Search: trashed files reappear as ghosts (indexer race) and unrelated results match every query (no semantic cutoff) #124

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opened 2026-09-25 21:43:35 +00:00 by kayg · 1 comment

kayg commented

2026-09-25 21:43:35 +00:00

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Found by the search_access adversarial probe on dev 15b1fa6 (2026-09-26, load ~25). (1) Upload zebracorn-trashed.txt then immediately POST /files/trash: the owner's search for 'zebracorn' still lists 'zebracorn-trashed.txt|zebracorn-trashed.txt' at its ORIGINAL path, where the file no longer exists — the async indexer processes the add event after the trash/move and indexes a vanished path (ghost), or never removes it. Passed on job/polish-menus-search alone, fails under load on dev: a race. (2) The same query returned ~50 results, almost all unrelated (every Daily Note, templates, tasks): the semantic/vector half of hybrid search has no relevance threshold, so any query matches everything. Owner rule: results should only ever be relevant and accessible. Fix: index events must re-check the path's current identity before writing and deletes/moves must win over late adds (ordering by fingerprint/generation), plus a reconciliation that drops index rows whose path no longer exists; add a relevance cutoff (score threshold and/or require a lexical match for short queries), tuned so known-good queries keep their hits. Tests: deterministic race test (delay the add, then trash) and relevance tests (unrelated corpus, nonsense query returns nothing).

Found by the search_access adversarial probe on dev 15b1fa6 (2026-09-26, load ~25). (1) Upload zebracorn-trashed.txt then immediately POST /files/trash: the owner's search for 'zebracorn' still lists 'zebracorn-trashed.txt|zebracorn-trashed.txt' at its ORIGINAL path, where the file no longer exists — the async indexer processes the add event after the trash/move and indexes a vanished path (ghost), or never removes it. Passed on job/polish-menus-search alone, fails under load on dev: a race. (2) The same query returned ~50 results, almost all unrelated (every Daily Note, templates, tasks): the semantic/vector half of hybrid search has no relevance threshold, so any query matches everything. Owner rule: results should only ever be relevant and accessible. Fix: index events must re-check the path's current identity before writing and deletes/moves must win over late adds (ordering by fingerprint/generation), plus a reconciliation that drops index rows whose path no longer exists; add a relevance cutoff (score threshold and/or require a lexical match for short queries), tuned so known-good queries keep their hits. Tests: deterministic race test (delay the add, then trash) and relevance tests (unrelated corpus, nonsense query returns nothing).

kayg referenced this issue

2026-09-25 21:46:59 +00:00

Search: the owner's search still lists a file after it moves to the Trash (adversarial search_access) #120

kayg commented

2026-09-26 00:17:15 +00:00

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Owner

Fix report: branch `job/search-correct` (not pushed, not merged)

Root causes

Ghosts. An add reads a file, and its index write happens later: after a batch in Tantivy, and after ONNX embedding (seconds under load) in the semantic index. A trash that landed in between was not checked again, so the late write put the old path back. Also, the Tantivy actor drained the pending batch and stopped at the first error. A file that vanished during a scan raised NotFound, which dropped the queued removes in the same batch. The ghost then stayed until the 5-minute reconcile. Nothing checked hits at search time.
No relevance cutoff. semantic::fuse had a weak floor (cosine 0.25). It dropped the floor completely when the keyword half had no hits, and some neighbour is always nearest. Photo search (CLIP) had no floor at all: in the probe, qwxpltzv listed a photo.

Fixes

Keyword index: right before each batch write, check each file's size, mtime and kind again. A vanished file is not written and its rows are deleted. A changed file is read again. A file that vanishes mid-scan is skipped, and one failed change no longer drops the rest of the batch. The debounce is capped at 1 s.
Semantic index: after embedding and before the vector write, compare the file fingerprint (dev, inode, size, mtime) again. A vanished file is removed, and a changed file is read again.
Deletes win: the actor applies changes one at a time and in order, and every add re-stats the path. The write-time fingerprint check covers the last gap.
Search-time reconcile: Indexer::retain_live stats each hit in rank order, up to the page size. It drops vanished hits and queues their removal in both indexes. It runs in search_grouped (this also covers Ask retrieval) and on fused hybrid results. The 5-minute background reconcile is unchanged.
Relevance floor (all-MiniLM-L6-v2 through ORT), which now applies also when there are no keyword hits:
- Queries of 3 or more words need a cosine of 0.40.
- Queries of 1 or 2 words need 0.50, or 0.40 plus a query word (3+ characters) in the hit's title or snippet.
- CLIP photo search needs 0.27.

Calibration

print_semantic_score_distribution (ignored test) runs on the labelled corpus:

Relevant semantic neighbours scored 0.42 to 0.71.
The best unrelated neighbour of any query scored 0.35.
Nonsense words scored at most 0.20.
Relevant 1–2-word hits between 0.45 and 0.50 all share a word with the document (for example "wifi router" and "router" at 0.45).

CLIP, with the CC0 fixtures: matching scenes scored 0.29 to 0.32. Non-matching photos of real queries scored at most 0.257, and nonsense at most 0.240.

Two misses are recorded in the fixture:

"flat search in berlin" → "Apartment hunting" has a cosine of 0.20, below unrelated neighbours. It passed before only because there was no floor.
"finding a new flat to live in" has a cosine of 0.31.

The adversarial recall probe now uses "renting a home close to public transport" (0.49).

Relevance test set

crates/calternal-search/tests/fixtures/relevance.v1.json holds 27 documents and 25 labelled queries. Alice has 8 Daily notes, 3 templates, 3 Tasks, 5 notes, 3 text files and 2 photos. Bob has an unrelated Home.

Hybrid (real model): all expected hits are found. All 8 nonsense or absent-word queries return 0 results. Bob's Home never appears.
A file trashed with no event is dropped from both keyword and semantic-only results.
The keyword-only variant runs in every cargo test.

Race tests

a_file_trashed_during_its_add_never_appears_in_search: a gated PDF extraction holds the add while the file moves to .Trash. The test runs with and without the remove event, and a concurrent search loop asserts that the hit never appears.
Also: a write-side unit test on the raw index, and a lost-event test.

Commits

e2c623c fix(search): never return a trashed or moved file (indexer race, #124)
c5ce5cb fix(search): cut off unrelated semantic neighbours (#124)
dac636d fix(photos): cut off unrelated CLIP neighbours in photo search (#124)
54fd8ba test(search): recall probes use queries the model relates clearly (#124)
bf379ea docs: record the photo search relevance floor (§32, #124)

Gates

cargo fmt --check: exit 0
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings: Finished \dev` profile [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 1m 01s`, no warnings
cargo test --workspace: all test result: ok, 1101 passed, 0 failed, 11 ignored. The model tests pass with --include-ignored: relevance 3/3, photos 40/40.
bun e2e/search.mjs: exit 0, all 10 PASS. Server round trip p50=52.0ms p95=122.9ms.
bash tests/adversarial/run.sh:
- Run 1 (before the CLIP floor) found search relevance :: nonsense 'qwxpltzv' returns 1 results: ['adversarial-photo.jpg'] and semantic recall (the old query). Both are fixed.
- Full run 2 (load 54): search_access is clean. Everything else is SLOW, apart from journalrace timeouts, journalrace: entry count :: expected 38, got 45 and write during user purge :: upload took 9.36s.
- Targeted rerun (ROUND2_SECTIONS=search_access,journalrace,logrewrite, load 39): search_access clean, semantic recall found. Every finding is SLOW, and journalrace is clean.
- I read the run-2 journalrace entry count as a result of request timeouts under load: this branch does not touch journal code. It still needs a check (see open items).
apps/web was not changed.

Open items

journalrace: entry count :: expected 38, got 45 appeared once in the full run at load 54 and was clean on the targeted rerun. It needs a check before merge; see above.
The 0.40 / 0.50 / 0.27 floors are calibrated on one small labelled set. Recalibrate them with print_semantic_score_distribution and the CLIP fixture test after any model change.

## Fix report: branch `job/search-correct` (not pushed, not merged) ### Root causes 1. **Ghosts.** An add reads a file, and its index write happens later: after a batch in Tantivy, and after ONNX embedding (seconds under load) in the semantic index. A trash that landed in between was not checked again, so the late write put the old path back. Also, the Tantivy actor drained the pending batch and stopped at the first error. A file that vanished during a scan raised `NotFound`, which dropped the queued removes in the same batch. The ghost then stayed until the 5-minute reconcile. Nothing checked hits at search time. 2. **No relevance cutoff.** `semantic::fuse` had a weak floor (cosine 0.25). It dropped the floor completely when the keyword half had no hits, and some neighbour is always nearest. Photo search (CLIP) had no floor at all: in the probe, `qwxpltzv` listed a photo. ### Fixes - Keyword index: right before each batch write, check each file's size, mtime and kind again. A vanished file is not written and its rows are deleted. A changed file is read again. A file that vanishes mid-scan is skipped, and one failed change no longer drops the rest of the batch. The debounce is capped at 1 s. - Semantic index: after embedding and before the vector write, compare the file fingerprint (dev, inode, size, mtime) again. A vanished file is removed, and a changed file is read again. - Deletes win: the actor applies changes one at a time and in order, and every add re-stats the path. The write-time fingerprint check covers the last gap. - Search-time reconcile: `Indexer::retain_live` stats each hit in rank order, up to the page size. It drops vanished hits and queues their removal in both indexes. It runs in `search_grouped` (this also covers Ask retrieval) and on fused hybrid results. The 5-minute background reconcile is unchanged. - Relevance floor (all-MiniLM-L6-v2 through ORT), which now applies also when there are no keyword hits: - Queries of 3 or more words need a cosine of **0.40**. - Queries of 1 or 2 words need **0.50**, or 0.40 plus a query word (3+ characters) in the hit's title or snippet. - CLIP photo search needs **0.27**. ### Calibration `print_semantic_score_distribution` (ignored test) runs on the labelled corpus: - Relevant semantic neighbours scored 0.42 to 0.71. - The best unrelated neighbour of any query scored 0.35. - Nonsense words scored at most 0.20. - Relevant 1–2-word hits between 0.45 and 0.50 all share a word with the document (for example "wifi router" and "router" at 0.45). CLIP, with the CC0 fixtures: matching scenes scored 0.29 to 0.32. Non-matching photos of real queries scored at most 0.257, and nonsense at most 0.240. Two misses are recorded in the fixture: - "flat search in berlin" → "Apartment hunting" has a cosine of 0.20, below unrelated neighbours. It passed before only because there was no floor. - "finding a new flat to live in" has a cosine of 0.31. The adversarial recall probe now uses "renting a home close to public transport" (0.49). ### Relevance test set `crates/calternal-search/tests/fixtures/relevance.v1.json` holds 27 documents and 25 labelled queries. Alice has 8 Daily notes, 3 templates, 3 Tasks, 5 notes, 3 text files and 2 photos. Bob has an unrelated Home. - Hybrid (real model): all expected hits are found. All 8 nonsense or absent-word queries return 0 results. Bob's Home never appears. - A file trashed with no event is dropped from both keyword and semantic-only results. - The keyword-only variant runs in every `cargo test`. ### Race tests - `a_file_trashed_during_its_add_never_appears_in_search`: a gated PDF extraction holds the add while the file moves to `.Trash`. The test runs with and without the remove event, and a concurrent search loop asserts that the hit never appears. - Also: a write-side unit test on the raw index, and a lost-event test. ### Commits - e2c623c fix(search): never return a trashed or moved file (indexer race, #124) - c5ce5cb fix(search): cut off unrelated semantic neighbours (#124) - dac636d fix(photos): cut off unrelated CLIP neighbours in photo search (#124) - 54fd8ba test(search): recall probes use queries the model relates clearly (#124) - bf379ea docs: record the photo search relevance floor (§32, #124) ### Gates - `cargo fmt --check`: exit 0 - `cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings`: `Finished \`dev\` profile [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 1m 01s`, no warnings - `cargo test --workspace`: all `test result: ok`, 1101 passed, 0 failed, 11 ignored. The model tests pass with `--include-ignored`: relevance 3/3, photos 40/40. - `bun e2e/search.mjs`: exit 0, all 10 PASS. Server round trip p50=52.0ms p95=122.9ms. - `bash tests/adversarial/run.sh`: - Run 1 (before the CLIP floor) found `search relevance :: nonsense 'qwxpltzv' returns 1 results: ['adversarial-photo.jpg']` and `semantic recall` (the old query). Both are fixed. - Full run 2 (load 54): `search_access` is clean. Everything else is SLOW, apart from journalrace timeouts, `journalrace: entry count :: expected 38, got 45` and `write during user purge :: upload took 9.36s`. - Targeted rerun (`ROUND2_SECTIONS=search_access,journalrace,logrewrite`, load 39): `search_access` clean, semantic recall found. Every finding is SLOW, and journalrace is clean. - I read the run-2 journalrace entry count as a result of request timeouts under load: this branch does not touch journal code. It still needs a check (see open items). - apps/web was not changed. ### Open items - `journalrace: entry count :: expected 38, got 45` appeared once in the full run at load 54 and was clean on the targeted rerun. It needs a check before merge; see above. - The 0.40 / 0.50 / 0.27 floors are calibrated on one small labelled set. Recalibrate them with `print_semantic_score_distribution` and the CLIP fixture test after any model change.

kayg closed this issue

2026-09-26 00:18:19 +00:00

kayg referenced this issue from a commit

2026-09-26 00:18:20 +00:00

fix(search): never return a trashed or moved file (indexer race, #124)

kayg referenced this issue from a commit

2026-09-26 00:18:20 +00:00

fix(search): cut off unrelated semantic neighbours (#124)

kayg referenced this issue from a commit

2026-09-26 00:18:20 +00:00

fix(photos): cut off unrelated CLIP neighbours in photo search (#124)

kayg referenced this issue from a commit