Exact match for subject and recipient on search and sent

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#478 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
55/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
go
Domain
cli, search

Research direction

Start by locating the hey search implementation and the sent listing requested in #469, then read how subject and --to filters currently match results. Define completion as exact full-subject and envelope-recipient matching for both commands, documentation of the exact mode, and unchanged fuzzy behavior by default.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Context

hey search subject matching is fuzzy. A query for a distinctive subject can return a different thread, and a short subject can return every message that shares those words. --to is the practical lookup after a send, and it is also not a strict equality check a script can trust when several threads share a recipient.

#469 asks for a sent listing with --subject, --to, and --from. Those flags need an exact mode. If they inherit fuzzy search, a script still cannot diff "this recipient + this subject" against outbound mail.

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Ask

  • Add an exact mode for subject and recipient, on hey search and on the sent listing from #469. A flag such as --exact, or matching the full string, is enough.
  • Exact subject matches the full subject, not a substring and not a related thread.
  • Exact --to matches the envelope recipient, not a contact name or a nearby address.
  • Document that the default remains fuzzy so current queries do not change.

Why it matters

After a batch, the reconciliation query is "this address, this subject, since this time." Fuzzy results make that query look successful when it hit the wrong thread.

Related: #469, #470.

Dominant language
Go
Stars
376
Forks
44
Avg merge
1d 5h
Merged PRs (30d)
130

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