ADR 0033: Sidebar, menu history and local account names

Date: 2026-10-15 Status: Accepted by the maintainer for the local UI candidate. Supersedes ADR 0032 only for account-control placement and reader navigation entering history.

Context

The maintainer supplied a sidebar reference and clarified that Back/Forward navigates menus, while up/down navigates emails. The earlier reader controls were oversized and opening emails also entered Back/Forward history. Users also need account labels they can choose themselves.

Decision

Put compose, search, Settings, mail views and account filters in a collapsible sidebar. Preserve Snoozed, existing mail-action semantics, fixed filtering, native window controls and the sender context panel. Use synthetic mail when checking the interface; the supplied reference is layout evidence only.

Keep menu history in memory. Record view, Settings, account and explicit filter/search changes. Opening, closing, selecting or traversing emails does not create a menu visit or clear Forward. Back/Forward returns to a menu or mail list rather than reopening a historical email. Email navigation follows the complete filtered sort order independently, through compact up/down controls beside the reader's existing actions. Preserve keyboard focus, Unread anchoring and per-opening image consent.

Store an optional account name in the existing encrypted account record. The authenticated account PATCH route changes only that name. Trim it, limit it to 80 characters and clear it for an empty value. Preserve the account's identity and credentials, including when reconnect or sync completes later. Settings offers Rename with Save and Cancel. Use the name or fall back to the email address; privacy mode uses a numbered provider label instead.

Consequences and verification

No schema migration, dependency, provider operation or encryption change is needed for a local label. Old account records remain readable. Names are local labels, not changes to provider identity or outgoing sender names.

Require mounted menu-history and reader-focus regressions, account-label and privacy coverage, and synthetic API checks for validation, persistence and reconnect/sync continuity. Run the full suite and strict build. Package and start an isolated candidate on macOS arm64 before showing the local preview. Keep native appearance, real providers and downloaded-app trust separate. This decision authorizes no PR, merge, installed-app replacement or release.