find_file and find_type fuzzy scoring: short common substrings rank above exact filename/prefix-stripped matches

[Joxx0r]

Summary

find_file and find_type (fuzzy) fail to return correct results for short, common names like Pawn and Actor. The actual exact-match files/types are completely absent from results because incidental substring matches within longer names (e.g., "pawn" inside "Spawner") receive equal or higher scores and fill all result slots.

Reproduction

find_file — exact filename missing from results

Search: find_file(filename="Pawn.h", project="Engine", maxResults=10)

Expected: Engine/Runtime/Engine/Classes/GameFramework/Pawn.h as the top result (exact filename match).

Actual: 10 BlueprintNodeSpawner files (all score 0.71). The actual Pawn.h is completely absent:

Engine/Editor/BlueprintGraph/Classes/BlueprintAssetNodeSpawner.h  (0.71)
Engine/Editor/BlueprintGraph/Classes/BlueprintBoundEventNodeSpawner.h  (0.71)
Engine/Editor/BlueprintGraph/Classes/BlueprintBoundNodeSpawner.h  (0.71)
...

These match because "Spawner" contains "pawn" as a substring: S-p-a-w-n-e-r.

Same issue with Actor.h:

find_file(filename="Actor.h", project="Engine", maxResults=10) returns DatasmithFacadeActor.h, ApproximateActors.h, etc. — all at score 0.71. The actual Engine/Runtime/Engine/Classes/GameFramework/Actor.h is absent.

Works for longer/unique names: find_file(filename="DiscoveryHealthComponent", project="Discovery") correctly returns the right file at 0.7.

find_type — prefix-stripped match lost in substring noise

Search: find_type(name="Pawn", fuzzy=true, project="Engine", maxResults=10)

Expected: APawn as a top result (prefix-stripped exact match: A + Pawn).

Actual: 10 Spawn-related types, APawn is completely absent:

FAITestSpawnInfoBase      (0.91, substring)
FPendingDelayedSpawn      (0.91, substring)
FAITestSpawnSetBase       (0.91, substring)
FDelayedVisualizerSpawner (0.91, substring)
FNodeSpawnData            (0.91, substring)
...

Note: Exact search find_type(name="APawn") works correctly — this is specifically a fuzzy scoring issue.

Contrast with working fuzzy searches: find_type(name="Health", fuzzy=true, project="Discovery") correctly ranks the exact namespace "Health" at 1.03 and prefix-stripped UHealthComponent at 0.98.

Root Cause

The scoring doesn't differentiate between:

• Meaningful match: The filename/type IS the search term (exact or prefix-stripped) — e.g., Pawn.h, APawn
• Incidental substring: The search term appears buried inside a different word — e.g., "pawn" inside "Spawner"

Short search terms (4-5 chars) like "Pawn" and "Actor" are especially affected because they commonly appear as substrings within longer unrelated words.

Suggested Fix

A word-boundary or whole-word bonus in the scoring algorithm would likely fix both issues. For example:

• If the search term matches a complete word/segment in the filename (delimited by path separators, underscores, or PascalCase boundaries), it should score significantly higher than a substring match within a word.
• Pawn.h matching Pawn.h (whole filename) >> BlueprintNodeSpawner.h (substring within "Spawner")
• Pawn matching APawn (prefix-stripped) >> FAITestSpawnInfoBase (substring within "Spawn")

Environment

• Tested: 2026-02-08
• All other tools (find_member, grep, find_asset, find_children, browse_module, list_modules) have correct scoring behavior.