improvement(search): rank across sources by query terms only on the Search page

[waleedlatif1]

Summary

• improvement(search): rank live results across sources by the query terms they hold #9134 ordered every plain live search across sources by the query terms each result holds. This keeps that order for the Search page's result list (/api/knowledge/search, its only caller) and returns MCP and assistant searches to fusion order, which interleaves sources by their own rank
• New rankByRelevance input on searchLiveKnowledge, set only by that route

Why

• Search page, live on prod after v0.9.25 (10 keyword queries from a customer's Search check): the authoritative page is first for 5/10, from 0/10 before improvement(search): rank live results across sources by the query terms they hold #9134; offline, nDCG@10 0.29 → 0.65 on 66 held-out queries
• MCP client, end-to-end benchmark on the same tenant (Claude as the client, 12 questions × 4): v0.9.25 82.5 vs v0.9.24 82.8 (−0.4 [−2.9, 2.1]) and vs v0.9.23 85.2 (−2.7 [−4.8, −0.7]). The client ran fewer searches (2.4 → 1.9 per question, halved on the two questions that fell most) and missed facts that only follow-up searches had found: a relevance-ordered first page reads as complete to the agent
• Fusion order is the last measured-good behavior for agent clients; relevance order can come back for them once an end-to-end benchmark shows a gain. With revert(search): restore the v0.9.23 Jira text search #9137 (Jira revert), MCP search is back to v0.9.23 behavior

Type of Change

• Improvement

Testing

• application.test.ts: the cross-source case now checks both surfaces — relevance order with rankByRelevance, fusion order without; it fails with the gate removed (59 pass)

Checklist

• Code follows project style guidelines
• Self-reviewed my changes
• Tests added/updated and passing (new tests pass the test-audit authoring gate)
• No new warnings introduced
• I confirm that I have read and agree to the terms outlined in the Contributor License Agreement (CLA)

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1 Skipped Deployment

Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated
docs	Skipped		Oct 16, 2026 9:09pm UTC

[cubic-dev-ai]

No issues found across 4 files

Confidence score: 5/5

• Automated review surfaced no issues in the provided summaries.
• No files require special attention.

_{Turn on auto-fix | Re-trigger cubic}

[waleedlatif1]

Closing in favor of one bundled PR once the change is proven end to end.

[greptile-apps]

Confidence Score: 5/5

[Medium impact] The PR appears safe to merge.

Summary

This PR limits query-term ranking to the Search page. As explicitly intended by waleedlatif1, MCP and assistant searches return to fusion order.

• The Search page ranks results by query terms while agents keep fusion order.

Diagram

%%{init: {'theme': 'neutral'}}%%
flowchart LR
  Page[Search page] --> Route[Internal search route]
  Route -->|rankByRelevance = true| Search[searchLiveKnowledge]
  MCP[MCP search] -->|Flag omitted| Search
  Assistant[Assistant search] -->|Flag omitted| Search
  Search --> Gate{Plain query and flag enabled?}
  Gate -->|Yes| Relevance[Query-term order]
  Gate -->|No| Existing[Existing fusion or date order]

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