diff --git a/src/queryer/compiler.rs b/src/queryer/compiler.rs
index 6c26986..daef54c 100644
--- a/src/queryer/compiler.rs
+++ b/src/queryer/compiler.rs
@@ -579,7 +579,13 @@ impl<'a> Compiler<'a> {
 
     // Dynamically apply the 'active-only' default ONLY if the client
     // didn't explicitly request to filter on 'archived' themselves!
-    let has_archived_override = self.filter_keys.iter().any(|k| k == "archived");
+    // Keys arrive as "field:$op" (extract_filters), so match the field, not the bare name —
+    // compared to "archived" alone this never matched and an explicit archived filter
+    // could not return archived rows.
+    let has_archived_override = self
+      .filter_keys
+      .iter()
+      .any(|k| k == "archived" || k.starts_with("archived:"));
 
     if !has_archived_override {
       where_clauses.push(format!("NOT {}.archived", entity_alias));