Nice feature! I won't be using it myself, but I can imagine it being *very* useful for those who still feel the need to "delete" email :). Nitpicking: - All other config-related functions and args include the section title in their name [1], so for the sake of consistency, we might want to mirror that. Also, the "auto"matic part is pretty much a given. So I'd like to suggest replacing all occurences of "auto_exclude_tags" with "search_exclude_tags" (and simply "exclude_tags" in the args to `_config_get_list' and `_config_set_list', of course). Unfortunately, this would also partially invalidate your recent NEWS submission [2]. - If the 'search.exclude_tags' option is missing from the config file, its value is automatically set to "deleted;spam;", which probably isn't a sane default. Luckily, you've already provided the solution [3]. - To make new users aware of the config option's existence, we should prompt them to configure it during setup. Patches follow. Peace [1] Eg. `notmuch_config_get_user_name', `notmuch_config_get_new_tags', `notmuch_config_get_maildir_synchronize_flags', ... [2] id:"1326920330-31496-1-git-send-email-amdragon@mit.edu" [3] id:"20120117203211.GQ16740@mit.edu"