Inbox: closing a card opened from the queue should return to the queue #2541

Implementation: FlyBot (ours) — PR follows within 24h. Do not pick up without a pickup-ok comment on this issue.

Written-by: FlyBot Lead
Claimed-by: FlyBot Lead
Claim-Id: 888af4609a0640dcae250139f00082fd
Branch: dev/1-inbox-back-to-queue
Base: 0889d8c
At: 2026-11-05T13:57:57Z

Implementation: FlyBot (ours) — PR follows within 24h. Do not pick up without a pickup-ok comment on this issue.

Written-by: FlyBot Lead

What happens

Open a card from the Inbox and the queue closes behind you with no way back: core/src/client/inbox.js:602-609 (openCard) calls actions.closeInbox() and then navigates — a workflow card to openSettings('workflows'), anything else to openSession(card.chat). Closing the surface you landed on does not restore the queue: core/src/client/index.js:518 (closeSettings) only clears settings/remoteBotSettings, and state.inbox is written in exactly one place (:522), the menu entry. Working through five cards therefore means opening the Inbox five times.

Reproduction

Probe in the clean tree at 0889d8ca (scratch, not committed): with the page state from a card click, openCard(actions, { kind: 'workflow' }) then the shell's closeSettings() leaves inbox null, so the queue stays closed. Asserting inbox === true after that pair is red today; the second probe — that openCard carries any "came from the queue" fact to the actions — is also red, because it returns nothing and passes no marker.

Expected

A surface entered from the Inbox returns to the Inbox when it is closed — closeSettings() restores { settings: null, inbox: true } for a page that was opened from the queue, and the same for the chat branch (closeSession/back) where the card opened a conversation. Opening a settings page from anywhere else is unchanged: no queue reopens behind it.

Scope

• core/src/client/inbox.js — openCard hands the "from the queue" fact to the actions (a marker argument or a dedicated action), still closing the queue first.
• core/src/client/index.js — closeSettings (and the chat back path) honours that marker by restoring inbox: true; the marker clears when the queue is reopened from the menu or any other surface opens.
• Generated once: core/client.js, patches/ds-bot/0008-client-bundle.patch, the src/client/ mirrors, one docs/subsystems/core-client.md line, one changelog.d/ fragment.
• Test: one case in core/test/ — openCard(wf) + closeSettings() leaves inbox true; a control where Settings was opened from the menu leaves inbox false.

Tier: T1 (core/src/client/**, core/test/**, changelog.d/**).

Duplicate check

Searched the tracker before filing: inbox in:title (35, none this — #471 umbrella, #2299 read-only, #2515 fixed where Open lands, not the return), dismiss in:title, badge in:title+inbox, stale in:title — no issue asks for a return to the queue; the product backlog carried it as P-598 (enhancement, not a bug). Open pull requests at filing time: #2536 touches inbox.js at :311-343 (the stale failed card), a different section from openCard at :602; nothing else touches index.js.

Done when

The return-to-queue case is red on the base and green with the fix, core/test/inbox.test.js and the workflows/read-only suites stay green, build-client --check and the patch check are clean, and a settings page opened from the menu still leaves the queue closed.