A Library Says Where It Is Used

In plain terms: whether you may open a precedent bank is a matter of your own key, as before. Which matters it is used on is now written on the bank itself: "all my work", or "only these matters". You can tick that from the bank or from the matter file, and it is the same entry either way.

Decision

Owner rulings, 2026-10-09.

1. Two questions, two places. Who can see a Library stays with its seats: owned, added, joined or bought (/docs/decisions/library-access-is-your-own-seat, unchanged). Where it is used is a new setting on the Library. Neither answers the other: a Library used in a Project is still invisible to anyone in that Project without a seat.

2. Use in. Each Library a person holds a seat on has one setting, for that person:

   • My workspace (Everywhere): searched in every Project and Document, and drawn on by Goldie there. The default.
   • Only these projects: searched and drawn on only in the Projects ticked. For a matter Library, so one client's precedents never surface while drafting for another.

   It is either/or. Switching back to My workspace keeps the ticks for a later switch.

3. One modal, two tabs, from the Library's card or header. The first tab says the person's standing; the second is always Use in:

   Standing	First tab	It offers
   Not joined	Join	Join (payment later); Use in is greyed until joined, and Join moves on to it
   Joined	Joined	when, from whom, and Leave Library, confirmed as Delete is
   Owner	Owned	Private or Shared and who has joined; how to give it up (share and hand over, or delete)

   The menu row reads the same: Join / Joined / Owned, second line "… · Use in". Leave moves off the menu into the Joined tab; Delete stays on an owned Library's menu.

4. Edited from both sides. A Project's menu gets Libraries. Its modal lists Used everywhere Libraries as on and locked ("Change this in the Library") and Project-only Libraries with ticks. A tick there edits that Library's own project list: one fact, two views, so the sides never disagree. A Project cannot switch off an Everywhere Library (refused: per-project exceptions make "everywhere" mean less than it says). A new Project picks up no project-only Library until ticked.

5. The Add modal is one search. No Search | Library tabs. Beside the box sits the lists' own All + filter control: All is every Library usable here; the filter narrows to one or more (owner, 2026-10-09: several at once, so the control must allow many) for this search only and saves nothing. A Document uses its Project's Libraries and has no setting of its own. The menu's Add row loses its "Search · Library" line.

6. The card's standing word (owner, 2026-10-09, option A). The second line ends in the person's standing where "Yours" already sits: Yours, Joined, or Join. Join is a link; pressing the word on any card opens the Join | Use in modal. This is the one exception to the card's first-tap-selects rule (/docs/decisions/goldie-card): the card has no room for a button, and every corner already has its job. The extent of Use in is not on the card; the modal carries it. The Libraries page filter reads Yours, Joined, Not joined (owner, 2026-10-09): Not joined is the Marketplace to come; In use and Not in use were dropped. That is the Libraries page's filter, not the Add search's. "Active" is retired as the word.

7. The Library page's action button sits where a Project's Add Document does: Join Library when not joined, Manage when joined or owned. Both open the same modal. So the modal has three doors: the card's word, the ⌄ menu, and this button.

8. Payment is not built; Join is designed to take a price later.

Screens

Library cards: the standing word ends the second line
┌───────────────────────────┐ ┌───────────────────────────┐ ┌───────────────────────────┐
│ ▥ LIBRARY · 2 Documents ⌄ │ │ ▥ LIBRARY · 3 Documents ⌄ │ │ ▥ LIBRARY · 3 Documents ⌄ │
│ Private · Yours           │ │ Shared · Joined           │ │ Shared · Join             │
│                           │ │                           │ │          ‾‾‾‾ (a link)    │
│ Johnson matter         SR │ │ Family law             MC │ │ Family law             MC │
└───────────────────────────┘ └───────────────────────────┘ └───────────────────────────┘

A Library's page: the action button
[ + Join Library ]   (not joined)          [ Manage ]   (joined or owned)

Join | Use in modal (joined)
┌───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ [ Joined ]  [ Use in ]            ✕   │
│ You've joined Family law precedents   │
│ Shared by Maya Chen · since 9 Oct     │
│            [ Leave Library ] [ Done ] │
└───────────────────────────────────────┘

Use in tab                       Project menu → Libraries
┌───────────────────────────┐    ┌───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ( ) My workspace          │    │ USED EVERYWHERE                       │
│ (•) Only these projects   │    │ ▥ Australian legal precedents  🔒 On  │
│   [✓] Johnson Dispute     │    │ PROJECT-ONLY                          │
│   [ ] Cooking Up an Agrmt │    │ ▥ Johnson matter precedents    [✓]    │
└───────────────────────────┘    └───────────────────────────────────────┘

Add modal
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ [ All | ≡ ]  │
│ │ 🔍 Search the libraries…     │              │
│ └──────────────────────────────┘              │
│ 📄 Consent orders · v1 · Johnson matter  [ ]  │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Alternatives refused

• A Project filters which Libraries it sees (the owner's first framing): kept as the project-side view of rule 4, but the fact lives on the Library, so there is one record, not a per-Project list beside a per-Library one.
• Set it only on the Workspace: cannot tie a confidential Library to one matter.
• Per-Project exceptions to Everywhere (option B, 2026-10-09): refused for now; the Add filter narrows a single search instead.
• Active / Inactive, Enabled / Disabled: "In use" matches the tab's verb and reads as plain English.

Consequences

• Replaces the 2026-10-04 Active Libraries amendment (/docs/decisions/library-join-and-search): no Workspace list ticked from Home, no Project list inheriting it, no "last tick cannot come off".
• Replaces the Add modal's Library tab and the Libraries row "Active Libraries" in /docs/decisions/share-dialog-by-page (the card-menu table and "Two sides of a Library").
• Replaces the Join dialog's Workspace ticks and "Manage workspaces" in /docs/decisions/library-join-and-search rules 2–5 with the Use in tab.
• A copy inserted from a Library belongs to the matter: anyone who can see the Project can read it, seat or no seat. That is why a matter Library is set Only these projects.
• Leaving a Library keeps every copy already inserted.

Current versus Target