diff --git a/src/atocore/context/builder.py b/src/atocore/context/builder.py
index 8ec41ec..928ea56 100644
--- a/src/atocore/context/builder.py
+++ b/src/atocore/context/builder.py
@@ -104,7 +104,15 @@ def build_context(
     retrieval_budget = budget - project_state_chars - memory_chars
 
     # 4. Retrieve candidates
-    candidates = retrieve(user_prompt, top_k=_config.settings.context_top_k) if retrieval_budget > 0 else []
+    candidates = (
+        retrieve(
+            user_prompt,
+            top_k=_config.settings.context_top_k,
+            project_hint=project_hint,
+        )
+        if retrieval_budget > 0
+        else []
+    )
 
     # 5. Score and rank
     scored = _rank_chunks(candidates, project_hint)
diff --git a/src/atocore/retrieval/retriever.py b/src/atocore/retrieval/retriever.py
index 524a523..462ceb9 100644
--- a/src/atocore/retrieval/retriever.py
+++ b/src/atocore/retrieval/retriever.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
-"""Retrieval: query → ranked chunks."""
+"""Retrieval: query to ranked chunks."""
 
+import re
 import time
 from dataclasses import dataclass
 
@@ -12,6 +13,54 @@ from atocore.retrieval.vector_store import get_vector_store
 
 log = get_logger("retriever")
 
+_STOP_TOKENS = {
+    "about",
+    "and",
+    "current",
+    "for",
+    "from",
+    "into",
+    "like",
+    "project",
+    "shared",
+    "system",
+    "that",
+    "the",
+    "this",
+    "what",
+    "with",
+}
+
+_HIGH_SIGNAL_HINTS = (
+    "status",
+    "decision",
+    "requirements",
+    "requirement",
+    "roadmap",
+    "charter",
+    "system-map",
+    "system_map",
+    "contracts",
+    "schema",
+    "architecture",
+    "workflow",
+    "error-budget",
+    "comparison-matrix",
+    "selection-decision",
+)
+
+_LOW_SIGNAL_HINTS = (
+    "/_archive/",
+    "\\_archive\\",
+    "/archive/",
+    "\\archive\\",
+    "_history",
+    "history",
+    "pre-cleanup",
+    "pre-migration",
+    "reviews/",
+)
+
 
 @dataclass
 class ChunkResult:
@@ -38,10 +87,6 @@ def retrieve(
     query_embedding = embed_query(query)
     store = get_vector_store()
 
-    # Build filter
-    # Tags are stored as JSON strings like '["tag1", "tag2"]'.
-    # We use $contains with quoted tag to avoid substring false positives
-    # (e.g. searching "prod" won't match "production" because we search '"prod"').
     where = None
     if filter_tags:
         if len(filter_tags) == 1:
@@ -66,13 +111,14 @@ def retrieve(
         for i, chunk_id in enumerate(results["ids"][0]):
             if chunk_id not in existing_ids:
                 continue
-            # ChromaDB returns distances (lower = more similar for cosine)
-            # Convert to similarity score (1 - distance)
+
             distance = results["distances"][0][i] if results["distances"] else 0
             score = 1.0 - distance
             meta = results["metadatas"][0][i] if results["metadatas"] else {}
             content = results["documents"][0][i] if results["documents"] else ""
 
+            score *= _query_match_boost(query, meta)
+            score *= _path_signal_boost(meta)
             if project_hint:
                 score *= _project_match_boost(project_hint, meta)
 
@@ -132,6 +178,47 @@ def _project_match_boost(project_hint: str, metadata: dict) -> float:
     return 1.0
 
 
+def _query_match_boost(query: str, metadata: dict) -> float:
+    """Boost chunks whose path/title/headings echo the query's high-signal terms."""
+    tokens = [
+        token
+        for token in re.findall(r"[a-z0-9][a-z0-9_-]{2,}", query.lower())
+        if token not in _STOP_TOKENS
+    ]
+    if not tokens:
+        return 1.0
+
+    searchable = " ".join(
+        [
+            str(metadata.get("source_file", "")).lower(),
+            str(metadata.get("title", "")).lower(),
+            str(metadata.get("heading_path", "")).lower(),
+        ]
+    )
+    matches = sum(1 for token in set(tokens) if token in searchable)
+    if matches <= 0:
+        return 1.0
+    return min(1.0 + matches * 0.08, 1.32)
+
+
+def _path_signal_boost(metadata: dict) -> float:
+    """Prefer current high-signal docs and gently down-rank archival noise."""
+    searchable = " ".join(
+        [
+            str(metadata.get("source_file", "")).lower(),
+            str(metadata.get("title", "")).lower(),
+            str(metadata.get("heading_path", "")).lower(),
+        ]
+    )
+
+    multiplier = 1.0
+    if any(hint in searchable for hint in _LOW_SIGNAL_HINTS):
+        multiplier *= 0.72
+    if any(hint in searchable for hint in _HIGH_SIGNAL_HINTS):
+        multiplier *= 1.18
+    return multiplier
+
+
 def _existing_chunk_ids(chunk_ids: list[str]) -> set[str]:
     """Filter out stale vector entries whose chunk rows no longer exist."""
     if not chunk_ids:
diff --git a/tests/test_context_builder.py b/tests/test_context_builder.py
index 7fea372..fe3c24f 100644
--- a/tests/test_context_builder.py
+++ b/tests/test_context_builder.py
@@ -41,6 +41,23 @@ def test_context_with_project_hint(tmp_data_dir, sample_markdown):
     assert pack.total_chars > 0
 
 
+def test_context_builder_passes_project_hint_to_retrieval(monkeypatch):
+    init_db()
+    init_project_state_schema()
+
+    calls = []
+
+    def fake_retrieve(query, top_k=None, filter_tags=None, project_hint=None):
+        calls.append((query, project_hint))
+        return []
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr("atocore.context.builder.retrieve", fake_retrieve)
+
+    build_context("architecture", project_hint="p05-interferometer", budget=300)
+
+    assert calls == [("architecture", "p05-interferometer")]
+
+
 def test_last_context_pack_stored(tmp_data_dir, sample_markdown):
     """Test that last context pack is stored for debug."""
     init_db()
diff --git a/tests/test_retrieval.py b/tests/test_retrieval.py
index 46ff746..121575d 100644
--- a/tests/test_retrieval.py
+++ b/tests/test_retrieval.py
@@ -118,3 +118,58 @@ def test_retrieve_project_hint_boosts_matching_chunks(monkeypatch):
     assert len(results) == 2
     assert results[0].chunk_id == "chunk-a"
     assert results[0].score > results[1].score
+
+
+def test_retrieve_downranks_archive_noise_and_prefers_high_signal_paths(monkeypatch):
+    class FakeStore:
+        def query(self, query_embedding, top_k=10, where=None):
+            return {
+                "ids": [["chunk-archive", "chunk-requirements"]],
+                "documents": [["archive doc", "requirements doc"]],
+                "metadatas": [[
+                    {
+                        "heading_path": "History",
+                        "source_file": "p05-interferometer/pkm/_archive/old/Error-Budget.md",
+                        "tags": '["p05-interferometer"]',
+                        "title": "Old Error Budget",
+                        "document_id": "doc-a",
+                    },
+                    {
+                        "heading_path": "Overview",
+                        "source_file": "p05-interferometer/pkm/Requirements/Error-Budget.md",
+                        "tags": '["p05-interferometer"]',
+                        "title": "Error Budget",
+                        "document_id": "doc-b",
+                    },
+                ]],
+                "distances": [[0.2, 0.24]],
+            }
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr("atocore.retrieval.retriever.get_vector_store", lambda: FakeStore())
+    monkeypatch.setattr("atocore.retrieval.retriever.embed_query", lambda query: [0.0, 0.1])
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        "atocore.retrieval.retriever._existing_chunk_ids",
+        lambda chunk_ids: set(chunk_ids),
+    )
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        "atocore.retrieval.retriever.get_registered_project",
+        lambda project_name: type(
+            "Project",
+            (),
+            {
+                "project_id": "p05-interferometer",
+                "aliases": ("p05", "interferometer"),
+                "ingest_roots": (),
+            },
+        )(),
+    )
+
+    results = retrieve(
+        "interferometer error budget vendor constraints",
+        top_k=2,
+        project_hint="p05-interferometer",
+    )
+
+    assert len(results) == 2
+    assert results[0].chunk_id == "chunk-requirements"
+    assert results[0].score > results[1].score