implemented hybrid fuzzy matching for group mention/tag autocomplete

Author: jameswexler1

PLAN.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 ## Current Stage
 
-Implementation is past the local-shell phase and currently sits at a DB-first, live WhatsApp client with remote history/media support, outbound text, single-attachment media send, recent-sticker send, protocol-backed read receipts, reactions with a quick picker, own-message text editing, own-message delete-for-everybody, replies, quote-jump, a right-edge reply gesture in the message pane, typing presence, group-member mention autocomplete, accent-aware search, visible-first chat-avatar sync/rendering with full profile images, first-class sticker receive/render/download behavior, app-state-backed muted/pinned chat settings, stable pending/paused/resumed pixel overlays for media/avatar/sticker rendering, direct-chat PN/LID canonicalization plus split-thread repair, desktop notifications with cached chat-avatar icons where supported plus a local global mute key/right-side configurable status-bar indicator, immediate DB catch-up sync overlay blocking with non-blocking startup app-state sync, async store/protocol-backed TUI actions for sends, lazy loads, filters, read receipts, reactions, retries, stickers, drafts, and mentions, denormalized chat-list previews, media retry UX, first-use-state logout reset, temp-backed non-exported chat media caches, clipboard attachment paste with Windows file-drop support, a persistent in-chat new-message divider, hardened Windows inline preview defaults, composer tail-follow scrolling, detached Shift+Enter external media launch, and the planned media/export CLI helpers. The next major gaps are live validation/polish of the notification and media-send paths on real chats, especially desktop delivery on fresh Linux and Windows installs, notification backend default resolution on a fresh config, audio/document fallback behavior, the new avatar/sticker behavior under daily use, plus attachment draft persistence and follow-on resend polish for failed rows.
+Implementation is past the local-shell phase and currently sits at a DB-first, live WhatsApp client with remote history/media support, outbound text, single-attachment media send, recent-sticker send, protocol-backed read receipts, reactions with a quick picker, own-message text editing, own-message delete-for-everybody, replies, quote-jump, a right-edge reply gesture in the message pane, typing presence, hybrid fuzzy group-member mention autocomplete, accent-aware search, visible-first chat-avatar sync/rendering with full profile images, first-class sticker receive/render/download behavior, app-state-backed muted/pinned chat settings, stable pending/paused/resumed pixel overlays for media/avatar/sticker rendering, direct-chat PN/LID canonicalization plus split-thread repair, desktop notifications with cached chat-avatar icons where supported plus a local global mute key/right-side configurable status-bar indicator, immediate DB catch-up sync overlay blocking with non-blocking startup app-state sync, async store/protocol-backed TUI actions for sends, lazy loads, filters, read receipts, reactions, retries, stickers, drafts, and mentions, denormalized chat-list previews, media retry UX, first-use-state logout reset, temp-backed non-exported chat media caches, clipboard attachment paste with Windows file-drop support, a persistent in-chat new-message divider, hardened Windows inline preview defaults, composer tail-follow scrolling, detached Shift+Enter external media launch, and the planned media/export CLI helpers. The next major gaps are live validation/polish of the notification and media-send paths on real chats, especially desktop delivery on fresh Linux and Windows installs, notification backend default resolution on a fresh config, audio/document fallback behavior, the new avatar/sticker behavior under daily use, plus attachment draft persistence and follow-on resend polish for failed rows.
 
 ### Implemented now
 
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ Implementation is past the local-shell phase and currently sits at a DB-first, l
 - Real outbound send from the inline composer for plain text plus one local attachment per message, with precomputed WhatsApp message IDs, local `sending`/`sent`/`failed` status updates, draft preservation on failure, captions for image/video/document sends, audio-caption rejection before queueing, ffprobe-backed generic audio send, and document fallback when audio metadata is unavailable.
 - CLI helpers for persisted data: `vimwhat media open <message-id>` reuses the normal opener flow and auto-downloads remote media when possible, while `vimwhat export chat <jid>` writes a local-only Markdown transcript into the configured downloads directory.
 - Protocol-backed message interactions: auto/manual mark-read, monotonic outgoing receipt status updates with seen/read receipts rendered as boxed ticks, reaction send/clear through `:react` and a configurable quick picker plus reaction rendering, own outgoing text edit via WhatsApp edit with local rewrite after ACK, inbound edit ingestion, own outgoing message delete-for-everybody via WhatsApp revoke with local deletion after ACK, inbound revoke ingestion, text replies with quoted metadata, quote-jump into loaded history, a right-edge `l` reply gesture from the message pane when no further pane exists to the right, direct-chat typing/online/last-seen presence in a two-line active chat header, and best-effort composing/paused presence send while typing.
-- Group-member mention autocomplete in the insert composer: typing `@` in group chats opens participant suggestions, typed text filters them with accent-aware matching, `Enter` or configurable `key_insert_mention_select_alt` completes the highlighted contact, local contact names are preferred across PN/LID aliases, and outgoing text/media captions send WhatsApp-compatible mention wire text plus `mentioned_jid` context while preserving readable local display text.
+- Group-member mention autocomplete in the insert composer: typing `@` in group chats opens participant suggestions, typed text filters them with hybrid fuzzy, accent-aware matching, `Enter` or configurable `key_insert_mention_select_alt` completes the highlighted contact, local contact names are preferred across PN/LID aliases, and outgoing text/media captions send WhatsApp-compatible mention wire text plus `mentioned_jid` context while preserving readable local display text.
 - Cross-platform desktop notifications for new incoming messages in inactive, unmuted chats, with native Linux/macOS/Windows backends, WhatsApp mute-state sync from app-state patches, a persistent local global mute toggle plus right-side configurable status-bar indicator, cached chat-avatar icons on Linux when available, resilient Linux helper fallback, safe command override support, notification preview formatting for media-only messages, backend diagnostics in `doctor`, and active-chat suppression that only applies while the app window is known to be focused.
 - Retry/resend UX for failed outgoing media rows in the TUI via `R` and `:retry-message`, keeping the original failed row in chat and queueing a brand-new send attempt when the local attachment file still exists.
 - Chat title quality tracking with source precedence, group/contact metadata refresh, and safe placeholders so group JIDs/phone-like IDs are not treated as real names.

internal/store/repository.go

@@ -1561,6 +1561,7 @@ func (s *Store) SearchMentionCandidates(ctx context.Context, chatID, query strin
 	}
 	defer rows.Close()
 
+	query = strings.TrimSpace(query)
 	var candidates []MentionCandidate
 	for rows.Next() {
 		var (
@@ -1612,7 +1613,7 @@ func (s *Store) SearchMentionCandidates(ctx context.Context, chatID, query strin
 		if candidate.JID == "" {
 			continue
 		}
-		if strings.TrimSpace(query) != "" && !textmatch.Contains(candidate.SearchText, query) {
+		if query != "" && !mentionCandidateMatches(candidate, query) {
 			continue
 		}
 		candidates = append(candidates, candidate)
@@ -1703,7 +1704,22 @@ func mentionCandidateForParticipant(participant GroupParticipant, contacts []Con
 		SearchText:   strings.Join(searchParts, " "),
 		IsAdmin:      participant.IsAdmin,
 		IsSuperAdmin: participant.IsSuperAdmin,
+		searchParts:  compactSearchParts(searchParts),
+	}
+}
+
+func compactSearchParts(values []string) []string {
+	parts := make([]string, 0, len(values))
+	seen := map[string]bool{}
+	for _, value := range values {
+		value = strings.TrimSpace(value)
+		if value == "" || seen[value] {
+			continue
+		}
+		seen[value] = true
+		parts = append(parts, value)
 	}
+	return parts
 }
 
 func firstNonEmptyString(values ...string) string {
@@ -1729,8 +1745,8 @@ func mentionJIDUser(jid string) string {
 func sortMentionCandidates(candidates []MentionCandidate, query string) {
 	query = strings.TrimSpace(query)
 	slices.SortStableFunc(candidates, func(left, right MentionCandidate) int {
-		leftRank := mentionCandidateRank(left, query)
-		rightRank := mentionCandidateRank(right, query)
+		leftRank, _ := mentionCandidateRank(left, query)
+		rightRank, _ := mentionCandidateRank(right, query)
 		if leftRank != rightRank {
 			return leftRank - rightRank
 		}
@@ -1746,19 +1762,38 @@ func sortMentionCandidates(candidates []MentionCandidate, query string) {
 	})
 }
 
-func mentionCandidateRank(candidate MentionCandidate, query string) int {
+func mentionCandidateMatches(candidate MentionCandidate, query string) bool {
+	_, ok := mentionCandidateRank(candidate, query)
+	return ok
+}
+
+func mentionCandidateRank(candidate MentionCandidate, query string) (int, bool) {
 	if query == "" {
-		return 0
+		return 0, true
 	}
-	foldedName := textmatch.Fold(candidate.DisplayName)
-	foldedQuery := textmatch.Fold(query)
-	if strings.HasPrefix(foldedName, foldedQuery) {
-		return 0
+	if score, ok := textmatch.FuzzyScore(candidate.DisplayName, query); ok {
+		return score, true
 	}
-	if textmatch.Contains(candidate.DisplayName, query) {
-		return 1
+	best := -1
+	for _, part := range mentionCandidateSearchParts(candidate) {
+		if score, ok := textmatch.FuzzyScore(part, query); ok && (best < 0 || score < best) {
+			best = score
+		}
+	}
+	if best >= 0 {
+		return 10000 + best, true
+	}
+	return 0, false
+}
+
+func mentionCandidateSearchParts(candidate MentionCandidate) []string {
+	if len(candidate.searchParts) > 0 {
+		return candidate.searchParts
+	}
+	if strings.TrimSpace(candidate.SearchText) == "" {
+		return nil
 	}
-	return 2
+	return []string{candidate.SearchText}
 }
 
 func replaceMessageMentions(ctx context.Context, execer groupParticipantExecer, messageID string, mentions []MessageMention) error {

internal/store/store_test.go

@@ -482,6 +482,34 @@ func TestGroupMentionCandidatesAndMessageMentions(t *testing.T) {
 	if len(candidates) != 1 || candidates[0].JID != "333333@lid" || candidates[0].DisplayName != "J Otávio" {
 		t.Fatalf("SearchMentionCandidates(Otavio) = %+v, want phone contact display name", candidates)
 	}
+	candidates, err = db.SearchMentionCandidates(ctx, "group@g.us", "js", 10)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("SearchMentionCandidates(js) error = %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(candidates) == 0 || candidates[0].JID != "111@s.whatsapp.net" {
+		t.Fatalf("SearchMentionCandidates(js) = %+v, want fuzzy José first", candidates)
+	}
+	candidates, err = db.SearchMentionCandidates(ctx, "group@g.us", "otv", 10)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("SearchMentionCandidates(otv) error = %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(candidates) != 1 || candidates[0].JID != "333333@lid" {
+		t.Fatalf("SearchMentionCandidates(otv) = %+v, want fuzzy Otávio", candidates)
+	}
+	candidates, err = db.SearchMentionCandidates(ctx, "group@g.us", "Jsoe", 10)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("SearchMentionCandidates(Jsoe) error = %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(candidates) == 0 || candidates[0].JID != "111@s.whatsapp.net" {
+		t.Fatalf("SearchMentionCandidates(Jsoe) = %+v, want typo-tolerant José first", candidates)
+	}
+	candidates, err = db.SearchMentionCandidates(ctx, "group@g.us", "zz", 10)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("SearchMentionCandidates(zz) error = %v", err)
+	}
+	if len(candidates) != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("SearchMentionCandidates(zz) = %+v, want no candidates", candidates)
+	}
 	if err := db.ReplaceGroupParticipants(ctx, "group@g.us", []GroupParticipant{
 		{ChatID: "group@g.us", JID: "222@s.whatsapp.net", DisplayName: "Ana"},
 	}); err != nil {

internal/store/types.go

@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ type MentionCandidate struct {
 	SearchText   string
 	IsAdmin      bool
 	IsSuperAdmin bool
+	searchParts  []string
 }
 
 type MessageMention struct {