The collection_name plumbing rebase produced a few unformatted blocks
in test_mcp_server.py and test_searcher.py; bringing them in line with
the 0.4.x CI pin so test-windows / lint stay green.
``search_memories`` computes ``effective_dist = dist - boost`` where
``boost`` can be as large as ``CLOSET_RANK_BOOSTS[0] == 0.40`` for a
rank-0 closet hit. When the raw drawer distance is small — any
near-exact match — the subtraction goes negative.
Two downstream effects:
1. Line 418 returns ``round(max(0.0, 1 - effective_dist), 3)`` as
``similarity``. With ``effective_dist = -0.30`` that yields
``similarity = 1.30``, outside the documented ``[0, 1]`` range.
The ``max(0.0, ...)`` only prevents negative similarities; it does
not cap above 1.
2. Line 427 stores ``_sort_key: effective_dist`` and line 435 sorts
``scored`` ascending by that key. A negative key drops *below* the
rest, so the strongest hybrid matches end up sorting after weaker
ones — ranking inversion under the exact conditions hybrid retrieval
is supposed to serve best.
Clamp ``effective_dist`` to the valid cosine-distance range ``[0, 2]``.
The boost still wins (closet-backed hit still ranks first), it just no
longer flips the order.
Test added: mock drawer_col (base dist 0.08 / 0.35 for two sources) +
closet_col (rank-0 closet for the 0.08 source) → assert all hits have
``0 <= similarity <= 1`` and ``0 <= effective_distance <= 2``, and that
the closet-boosted source still ranks first.
Relationship to other PRs:
* **#988** clamps the output ``similarity`` alone. That does not fix
the sort-key inversion or the invalid ``effective_distance`` in the
returned dict. This PR clamps at the arithmetic source so both
downstream users of the value stay in range.
* Orthogonal to **#979** (``tool_check_duplicate`` negative similarity).
CI lint job runs `ruff format --check`; the new tests in TestBM25NoneSafety
needed the standard "blank line after import-inside-function" + line-length
wrap. No logic change — formatter pass only.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
`_tokenize` calls `text.lower()` unconditionally; when ChromaDB returns a
drawer with `documents` containing `None`, the hybrid-rerank path raises
`AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'lower'`.
Observed in production daemon log (2026-04-24 21:07:05) during a search
that triggered `_hybrid_rank → _bm25_scores → _tokenize`:
File "mempalace/searcher.py", line 81, in _bm25_scores
tokenized = [_tokenize(d) for d in documents]
File "mempalace/searcher.py", line 52, in _tokenize
return _TOKEN_RE.findall(text.lower())
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'lower'
Closes the gap left by the upstream None-metadata audit (#999), which
covered metadata loops but not BM25 helpers. Returns `[]` for falsy input
so a None doc gets score 0.0 while the rest of the corpus reranks normally.
Three regression tests in TestBM25NoneSafety lock the behavior and reference
the production trace.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three tightly-coupled search-quality fixes for v3.3.3:
1. CLI `mempalace search` now routes through the same `_hybrid_rank`
the MCP path already used. Drawers whose text contains every query
term but embed as file-tree noise (directory listings, diffs, log
fragments) were scoring cosine distance >= 1.0 — the display formula
`max(0, 1 - dist)` then floored every result to `Match: 0.0`, with
no way for the user to tell a lexical match from a total miss. BM25
catches these cleanly; the display surfaces both `cosine=` and
`bm25=` so users see which component is firing.
2. Legacy-palace distance-metric warning. Palaces created before
`hnsw:space=cosine` was consistently set silently use ChromaDB's
default L2 metric, which breaks the cosine-similarity formula (L2
distances routinely exceed 1.0 on normalized 384-dim vectors). The
search path now detects this at query time and prints a one-line
notice pointing at `mempalace repair`. Only fires for legacy
palaces; new palaces already set cosine correctly.
3. Invariant tests pinning `hnsw:space=cosine` on every collection-
creation path — legacy `get_or_create_collection`, legacy
`create_collection`, RFC 001 `get_collection(create=True)`, the
public `palace.get_collection`, and a round-trip through reopen.
Locks down the correctness that new-user palaces already have so a
future refactor can't silently regress it.
Also adds a `metadata` property to `ChromaCollection` so callers can
read the underlying hnsw:space without reaching into `_collection`.
Tests:
- New regression: simulate three candidates at distance 1.5 (cosine=0),
one containing query terms — must rank first with non-zero bm25.
- New: legacy metric (empty or non-cosine) produces stderr warning.
- New: correctly-configured palace produces no warning.
- New: all five creation paths pin cosine metadata.
All existing tests still pass.
Per Copilot review on the CLI-only PR (#999): search_memories() has the
same vulnerability in two additional spots, since ChromaDB can return
None entries in the inner metadatas list for either the drawer query or
the closets query. Without guards, the API path crashes with:
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'get'
at either \`cmeta.get("source_file", "")\` in the closet boost lookup or
\`meta.get("source_file", "") or ""\` in the drawer scoring loop.
Applies the matching \`meta = meta or {}\` / \`cmeta = cmeta or {}\`
guard at both sites and adds an API-path regression test that mocks a
drawer query result with a None metadata entry and asserts both hits
render — the None-metadata hit with the existing \`"unknown"\` sentinel
values the scoring loop already writes for missing keys.
Verified both the new API test and the existing CLI test fail without
the guards (AttributeError) and pass with them.
`col.query(...)` can return `None` entries in the inner ``metadatas`` list
for drawers whose metadata was never set (older palaces, rows written
outside the normal mining path). The CLI `search()` function would render
earlier results successfully and then crash mid-loop with:
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'get'
at ``searcher.py:286`` — ``meta.get("source_file", "?")``. The user sees
partial output followed by a traceback, with no indication of which
drawers rendered OK and which were skipped.
Guard with ``meta = meta or {}`` inside the loop so entries with missing
metadata fall back to the existing ``"?"`` defaults instead of crashing,
matching the hit dict assembly in ``search_memories()`` which already
uses ``meta.get("wing", "unknown")`` etc. against the same data.
Adds a regression test that mocks a ChromaDB result with a ``None``
metadata entry in the middle of the inner list and asserts both result
blocks render to stdout.
* feat: include created_at timestamp in search results (closes#465)
Surface the existing filed_at metadata as created_at in search result
objects returned by search_memories(). Enables temporal reasoning over
search hits without additional queries.
* Feat: add fallback for missing filed_at metadata
* refactor: add stage-1 backend abstraction seam
Introduce the first upstreamable storage seam for MemPalace without
bringing in the PostgreSQL spike or any benchmark artifacts.
This change adds a small backend package with:
- BaseCollection as the minimal collection contract
- ChromaBackend/ChromaCollection as the default implementation
It then routes the main runtime collection consumers through that seam:
- palace.py
- searcher.py
- layers.py
- palace_graph.py
- mcp_server.py
- miner.status()
Behavioral constraints kept for stage 1:
- ChromaDB remains the only backend and the default path
- no config/env backend selection yet
- no PostgreSQL code
- no benchmark or research files
- existing tests stay unchanged
Important compatibility details:
- read paths now call the seam with create=False so they still surface
the existing 'no palace found' behavior instead of silently creating
empty collections
- write paths keep create=True semantics through palace.get_collection()
- layers/searcher retain a chromadb module attribute so the existing
mock-based tests can keep patching PersistentClient unchanged
- ChromaBackend only creates palace directories on create=True, which
preserves mocked read-path tests that use fake read-only paths
Verification:
- python3 -m py_compile mempalace/backends/__init__.py mempalace/backends/base.py mempalace/backends/chroma.py mempalace/palace.py mempalace/searcher.py mempalace/layers.py mempalace/palace_graph.py mempalace/mcp_server.py mempalace/miner.py
- pytest -q # 529 passed, 106 deselected
* refactor: clean up stage-1 seam compatibility shims
Tighten the stage-1 backend abstraction branch after review.
This follow-up does three small things:
- keep the chromadb compatibility hook in searcher.py and layers.py,
but express it through the backends.chroma module so it no longer
reads like an accidental unused import
- fix the palace_graph.py helper alias to avoid the local name collision
flagged by ruff (imported helper vs local _get_collection wrapper)
- preserve the existing mock-based test patch points unchanged while
keeping the new backend seam intact
Why this matters:
- the direct form looked like a
dead import in review, even though it was intentionally preserving the
existing test seam ( and
)
- palace_graph.py had a real lint issue ( redefinition) that was
small but worth fixing before a public PR
Verification:
- /opt/homebrew/bin/ruff check mempalace/backends/__init__.py mempalace/backends/base.py mempalace/backends/chroma.py mempalace/palace.py mempalace/searcher.py mempalace/layers.py mempalace/palace_graph.py mempalace/mcp_server.py mempalace/miner.py
- pytest -q tests/test_layers.py tests/test_searcher.py
- pytest -q # 529 passed, 106 deselected
* docs: explain backend shim imports in search paths
Add short code comments in searcher.py and layers.py explaining why the
module-level `chromadb` alias remains after the stage-1 backend seam
refactor.
The alias is intentional: it preserves the existing mock patch points used
by the current test suite (`mempalace.searcher.chromadb.PersistentClient`
and `mempalace.layers.chromadb.PersistentClient`) while the runtime logic
now flows through the backend abstraction.
This keeps the public PR easier to review because the apparent "unused
import" now has an explicit reason next to it.
Verification:
- /opt/homebrew/bin/ruff check mempalace/searcher.py mempalace/layers.py
- pytest -q tests/test_layers.py tests/test_searcher.py
* refactor: reuse a default backend instance in palace helper
Tighten the stage-1 backend seam by promoting the default Chroma backend
adapter to a module-level singleton in `mempalace/palace.py`.
This keeps the stage-1 scope unchanged — Chroma is still the only backend
wired in this branch — but avoids constructing a fresh `ChromaBackend()`
object on every `get_collection()` call. The backend is stateless today,
so this is a readability/cleanup change rather than a behavioral one.
Why this helps:
- makes `palace.get_collection()` read like a real default factory instead
of an inline constructor call
- keeps the stage-1 branch a little cleaner before opening the public PR
- does not widen the backend surface or change any config/runtime behavior
Verification:
- python3 -m py_compile mempalace/palace.py
- pytest -q tests/test_miner.py tests/test_layers.py tests/test_searcher.py
- pytest -q # 529 passed, 106 deselected
* fix: harden read-only seam behavior and update seam tests
Preserve the stage-1 backend abstraction while closing the real read-path
regression surfaced in PR review.
What changed:
- make ChromaBackend.get_collection(create=False) fail fast when the palace
directory does not exist instead of letting PersistentClient create it as a
side effect
- update miner.status() to call get_collection(..., create=False) so status
keeps the historical 'No palace found' behavior
- remove the temporary chromadb shim aliases from layers.py and searcher.py
now that the tests patch the seam directly
- add focused tests for the new backends package, including ChromaCollection
delegation and ChromaBackend create=True/create=False behavior
- retarget layer/searcher tests to patch the backend seam instead of patching
chromadb.PersistentClient inside production modules
- add a regression test that status() does not create an empty palace when the
target path is missing
Verification:
- ruff check .
- uv run pytest -q
- uv run pytest -q tests/test_backends.py tests/test_cli.py tests/test_mcp_server.py tests/test_layers.py tests/test_searcher.py tests/test_miner.py
Notes:
- the separate benchmark/slow/stress layer was started as a soak but not used
as the merge gate for this PR branch
* refactor: drop duplicate mcp collection cache declaration
Remove a redundant `_collection_cache = None` assignment in
`mempalace/mcp_server.py` left over after the stage-1 backend seam refactor.
This does not change behavior; it only trims review noise in the MCP server
module after the read-path hardening pass.
Verification:
- ruff check mempalace/mcp_server.py
- uv run pytest -q tests/test_mcp_server.py
---------
Co-authored-by: Sergey Kuznetsov <sergey@iterudit.com>
Add/expand tests for normalize (39%→97%), searcher (39%→100%),
layers (28%→97%), split_mega_files (34%→72%).
Fix mcp_server.py parse_args→parse_known_args to prevent SystemExit
when imported during pytest (CI was crashing on all test jobs).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Switch CI install step from `pip install -r requirements.txt` to
`pip install -e ".[dev]"` since requirements.txt was removed
- Add noqa: E402 to intentionally-late imports in conftest.py
(HOME must be isolated before mempalace imports)
- Remove unused KnowledgeGraph import in test_knowledge_graph.py
- Apply ruff formatting to test files
Igor Lins e Silva