lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm      |  7 +++++++
 lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm | 16 ++++++++++++++++
 t/lei.t                     |  6 ++++++

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
index b0a8358a0c562c44714eaf6478243d8626b61f66..bb7efd590d3c0ee7880585b6cdcd706513d6dcd6 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LEI.pm
@@ -229,6 +229,13 @@ 'forget	format|f=s' => $stdin_formats,
 'q	format|f=s' => [
 	'OUT|maildir|mboxrd|mboxcl2|mboxcl|mboxo|html|json|jsonl|concatjson',
 		'specify output format, default depends on --output'],
+'q	exclude=s@' => [ 'URL_OR_PATHNAME',
+		'exclude specified external(s) from search' ],
+'q	include|I=s@' => [ 'URL_OR_PATHNAME',
+		'include specified external(s) in search' ],
+'q	only=s@' => [ 'URL_OR_PATHNAME',
+		'only use specified external(s) for search' ],
+
 'ls-query	format|f=s' => $ls_format,
 'ls-external	format|f=s' => $ls_format,
 
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
index fd8a3bcaaa812e0b894fcc155ba17686a445e23e..7c1e360651e31fec055640af020575dab1b22efa 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/LeiQuery.pm
@@ -94,6 +94,22 @@ 	$ovv->ovv_begin($self);
 	$lxs->do_query($self);
 }
 
+# shell completion helper called by lei__complete
+sub _complete_q {
+	my ($self, @argv) = @_;
+	my $ext = qr/\A(?:-I|(?:--(?:include|exclude|only)))\z/;
+	# $argv[-1] =~ $ext and return $self->_complete_forget_external;
+	my @cur;
+	while (@argv) {
+		if ($argv[-1] =~ $ext) {
+			my @c = $self->_complete_forget_external(@cur);
+			return @c if @c;
+		}
+		unshift(@cur, pop @argv);
+	}
+	();
+}
+
 # Stuff we may pass through to curl (as of 7.64.0), see curl manpage for
 # details, so most options which make sense for HTTP/HTTPS (including proxy
 # support for Tor and other methods of getting past weird networks).
diff --git a/t/lei.t b/t/lei.t
index a46e46f24363f641591d81c5ffb4e3ae8e6adaea..33f47ae4b082a406930ca420f19eacc6efd8bb91 100644
--- a/t/lei.t
+++ b/t/lei.t
@@ -232,6 +232,12 @@ 		ok($lei->(qw(_complete lei forget-external), $u),
 			"partial completion for URL $u");
 		is($out, "https://example.com/ibx/\n",
 			"completed partial URL $u");
+		for my $qo (qw(-I --include --exclude --only)) {
+			ok($lei->(qw(_complete lei q), $qo, $u),
+				"partial completion for URL q $qo $u");
+			is($out, "https://example.com/ibx/\n",
+				"completed partial URL $u on q $qo");
+		}
 	}
 
 	$lei->('ls-external');