The safest way is to leave yourself a short project checkpoint that you can paste back into a future chat. Save the following somewhere (for example, docs/saved_search_progress.txt in your project):

PROJECT: chicago_dashboard_gc
FEATURE: Saved Searches + Email Alerts

CURRENT STATUS:
- Using procedural PHP only.
- Database: chicago_dashboard_gc
- Collation standard: utf8mb4_unicode_ci for all new code/tables.
- DB connection uses mysqli procedural style through includes/db.php.
- config.php has BASE_URL.

COMPLETED:
1. saved_searches table created successfully.

Current saved_searches structure:

saved_search_id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY
user_id INT
search_name VARCHAR(150)
filters TEXT COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci
email_enabled TINYINT(1)
created_at
updated_at

- Filters are stored as JSON text.
- No saved_searches_matches table will be created.
- We are NOT storing permit records in saved searches.
- Saved searches only store filter criteria.

USER REQUIREMENTS:
- Individual users receive their own saved searches.
- Users are identified by users.user_id.
- Email address comes from users.email.
- Postmark will be used later through API + curl.
- Sender email: alert@weblafi.com (can be changed later).
- No subscription restrictions yet.

EMAIL LOGIC:
- Cron currently runs every 5 minutes during development.
- Production schedule will change later.
- Saved searches run during cron.
- Sundays: no emails sent.
- All other days:
    - If matching permits exist: send email.
    - If no matching permits exist: still send email saying no permits matched.
- Email contains only:
    - saved search name
    - count/message
    - login link
- No permit details in email.

DASHBOARD REQUIREMENT:
Add button next to "Apply Filters":
- View Saved Searches

Modal should display:
- saved search name
- saved criteria
- buttons:
    - Apply Filter
    - Run Now
    - Edit
    - Delete
    - Enable/Disable Emails

Apply Filter behavior:
- Load saved criteria into dashboard filter fields.
- Automatically fire Apply Filters.

FILES CREATED SO FAR:
- none yet for saved searches API.

NEXT STEP:
Before writing code:
Need to inspect:
assets/js/app.js

Need to see:
- loadPermits()
- current filter collection
- zip tag variables
- how AJAX calls are made

Next files planned:

api/saved_searches/
    save_saved_search.php
    get_saved_searches.php
    delete_saved_search.php
    update_saved_search.php
    toggle_saved_search_email.php

Follow existing project pattern:
api/notes/*
api/permits/get_permits.php

Do not make assumptions.
Always provide:
- exact file path
- exact location in file
- complete code blocks
- mobile-friendly changes.

When you come back, paste that checkpoint and say:

Continue saved searches feature from checkpoint.

I will then pick up from the assets/js/app.js review step.