This commit addresses critical performance issues with vector visualization
search (reducing time from 40s to ~2s) and improves result visualization
through better visual encoding.
## Performance Fixes
### 1. Fix blocking sleep in retry decorator (base.py:51)
- Changed `time.sleep(5)` to `await anyio.sleep(5)` in @retry_on_429
- Prevents entire event loop from freezing during rate limit retries
- Impact: Reduced search time from 22s to 16s initially
### 2. Add concurrency limiting for verification (verification.py:77-93)
- Added `anyio.Semaphore(20)` to limit concurrent HTTP requests
- Prevents connection pool exhaustion (RequestError) from 90+ simultaneous requests
- Fixes false filtering (was filtering 77/90 results incorrectly)
- Note: Semaphore still in code but verification removed from viz endpoint
### 3. Remove unnecessary verification from viz endpoint (viz_routes.py:483-486)
- Visualization only needs Qdrant metadata (title, excerpt), not full content
- Verification only required for sampling (LLM needs full note content)
- Impact: Reduced search time from 43.7s to ~2s (final fix)
### 4. Restore streaming scanner pattern (scanner.py)
- Process notes one-at-a-time using async generator
- Avoids loading all notes into memory
## Visualization Improvements
### 5. Result-relative score normalization (viz_routes.py:489-504)
- Normalize scores within result set: best=1.0, worst=0.0
- Removes arbitrary RRF normalization (theoretical max didn't make sense)
- Makes visual encoding meaningful regardless of algorithm scores
### 6. Power scaling for marker sizes (userinfo_routes.py:743)
- Changed from linear `8 + (score * 12)` to power `6 + (score² * 14)`
- Creates dramatic visual contrast: 0.0→6px, 0.5→9.5px, 1.0→20px
- Combined with opacity (0.2-1.0) for clear visual hierarchy
### 7. Multi-channel visual encoding (userinfo_routes.py:740-745)
- Size: Exponentially scaled with score²
- Opacity: Linear 0.2-1.0 (keeps all points visible)
- Color: Viridis gradient (blue→yellow)
- Effect: Top results are large/bright/opaque, context results small/dim/transparent
## Result
- Search time: 40s → ~2s (20x faster)
- Visual contrast: Subtle → dramatic (clear result hierarchy)
- No arbitrary cutoffs: All results visible, best naturally highlighted
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
Move access verification from individual search algorithms to final output
stage, eliminating redundant API calls and improving performance.
## Changes
**New:**
- `search/verification.py`: Centralized verification using anyio task groups
- Deduplicates results by (doc_id, doc_type) before verification
- Verifies all unique documents in parallel using structured concurrency
- Filters out inaccessible documents in single pass
**Modified Search Algorithms:**
- `search/semantic.py`: Removed _deduplicate_and_verify() and _verify_document_access()
- `search/keyword.py`: Removed _verify_access() and parallel verification
- `search/fuzzy.py`: Removed _verify_access() and parallel verification
- `search/hybrid.py`: Removed nextcloud_client parameter passing
All algorithms now return unverified results from Qdrant payload.
**Modified Output Stages:**
- `server/semantic.py`: Added verify_search_results() call after search
- `auth/viz_routes.py`: Added verify_search_results() call after search
Both endpoints now verify access once at final stage with deduplication.
## Performance Impact
**Before:**
- Hybrid mode (limit=10): 30 API calls (10 per algorithm × 3 algorithms)
- Single algorithm: 10-20 API calls (with verification buffer)
**After:**
- Hybrid mode (limit=10): 10 API calls (deduplicated verification)
- Single algorithm: 10 API calls (deduplicated verification)
**Performance Gain:** 3x reduction in API calls for hybrid search
## Architecture Benefits
- **Separation of concerns**: Algorithms handle scoring, output stage handles security
- **Deduplication**: Each document verified exactly once
- **Parallel execution**: All verifications run concurrently via anyio task groups
- **Consistency**: Same verification logic across MCP tools and viz endpoints
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
Chris Coutinho