android/app/src/main/java/com/fabledsword/thoughtsync/MainActivity.kt

@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import androidx.compose.runtime.getValue
 import androidx.compose.runtime.mutableStateOf
 import androidx.compose.runtime.remember
 import androidx.compose.runtime.rememberUpdatedState
+import androidx.compose.runtime.saveable.rememberSaveable
 import androidx.compose.runtime.setValue
 import androidx.compose.ui.platform.LocalContext
 import androidx.compose.ui.res.stringResource
@@ -81,8 +82,13 @@ private fun App(core: ThoughtSync) {
 
     // Sheet and screen visibility are view STATE, not view-model state: they are
     // about what is on the display, and nothing in the store cares.
-    var composing by remember { mutableStateOf(false) }
-    var showingSync by remember { mutableStateOf(false) }
+    //
+    // Saveable, though: `remember` alone meant rotating the phone closed whatever
+    // was open and took the half-written note in the capture sheet with it. The
+    // editor never had that problem because the note it is on lives in a view
+    // model; these two are the only screen state that did not.
+    var composing by rememberSaveable { mutableStateOf(false) }
+    var showingSync by rememberSaveable { mutableStateOf(false) }
 
     val settings = remember(context) { SyncSettings(context) }
     var automatic by remember { mutableStateOf(settings.automatic) }

android/app/src/main/java/com/fabledsword/thoughtsync/ui/BoardScreen.kt

@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@ import androidx.compose.foundation.layout.fillMaxWidth
 import androidx.compose.foundation.layout.height
 import androidx.compose.foundation.layout.padding
 import androidx.compose.foundation.layout.size
-import androidx.compose.foundation.layout.statusBarsPadding
 import androidx.compose.foundation.lazy.LazyColumn
 import androidx.compose.foundation.lazy.staggeredgrid.LazyVerticalStaggeredGrid
 import androidx.compose.foundation.lazy.staggeredgrid.StaggeredGridCells
@@ -195,10 +194,14 @@ private fun SearchBar(
     onMenu: () -> Unit,
 ) {
     Surface(
+        // No `statusBarsPadding()` here. The Scaffold this sits in already applies
+        // the system-bar insets to its content padding, so adding them again put
+        // the whole status bar's height of empty space above the search field —
+        // roughly a centimetre of nothing at the top of the first screen anyone
+        // sees. Insets get consumed once, by whichever component owns the edge.
         modifier =
             Modifier
                 .fillMaxWidth()
-                .statusBarsPadding()
                 .padding(horizontal = GUTTER, vertical = 8.dp),
         shape = RoundedCornerShape(SEARCH_RADIUS),
         color = MaterialTheme.colorScheme.surfaceVariant,

android/app/src/main/java/com/fabledsword/thoughtsync/ui/ComposeSheet.kt

@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ import androidx.compose.runtime.LaunchedEffect
 import androidx.compose.runtime.getValue
 import androidx.compose.runtime.mutableStateOf
 import androidx.compose.runtime.remember
+import androidx.compose.runtime.saveable.rememberSaveable
 import androidx.compose.runtime.setValue
 import androidx.compose.ui.Modifier
 import androidx.compose.ui.focus.FocusRequester
@@ -37,6 +38,20 @@ import com.fabledsword.thoughtsync.R
  * It asks note-or-list up front rather than making that a mode you discover later,
  * because on a phone the two are genuinely different typing tasks and switching
  * halfway is worse than choosing at the start.
+ *
+ * ## Leaving keeps what you wrote
+ *
+ * Every way out of this sheet except Discard SAVES: the save button, tapping the
+ * board behind it, swiping down, back, and the app being backgrounded. A sheet
+ * that throws away a typed thought because you touched outside it is a sheet that
+ * teaches people not to trust the app with a thought — and capture is the one
+ * place this product cannot afford that.
+ *
+ * The same shape the editor settled on, for the same reason, with one difference:
+ * capture also has to be abandonable, because tapping + and changing your mind is
+ * a normal thing to do. That is what Discard is, and it is the only path that
+ * loses anything. An empty draft needs neither — it is simply dropped, since a
+ * blank note nobody asked for is worse than no note at all.
  */
 @OptIn(ExperimentalMaterial3Api::class)
 @Composable
@@ -46,17 +61,27 @@ fun ComposeSheet(
     onSave: (DraftKind, String, String) -> Unit,
 ) {
     val sheetState = rememberModalBottomSheetState(skipPartiallyExpanded = true)
-    var kind by remember { mutableStateOf(DraftKind.NOTE) }
-    var title by remember { mutableStateOf("") }
-    var content by remember { mutableStateOf("") }
+    // Saveable, not just remembered: a rotation mid-sentence is the same lost
+    // thought as a discarded one, and it was losing it before this.
+    var kind by rememberSaveable { mutableStateOf(DraftKind.NOTE) }
+    var title by rememberSaveable { mutableStateOf("") }
+    var content by rememberSaveable { mutableStateOf("") }
     val contentFocus = remember { FocusRequester() }
 
+    val written = title.isNotBlank() || content.isNotBlank()
+    val leave = { if (written) onSave(kind, title, content) else onDismiss() }
+
     // Land in the body, not the title. Most captures are a thought, not a titled
     // document, and making someone tab past an optional field is the difference
     // between "under a second" and not.
     LaunchedEffect(Unit) { contentFocus.requestFocus() }
 
-    ModalBottomSheet(onDismissRequest = onDismiss, sheetState = sheetState) {
+    // Backgrounding PERSISTS but does not close an empty sheet. Someone who tapped
+    // + and then got distracted should find the composer where they left it; the
+    // only reason to act here is that there is something to lose.
+    FlushOnStop { if (written) onSave(kind, title, content) }
+
+    ModalBottomSheet(onDismissRequest = leave, sheetState = sheetState) {
         Column(
             modifier =
                 Modifier
@@ -100,8 +125,8 @@ fun ComposeSheet(
             )
 
             SheetActions(
-                canSave = !saving && (title.isNotBlank() || content.isNotBlank()),
-                onCancel = onDismiss,
+                canSave = !saving && written,
+                onDiscard = onDismiss,
                 onSave = { onSave(kind, title, content) },
             )
         }
@@ -111,14 +136,17 @@ fun ComposeSheet(
 @Composable
 private fun SheetActions(
     canSave: Boolean,
-    onCancel: () -> Unit,
+    onDiscard: () -> Unit,
     onSave: () -> Unit,
 ) {
     Row(
         modifier = Modifier.fillMaxWidth().padding(bottom = 16.dp),
         horizontalArrangement = Arrangement.End,
     ) {
-        TextButton(onClick = onCancel) { Text(stringResource(R.string.compose_cancel)) }
+        // "Discard", not "Cancel". Cancel means "undo what I am doing", which is
+        // precisely what leaving no longer does — the word would now describe the
+        // one button it is NOT attached to.
+        TextButton(onClick = onDiscard) { Text(stringResource(R.string.compose_discard)) }
         Button(onClick = onSave, enabled = canSave) {
             Text(stringResource(R.string.compose_save))
         }

android/app/src/main/java/com/fabledsword/thoughtsync/ui/FlushOnStop.kt

@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+package com.fabledsword.thoughtsync.ui
+
+import androidx.compose.runtime.Composable
+import androidx.compose.runtime.DisposableEffect
+import androidx.compose.runtime.getValue
+import androidx.compose.runtime.rememberUpdatedState
+import androidx.lifecycle.Lifecycle
+import androidx.lifecycle.LifecycleEventObserver
+import androidx.lifecycle.compose.LocalLifecycleOwner
+
+/**
+ * Run [flush] when the app goes to the background.
+ *
+ * `ON_STOP` rather than `ON_PAUSE`: pause also fires when a dialog opens over the
+ * activity, which would save mid-sentence for no reason. The lambda goes through
+ * `rememberUpdatedState` so the observer — registered once — always calls the
+ * CURRENT one; captured directly it would hold the first composition's empty text
+ * forever and save that over a full note.
+ *
+ * Shared by the editor and the capture sheet. Both are places where text exists
+ * only in a composable until something writes it down, and the process can be
+ * killed while backgrounded without either of them being told again.
+ */
+@Composable
+fun FlushOnStop(flush: () -> Unit) {
+    val current by rememberUpdatedState(flush)
+    val owner = LocalLifecycleOwner.current
+    DisposableEffect(owner) {
+        val observer =
+            LifecycleEventObserver { _, event ->
+                if (event == Lifecycle.Event.ON_STOP) current()
+            }
+        owner.lifecycle.addObserver(observer)
+        onDispose { owner.lifecycle.removeObserver(observer) }
+    }
+}

android/app/src/main/java/com/fabledsword/thoughtsync/ui/NoteEditorScreen.kt

@@ -24,19 +24,14 @@ import androidx.compose.material3.TextButton
 import androidx.compose.material3.TopAppBar
 import androidx.compose.material3.TopAppBarDefaults
 import androidx.compose.runtime.Composable
-import androidx.compose.runtime.DisposableEffect
 import androidx.compose.runtime.getValue
 import androidx.compose.runtime.mutableStateOf
 import androidx.compose.runtime.remember
-import androidx.compose.runtime.rememberUpdatedState
 import androidx.compose.runtime.setValue
 import androidx.compose.ui.Modifier
 import androidx.compose.ui.res.stringResource
 import androidx.compose.ui.text.font.FontWeight
 import androidx.compose.ui.unit.dp
-import androidx.lifecycle.Lifecycle
-import androidx.lifecycle.LifecycleEventObserver
-import androidx.lifecycle.compose.LocalLifecycleOwner
 import com.fabledsword.thoughtsync.R
 import com.fabledsword.thoughtsync.core.Label
 import com.fabledsword.thoughtsync.core.Note
@@ -254,29 +249,6 @@ private fun EditorOverlays(
     }
 }
 
-/**
- * Run [flush] when the app goes to the background.
- *
- * `ON_STOP` rather than `ON_PAUSE`: pause also fires when a dialog opens over the
- * activity, which would save mid-sentence for no reason. The lambda goes through
- * `rememberUpdatedState` so the observer — registered once — always calls the
- * CURRENT one; captured directly it would hold the first composition's empty text
- * forever and save that over a full note.
- */
-@Composable
-private fun FlushOnStop(flush: () -> Unit) {
-    val current by rememberUpdatedState(flush)
-    val owner = LocalLifecycleOwner.current
-    DisposableEffect(owner) {
-        val observer =
-            LifecycleEventObserver { _, event ->
-                if (event == Lifecycle.Event.ON_STOP) current()
-            }
-        owner.lifecycle.addObserver(observer)
-        onDispose { owner.lifecycle.removeObserver(observer) }
-    }
-}
-
 /**
  * The title and body fields.
  *

android/app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
     <string name="compose_title_hint">Title</string>
     <string name="compose_body_hint">Take a note…</string>
     <string name="compose_list_hint">One item per line</string>
-    <string name="compose_cancel">Cancel</string>
+    <string name="compose_discard">Discard</string>
     <string name="compose_save">Save</string>
 
     <!-- Board -->