From 950f8a04ea550a51c98719a04fc8929217353dff Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Vignesh Natarajan <vigneshnatarajan92@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:01:27 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] fix: prioritize exact substring matches over fuzzy in model
 search

- Exact substring in label (earliest position wins)
- Word-boundary prefix matches
- Description substring matches
- Fuzzy matching as fallback

This ensures 'opus' shows claude-3-opus before openrouter models.
---
 .../components/searchable-select-list.test.ts | 35 ++++++++++
 src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.ts  | 65 ++++++++++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 99 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.test.ts b/src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.test.ts
index 35b58de17..596c07f42 100644
--- a/src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.test.ts
+++ b/src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.test.ts
@@ -45,6 +45,41 @@ describe("SearchableSelectList", () => {
     expect(selected?.value).toBe("google/gemini-pro");
   });
 
+  it("prioritizes exact substring matches over fuzzy matches", () => {
+    // Add items where one has early exact match, others are fuzzy or late matches
+    const items = [
+      { value: "openrouter/auto", label: "openrouter/auto", description: "Routes to best" },
+      { value: "opus-direct", label: "opus-direct", description: "Direct opus model" },
+      { value: "anthropic/claude-3-opus", label: "anthropic/claude-3-opus", description: "Claude 3 Opus" },
+    ];
+    const list = new SearchableSelectList(items, 5, mockTheme);
+
+    // Type "opus" - should match "opus-direct" first (earliest exact substring)
+    for (const ch of "opus") {
+      list.handleInput(ch);
+    }
+
+    // First result should be "opus-direct" where "opus" appears at position 0
+    const selected = list.getSelectedItem();
+    expect(selected?.value).toBe("opus-direct");
+  });
+
+  it("exact label match beats description match", () => {
+    const items = [
+      { value: "provider/other", label: "provider/other", description: "This mentions opus in description" },
+      { value: "provider/opus-model", label: "provider/opus-model", description: "Something else" },
+    ];
+    const list = new SearchableSelectList(items, 5, mockTheme);
+
+    for (const ch of "opus") {
+      list.handleInput(ch);
+    }
+
+    // Label match should win over description match
+    const selected = list.getSelectedItem();
+    expect(selected?.value).toBe("provider/opus-model");
+  });
+
   it("filters items with fuzzy matching", () => {
     const list = new SearchableSelectList(testItems, 5, mockTheme);
 
diff --git a/src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.ts b/src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.ts
index ea0b5b936..f84b81cb5 100644
--- a/src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.ts
+++ b/src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.ts
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ export class SearchableSelectList implements Component {
     if (!query) {
       this.filteredItems = this.items;
     } else {
-      this.filteredItems = fuzzyFilter(this.items, query, (item) => `${item.label} ${item.description ?? ""}`);
+      this.filteredItems = this.smartFilter(query);
     }
 
     // Reset selection when filter changes
@@ -54,6 +54,69 @@ export class SearchableSelectList implements Component {
     this.notifySelectionChange();
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Smart filtering that prioritizes:
+   * 1. Exact substring match in label (highest priority)
+   * 2. Word-boundary prefix match in label
+   * 3. Exact substring match in description
+   * 4. Fuzzy match (lowest priority)
+   */
+  private smartFilter(query: string): SelectItem[] {
+    const q = query.toLowerCase();
+    
+    type ScoredItem = { item: SelectItem; score: number };
+    const scored: ScoredItem[] = [];
+
+    for (const item of this.items) {
+      const label = item.label.toLowerCase();
+      const desc = (item.description ?? "").toLowerCase();
+      let score = Infinity;
+
+      // Tier 1: Exact substring in label (score 0-99)
+      const labelIndex = label.indexOf(q);
+      if (labelIndex !== -1) {
+        // Earlier match = better score
+        score = labelIndex;
+      }
+      // Tier 2: Word-boundary prefix in label (score 100-199)
+      else if (this.matchesWordBoundary(label, q)) {
+        score = 100;
+      }
+      // Tier 3: Exact substring in description (score 200-299)
+      else if (desc.indexOf(q) !== -1) {
+        score = 200;
+      }
+      // Tier 4: Fuzzy match (score 300+)
+      else {
+        const fuzzyResult = fuzzyFilter([item], query, (i) => `${i.label} ${i.description ?? ""}`);
+        if (fuzzyResult.length > 0) {
+          score = 300;
+        }
+      }
+
+      if (score !== Infinity) {
+        scored.push({ item, score });
+      }
+    }
+
+    // Sort by score (lower = better)
+    scored.sort((a, b) => a.score - b.score);
+    return scored.map((s) => s.item);
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Check if query matches at a word boundary in text.
+   * E.g., "gpt" matches "openai/gpt-4" at the "gpt" word boundary.
+   */
+  private matchesWordBoundary(text: string, query: string): boolean {
+    const wordBoundaryRegex = new RegExp(`(?:^|[\\s\\-_./:])(${this.escapeRegex(query)})`, "i");
+    return wordBoundaryRegex.test(text);
+  }
+
+  private escapeRegex(str: string): string {
+    return str.replace(/[.*+?^${}()|[\]\\]/g, "\\$&");
+  }
+
   setSelectedIndex(index: number) {
     this.selectedIndex = Math.max(0, Math.min(index, this.filteredItems.length - 1));
   }