Closed 2026-08-20, unreleased, both items in one sitting.**
+
+126: `MessagePage::createWindow()` returns a `LinkRelayPage`, a page with no
+view whose `acceptNavigationRequest` hands the URL to
+`MessageView::openExternally()` and refuses, then deletes itself. The relay
+exists because `createWindow()` receives only a `WebWindowType`: the URL
+arrives afterwards as a navigation on the returned page, so an override
+returning `nullptr` discards it before it can be read. Routing it through the
+same handler the plain-link path uses is what keeps the two kinds of link from
+drifting apart.
+
+127: three actions added to `removeBrowserActions()`'s list,
+`CopyLinkToClipboard` deliberately left. The order mattered: 126 gives the page
+a real `createWindow()`, so those entries would have stopped being merely dead
+and started opening links into a tab that does not exist.
+
+**Testing needed two seams, and the reason is worth keeping.** The click cannot
+be synthesised: JavaScript is off in this profile, so `element.click()` does
+nothing (measured, `runJavaScript` returns an invalid `QVariant`), and a
+synthetic mouse press would have to land on the anchor's rect, which depends on
+the desktop's fonts. `setUrl()` is no substitute either, since it arrives as
+`NavigationTypeTyped` and takes the branch that accepts our own document load.
+So `clickLinkForTest()` and `relayBlankTargetForTest()` drive the real overrides
+on the real page, and `setLinkOpener()` substitutes a recorder for
+`QDesktopServices::openUrl`, which would otherwise launch a browser.
+
+Both routes are asserted, not just the broken one: they end at the same handler
+now, so breaking the working one while fixing the other was the plausible
+regression. Three mutations checked, all caught: `createWindow` returning
+`nullptr` fails the `_blank` test with the message naming the real defect, the
+filter losing its link actions fails one direction, and the filter also removing
+`CopyLinkToClipboard` fails the other. That last one matters because Copy link
+is the user's fallback for any link that will not open, and a future sweep of
+"dead link actions" would otherwise take it silently.
+
+
## 90. A saved-query button clears the account selection
**Observed (user, notes):** "select an account and hit the 'unread' button, the
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 f56f037..3848a6d 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
@@ -195,8 +195,8 @@ taking that too literally.
| 125 | A skipped sync leaves the spinner running for ever | defect | S | open, 2026-08-20, found by hand. `mailsync.sh` exits 75 (EX_TEMPFAIL) when another run holds the lock; the indicator never clears, and a held edit waits for a completion that never comes |
-| 126 | A link with `target="_blank"` does nothing when clicked | defect | S | open, 2026-08-20. `createWindow()` is not overridden, so Chromium drops the click before `acceptNavigationRequest` sees it. Plain links work; marketing HTML uses `_blank` almost universally |
-| 127 | A link's context menu offers four browser actions that cannot work | defect | XS | open, 2026-08-20. Item 100 removed the page-level actions and never saw these: they appear only on a link. Follows 126, which decides which of them should survive |
+| 126 | A link with `target="_blank"` does nothing when clicked | defect | S | **done** 2026-08-20, unreleased. `createWindow()` returns a relay page that receives the navigation, hands the URL to the browser and refuses. The URL cannot be read in `createWindow()` itself, which is why a relay rather than a lookup |
+| 127 | A link's context menu offers four browser actions that cannot work | defect | XS | **done** 2026-08-20, unreleased. Three Open-in actions removed, `CopyLinkToClipboard` kept. Item 126 made them more dangerous rather than less: with a real `createWindow()` they would have started working |
Sizes are rough: XS under an hour, S a sitting, M a session.
@@ -1056,141 +1056,6 @@ Then Delete a message. Verified by hand on 2026-08-20; this is how it was found.
**Size: S.**
-## 126. A link with `target="_blank"` does nothing when clicked
-
-**Observed (user, 2026-08-20):** "if I click on a link in a mail in the message
-pane, nothing happens." Then, on checking: a plain-text mail (a GitHub PR reply)
-opens its links correctly, while an HTML mail showing the link as a button does
-not.
-
-**That second observation overturned the first diagnosis and is the whole
-item.** This entry originally blamed `RequestInterceptor` blocking `https`.
-That was wrong: the interceptor does deny `https`, but only for resources the
-document FETCHES. A clicked link never becomes a request, because
-`acceptNavigationRequest` calls `QDesktopServices::openUrl` and returns false
-before anything is issued. If the interceptor were the cause, the GitHub link
-could not work either, and it does.
-
-**Cause (verified against the two messages the user named).** The difference is
-`target="_blank"`:
-
-| message | `target` | route taken | result |
-|---|---|---|---|
-| GitHub PR reply | none on any anchor | `acceptNavigationRequest` | opens correctly |
-| HTML newsletter | `_blank` on every anchor | `createWindow()` | silently dropped |
-
-An anchor with no target navigates the main frame, so it reaches
-`MessagePage::acceptNavigationRequest` as `NavigationTypeLinkClicked` and is
-handed to the browser. An anchor asking for a new window does NOT: Chromium
-routes it to `QWebEnginePage::createWindow()`, which `MessagePage` does not
-override, so the base implementation returns `nullptr` and the click is
-discarded. `acceptNavigationRequest` is never consulted, which is why no
-existing code sees it and nothing at all happens.
-
-Both messages render HTML, so this is not a text-versus-HTML distinction: the
-GitHub mail is `multipart/alternative` and its HTML part is what the pane shows.
-Marketing HTML uses `target="_blank"` almost universally, which is why it reads
-as "HTML mail is broken".
-
-**Approach.** Override `createWindow()` in `MessagePage` to hand the URL to the
-same path a plain link takes and return `nullptr`, so no window is ever created.
-
-**One trap, and it decides the shape.** `createWindow()` is called WITHOUT the
-target URL in Qt: the signature carries only a `WebWindowType`. The URL arrives
-afterwards, as a navigation request on the page the override is expected to
-return. Returning `nullptr` therefore discards the URL before it can be seen, so
-the override cannot simply read it. Two known ways around it, and this needs
-measuring before choosing:
-
-- Keep a `linkHovered` cache and use the last hovered URL. Cheap, and wrong if
- the click arrives without a hover (keyboard activation, synthetic click).
-- Return a throwaway `QWebEnginePage` whose `acceptNavigationRequest` hands the
- URL to `openUrl` and refuses, then deletes itself. Correct by construction,
- since the URL arrives through the normal path, at the cost of a short-lived
- page object.
-
-The second is the one to verify first: it reuses the code that already works for
-plain links rather than adding a second, differently-sourced route to the same
-action.
-
-**Constraints.**
-
-- **No second `QWebEngineView` may be created**, whatever shape this takes. The
- pane renders a list into one view precisely to avoid one Chromium render
- process per message.
-- **The pane must never navigate.** Whatever handles the URL must still refuse
- the navigation, exactly as the plain-link path does.
-- **`m_allowRemote` stays false.** Nothing here needs the interceptor relaxed:
- the URL goes to an external browser and the pane fetches nothing. The earlier
- draft of this item proposed loosening the interceptor and would have weakened
- the remote-content protection for no reason.
-- **A `mailto:` link is still item 123's question**, and marketing HTML carries
- those with `target="_blank"` too.
-
-**Verification.** A test can assert that a `target="_blank"` anchor reaches
-whatever handler is chosen; it cannot assert the browser opened. The regression
-that matters is the routing, and it is invisible today because nothing observes
-`createWindow()` at all.
-
-**Size: S.**
-
-## 127. A link's context menu offers four browser actions that cannot work
-
-**Observed (user, 2026-08-20):** right-clicking a link still offers "Open in new
-tab", "open in new window", "save link", "copy link" and "select all". The user
-identified them as probable survivors of an earlier removal, which is exactly
-what they are.
-
-**Cause (verified).** Item 100 removed the page-level browser actions, and its
-list is explicit (`src/messageview.cpp:689-694`): `Back`, `Forward`, `Reload`,
-`SavePage`. Those four are what a standard menu offers on the PAGE. The
-link-specific actions are different `WebAction` values entirely
-(`QWebEnginePage::OpenLinkInNewTab`, `OpenLinkInNewWindow`, `DownloadLinkToDisk`,
-`CopyLinkToClipboard`), and Chromium adds them only when the menu is raised over
-a link. Item 100 was tested by right-clicking the page, so they were never in
-the menu it was filtering and were never considered.
-
-**Two of them are dead and two are not**, which is why this is not a single
-sweep:
-
-- `OpenLinkInNewTab` and `OpenLinkInNewWindow` cannot work at all. There are no
- tabs, and a new window means a second `QWebEngineView`, which the pane
- deliberately does not create (one Chromium render process per message is the
- reason the pane renders a list into one view). Both are dead UI today.
-- `DownloadLinkToDisk` needs a `downloadRequested` handler, which item 114
- records does not exist anywhere. It is dead for the same reason Save image is,
- and should be decided WITH item 114 rather than separately.
-- `CopyLinkToClipboard` works and is useful. It is the user's entire workaround
- for item 126 on the messages that fail, by their own description.
-
-**Approach.** Remove `OpenLinkInNewTab` and `OpenLinkInNewWindow` by pointer,
-the way `removeBrowserActions()` already does, so the removal survives
-translation. Keep `CopyLinkToClipboard`. Leave `DownloadLinkToDisk` to item 114.
-
-**This is downstream of item 126 and should follow it.** Note that
-`OpenLinkInNewTab` and `OpenLinkInNewWindow` fail through the SAME missing
-`createWindow()` that 126 is about, so fixing 126 may well make both of them
-start working. That would be worse rather than better: the pane must not open
-windows, and two menu entries silently doing what one click should do is not the
-design. Decide their fate after 126 lands, when it is known what they do rather
-than what they fail to do. Removing them first and adding one back afterwards is
-two changes to the same menu.
-
-**Constraints.**
-
-- **Filter by `pageAction()` POINTER, never by text.** Item 100 established
- this and the reason is translation: the menu is Italian under `LANG=it_IT`
- and a text match would silently stop matching.
-- **Stranded separators must still be swept**, which `removeBrowserActions()`
- already handles; removing two adjacent entries is exactly the case that
- leaves one behind.
-- **The call site cannot be tested**, per item 117: `createStandardContextMenu()`
- returns nothing outside a real context-menu event. Assert on the filter
- function against a menu built by hand, and state the gap rather than faking
- coverage.
-
-**Size: XS**, and smaller still if done in the same sitting as 126.
-
## Deferred, unsized, or split out
Items noted while triaging but not part of the original list. Same numbering