fix: ensure exact title match always ranks first in search

Title exact match gets exclusive tier 0 — alias exact match is capped
at tier 1, so a note titled "Refactoring" always appears above notes
with "Refactoring" as an alias or prefix. The 5-tier ranking is:
0=title exact, 1=alias exact, 2=title prefix, 3=alias prefix, 4=fuzzy.

Also adds ranking to editor wikilink autocomplete (enrichSuggestionItems)
and trims whitespace in searchRank comparisons.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

src/hooks/useNoteSearch.test.ts

@@ -175,18 +175,31 @@ describe('useNoteSearch', () => {
     expect(preventDefaultSpy).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
   })
 
-  it('ranks exact title match first, prefix second, fuzzy third', () => {
+  it('ranks exact title match first even with many prefix competitors', () => {
     const ranked: VaultEntry[] = [
-      makeEntry({ path: '/vault/ri.md', title: 'Refactoring Ideas', modifiedAt: 1700000003 }),
+      makeEntry({ path: '/vault/ri.md', title: 'Refactoring Ideas', modifiedAt: 1700000010 }),
+      makeEntry({ path: '/vault/rk.md', title: 'Refactoring Key Ideas', modifiedAt: 1700000009 }),
+      makeEntry({ path: '/vault/rp.md', title: 'Refactoring Patterns', modifiedAt: 1700000008 }),
+      makeEntry({ path: '/vault/rs.md', title: 'Refactoring Strategy', modifiedAt: 1700000007 }),
+      makeEntry({ path: '/vault/rt.md', title: 'Refactoring Techniques', modifiedAt: 1700000006 }),
+      makeEntry({ path: '/vault/rb.md', title: 'Refactoring Best Practices', modifiedAt: 1700000005 }),
+      makeEntry({ path: '/vault/rg.md', title: 'Refactoring Guide', modifiedAt: 1700000004 }),
+      makeEntry({ path: '/vault/rw.md', title: 'Refactoring Workflows', modifiedAt: 1700000003 }),
+      makeEntry({ path: '/vault/rc.md', title: 'Refactoring Checklist', modifiedAt: 1700000002 }),
+      makeEntry({ path: '/vault/r.md', title: 'Refactoring', isA: 'Area', modifiedAt: 1700000001 }),
+    ]
+    const { result } = renderHook(() => useNoteSearch(ranked, 'Refactoring'))
+    expect(result.current.results[0].title).toBe('Refactoring')
+  })
+
+  it('ranks exact title match above note with alias exact match', () => {
+    const ranked: VaultEntry[] = [
+      makeEntry({ path: '/vault/ri.md', title: 'Refactoring Ideas', aliases: ['Refactoring'], modifiedAt: 1700000003 }),
       makeEntry({ path: '/vault/rk.md', title: 'Refactoring Key Ideas', modifiedAt: 1700000002 }),
       makeEntry({ path: '/vault/r.md', title: 'Refactoring', modifiedAt: 1700000001 }),
     ]
     const { result } = renderHook(() => useNoteSearch(ranked, 'Refactoring'))
-    expect(result.current.results.map(r => r.title)).toEqual([
-      'Refactoring',
-      'Refactoring Ideas',
-      'Refactoring Key Ideas',
-    ])
+    expect(result.current.results[0].title).toBe('Refactoring')
   })
 
   it('ranks case-insensitive exact match first', () => {

src/utils/fuzzyMatch.test.ts

@@ -68,19 +68,42 @@ describe('searchRank', () => {
 })
 
 describe('bestSearchRank', () => {
-  it('returns best rank across title and aliases', () => {
-    expect(bestSearchRank('ref', 'Refactoring Notes', ['ref'])).toBe(0)
-  })
-
-  it('returns title rank when no aliases match better', () => {
+  it('returns 0 for title exact match', () => {
     expect(bestSearchRank('Refactoring', 'Refactoring', [])).toBe(0)
   })
 
-  it('prefers alias exact match over title prefix match', () => {
-    expect(bestSearchRank('ref', 'Reference Manual', ['ref'])).toBe(0)
+  it('returns 0 for title exact match with aliases present', () => {
+    expect(bestSearchRank('Refactoring', 'Refactoring', ['refactor', 'cleanup'])).toBe(0)
   })
 
-  it('returns 2 when nothing matches as exact or prefix', () => {
-    expect(bestSearchRank('ideas', 'Refactoring Ideas', ['thoughts'])).toBe(2)
+  it('returns 1 for alias exact match (never 0)', () => {
+    expect(bestSearchRank('ref', 'Refactoring Notes', ['ref'])).toBe(1)
+  })
+
+  it('ranks alias exact match above title prefix match', () => {
+    expect(bestSearchRank('ref', 'Reference Manual', ['ref'])).toBe(1)
+    // title prefix would be rank 2, alias exact is rank 1
+  })
+
+  it('returns 2 for title prefix match (no alias boost)', () => {
+    expect(bestSearchRank('Refactoring', 'Refactoring Ideas', [])).toBe(2)
+  })
+
+  it('returns 3 for alias prefix match only', () => {
+    expect(bestSearchRank('ref', 'Something Else', ['refactor'])).toBe(3)
+  })
+
+  it('returns 4 when nothing matches as exact or prefix', () => {
+    expect(bestSearchRank('ideas', 'Refactoring Ideas', ['thoughts'])).toBe(4)
+  })
+
+  it('title exact match always beats alias exact match', () => {
+    const titleExact = bestSearchRank('Refactoring', 'Refactoring', ['refactor'])
+    const aliasExact = bestSearchRank('Refactoring', 'Refactoring Ideas', ['Refactoring'])
+    expect(titleExact).toBeLessThan(aliasExact)
+  })
+
+  it('handles trimmed whitespace in title and query', () => {
+    expect(bestSearchRank('Refactoring ', ' Refactoring', [])).toBe(0)
   })
 })

src/utils/fuzzyMatch.ts

@@ -1,20 +1,39 @@
 /** Search rank tier: 0 = exact match, 1 = prefix match, 2 = fuzzy only. Lower is better. */
 export function searchRank(query: string, target: string): number {
-  const q = query.toLowerCase()
-  const t = target.toLowerCase()
+  const q = query.trim().toLowerCase()
+  const t = target.trim().toLowerCase()
   if (t === q) return 0
   if (t.startsWith(q)) return 1
   return 2
 }
 
-/** Best rank across a title and its aliases. */
+/**
+ * Rank a note by how well its title/aliases match the query.
+ * Tiers: 0 = title exact, 1 = alias exact, 2 = title prefix,
+ * 3 = alias prefix, 4 = fuzzy only. Lower is better.
+ *
+ * Title exact match (tier 0) is exclusive to the title — an alias
+ * exact match only reaches tier 1, ensuring the note whose title
+ * matches exactly always sorts first.
+ */
 export function bestSearchRank(query: string, title: string, aliases: string[]): number {
-  let rank = searchRank(query, title)
+  const q = query.trim().toLowerCase()
+  const t = title.trim().toLowerCase()
+
+  if (t === q) return 0
+
+  let aliasExact = false
+  let aliasPrefix = false
   for (const alias of aliases) {
-    rank = Math.min(rank, searchRank(query, alias))
-    if (rank === 0) break
+    const a = alias.trim().toLowerCase()
+    if (a === q) { aliasExact = true; break }
+    if (a.startsWith(q)) aliasPrefix = true
   }
-  return rank
+
+  if (aliasExact) return 1
+  if (t.startsWith(q)) return 2
+  if (aliasPrefix) return 3
+  return 4
 }
 
 /** Fuzzy match: all query chars must appear in order in the target. */

src/utils/suggestionEnrichment.test.ts

@@ -90,4 +90,14 @@ describe('enrichSuggestionItems', () => {
     const result = enrichSuggestionItems(items, '', {})
     expect(result.length).toBeLessThanOrEqual(20)
   })
+
+  it('ranks exact title match first among prefix competitors', () => {
+    const items = [
+      makeItem('Refactoring Ideas', 'Note', '/ri.md'),
+      makeItem('Refactoring Key Ideas', 'Note', '/rk.md'),
+      makeItem('Refactoring', 'Area', '/r.md'),
+    ]
+    const result = enrichSuggestionItems(items, 'Refactoring', {})
+    expect(result[0].title).toBe('Refactoring')
+  })
 })

src/utils/suggestionEnrichment.ts

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import type { VaultEntry } from '../types'
 import { getTypeColor, getTypeLightColor } from './typeColors'
 import { getTypeIcon } from '../components/NoteItem'
 import { deduplicateByPath, disambiguateTitles } from './wikilinkSuggestions'
+import { bestSearchRank } from './fuzzyMatch'
 import { filterSuggestionItems } from '@blocknote/core/extensions'
 import type { WikilinkSuggestionItem } from '../components/WikilinkSuggestionMenu'
 
@@ -32,8 +33,12 @@ export function enrichSuggestionItems(
   query: string,
   typeEntryMap: Record<string, VaultEntry>,
 ): WikilinkSuggestionItem[] {
-  const filtered = filterSuggestionItems(items, query).slice(0, MAX_RESULTS)
-  const final = disambiguateTitles(deduplicateByPath(filtered))
+  const filtered = filterSuggestionItems(items, query)
+  filtered.sort((a, b) =>
+    bestSearchRank(query, a.entryTitle, a.aliases) - bestSearchRank(query, b.entryTitle, b.aliases),
+  )
+  const sliced = filtered.slice(0, MAX_RESULTS)
+  const final = disambiguateTitles(deduplicateByPath(sliced))
   return final.map(({ group, ...rest }) => {
     const noteType = group !== 'Note' ? group : undefined
     const te = typeEntryMap[group]