Problem

Settings grouping and copy have improved, but there are still many pages with no search. Routine preferences are rendered as equal-weight bordered/shadowed cards, and operational pages such as Usage and Providers lack the drilldown and health information users need.

User impact

Users must know where features live, large pages feel visually flat and dense, and it is hard to answer basic questions such as “what is broken?”, “when was this checked?”, or “what is costing the most?”

Relevant code

• apps/desktop/src/ui/settings/SettingsShell.tsx
• SettingsPrimitives.tsx
• Providers, Usage, Workspaces, Backup, Memory, and Advanced pages
• Command-palette settings routing

Implementation outline

• Create a shared settings registry with page title, group, description, keywords/synonyms, destination, and optional subsection anchors.
• Add searchable Settings navigation and reuse the registry in the command palette.
• Use plain grouped rows for routine preferences; reserve cards for alerts, summaries, destructive actions, and discrete entities.
• Show current project/context consistently on project-scoped pages.
• Add provider issue count, last checked, explicit connection test, and actionable repair states.
• Add Usage time range, trend, per-chat/model/provider drilldown, expensive-turn ranking, budgets, and export.
• Apply the acknowledged-mutation feedback pattern to remaining forms.
• Keep Advanced/diagnostic detail behind intentional disclosure.

Acceptance criteria

• Common user-language queries route to the correct page/subsection.
• Clearing search restores grouped navigation.
• Equivalent settings use equivalent save and feedback behavior.
• Routine pages have materially fewer nested cards without losing grouping.
• Provider health shows current issues, last check, and direct actions.
• Usage supports time-based and per-chat investigation.
• Compact Settings navigation remains usable.

Required tests

• Search keyword/synonym and deep-link validation.
• Settings registry duplicate/invalid destination checks.
• Compact-width navigation.
• Provider health states and connection test.
• Usage filtering/drilldown/export.
• Visual baselines for representative migrated pages.

Additional scope from the July UI audit

• Rename implementation-first “Defaults” language to user-facing “Behavior” where appropriate.
• Separate model/provider health from Subagents/Tool Access instead of presenting one dense peer stack.
• Demote experimental Skill Improvement controls from day-one navigation.
• Add in-list search/filter to Archived Chats and Backups; global Settings navigation search does not solve long entity lists.
• Coordinate sensitive Privacy/Remote Access controls with #238.