ah, since

.

has a special meaning as stated below,

=inbox.ref

will never match anything. > Note: . have special behavior in Dendron (Example Finding Notes) Hence when using complex extended syntax searches in general its advised to avoid dots . if possible. https://wiki.dendron.so/notes/84a0366a-eab5-4862-9bef-360f92a196dc/#extended-search-syntax