Three small improvements that move the operational baseline forward
without changing the existing trust model.
1. Tunable retrieval ranking weights
- rank_project_match_boost, rank_query_token_step,
rank_query_token_cap, rank_path_high_signal_boost,
rank_path_low_signal_penalty are now Settings fields
- all overridable via ATOCORE_* env vars
- retriever no longer hard-codes 2.0 / 1.18 / 0.72 / 0.08 / 1.32
- lets ranking be tuned per environment as Wave 1 is exercised
without code changes
2. /projects/{name}/refresh status
- refresh_registered_project now returns an overall status field
("ingested", "partial", "nothing_to_ingest") plus roots_ingested
and roots_skipped counters
- ProjectRefreshResponse advertises the new fields so callers can
rely on them
- covers the case where every configured root is missing on disk
3. Chroma cold snapshot + admin backup endpoints
- create_runtime_backup now accepts include_chroma and writes a
cold directory copy of the chroma persistence path
- new list_runtime_backups() and validate_backup() helpers
- new endpoints:
- POST /admin/backup create snapshot (optional chroma)
- GET /admin/backup list snapshots
- GET /admin/backup/{stamp}/validate structural validation
- chroma snapshots are taken under exclusive_ingestion() so a refresh
or ingest cannot race with the cold copy
- backup metadata records what was actually included and how big
Tests:
- 8 new tests covering tunable weights, refresh status branches
(ingested / partial / nothing_to_ingest), chroma snapshot, list,
validate, and the API endpoints (including the lock-acquisition path)
- existing fake refresh stubs in test_api_storage.py updated for the
expanded ProjectRefreshResponse model
- full suite: 105 passing (was 97)
next-steps doc updated to reflect that the chroma snapshot + restore
validation gap from current-state.md is now closed in code; only the
operational retention policy remains.
Two changes that belong together:
1. builder.build_context() now passes project_hint into retrieve(),
so the project-aware boost actually fires for the retrieval pipeline
driven by /context/build. Before this, only direct /query callers
benefited from the registered-project boost.
2. retriever now applies two more ranking signals on every chunk:
- _query_match_boost: boosts chunks whose source/title/heading
echo high-signal query tokens (stop list filters out generic
words like "the", "project", "system")
- _path_signal_boost: down-weights archival noise (_archive,
_history, pre-cleanup, reviews) by 0.72 and up-weights current
high-signal docs (status, decision, requirements, charter,
system-map, error-budget, ...) by 1.18
Tests:
- test_context_builder_passes_project_hint_to_retrieval verifies
the wiring fix
- test_retrieve_downranks_archive_noise_and_prefers_high_signal_paths
verifies the new ranking helpers prefer current docs over archive
This addresses the cross-project competition and archive bleed
called out in current-state.md after the Wave 1 ingestion.
- Fix infinite loop in chunker _hard_split when overlap >= max_size
- Fix tag filter false positives by quoting tag values in ChromaDB query
- Fix score boost semantics (additive → multiplicative) to stay within 0-1 range
- Add error handling and type hints to all API routes
- Update README with proper project documentation
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
