refactor(search): one definition of what a search occurrence is (#6905)

Follow-up to #6901, closing two places where the workflow search index and the
Note card that mirrors it could drift apart. Neither is a live bug; both are the
shape that produced one — the card silently disagreeing with the panel about
which hit is which, counted in one place and painted in another.

THE SCAN. #6901 shared `foldSearchWhitespace` but left the scan around it
duplicated: normalize, then non-overlapping `indexOf` stepping by
`max(len, 1)`, written out once in the indexer and once in the renderer package.
They agree today. They would stop agreeing the moment either grew whole-word
matching, diacritic folding, or a regex mode, and the failure is silent. Both
now call one `forEachSearchOccurrence` in `@sim/utils/string` — the only place
either package can share, since the card renders from a package that cannot
import from `apps/*`.

THE DECLARATION. The indexer projects markdown escapes only for a field
declaring `searchTextFormat: 'markdown'`; the card projects unconditionally,
because it cannot read the block registry. Dropping that one line from the Note
config would leave them disagreeing with nothing to catch it, so a test now
pins it and explains why.

Net negative in lines: this deletes a duplicated loop rather than adding a
layer.

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

apps/sim/lib/workflows/search-replace/indexer.test.ts

@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import {
   SEARCH_REPLACE_BLOCK_CONFIGS,
 } from '@/lib/workflows/search-replace/search-replace.fixtures'
 import { WORKFLOW_SEARCH_SUBFLOW_FIELD_IDS } from '@/lib/workflows/search-replace/subflow-fields'
+import { NoteBlock } from '@/blocks/blocks/note'
 
 /**
  * Uses the real tool registry. Nothing here imports it directly — the dependency
@@ -167,6 +168,19 @@ describe('indexWorkflowSearchMatches', () => {
     expect(matches.some((match) => match.target.kind === 'block-name')).toBe(false)
   })
 
+  describe('the Note body declares the markdown format the card assumes', () => {
+    /*
+     * The canvas card projects markdown escapes unconditionally — it renders from a package that
+     * cannot read the block registry. The indexer projects only when the field says so. Dropping
+     * the declaration would leave the two disagreeing about what an occurrence is, and the failure
+     * is silent: the panel counts a hit the card marks somewhere else.
+     */
+    it('keeps searchTextFormat on the Note content field', () => {
+      const content = NoteBlock.subBlocks.find((subBlock) => subBlock.id === 'content')
+      expect(content?.searchTextFormat).toBe('markdown')
+    })
+  })
+
   describe('a markdown field is searched as it renders', () => {
     /*
      * The rich-text editor backslash-escapes every markdown-significant character in prose, so a

apps/sim/lib/workflows/search-replace/indexer.ts

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { isRecordLike } from '@sim/utils/object'
-import { foldSearchWhitespace, projectEscapedMarkdownForSearch } from '@sim/utils/string'
+import { forEachSearchOccurrence, projectEscapedMarkdownForSearch } from '@sim/utils/string'
 import { DEFAULT_SUBBLOCK_TYPE } from '@sim/workflow-persistence/subblocks'
 import type { SubBlockType } from '@sim/workflow-types/blocks'
 import { isWorkflowBlockProtected } from '@sim/workflow-types/workflow'
@@ -57,16 +57,6 @@ import {
   type ToolParameterConfig,
 } from '@/tools/params'
 
-/**
- * Whitespace is folded before comparison (see {@link foldSearchWhitespace}):
- * the fold is one-to-one, so ranges found in the normalized string index the
- * original text correctly.
- */
-function normalizeForSearch(value: string, caseSensitive: boolean): string {
-  const folded = foldSearchWhitespace(value)
-  return caseSensitive ? folded : folded.toLowerCase()
-}
-
 /**
  * Ranges of `query` in `value`, always in `value`'s own coordinates.
  *
@@ -83,23 +73,21 @@ function findTextRanges(
   caseSensitive: boolean,
   searchTextFormat?: SubBlockConfig['searchTextFormat']
 ) {
-  if (!query) return []
-
   const projection = searchTextFormat === 'markdown' ? projectEscapedMarkdownForSearch(value) : null
-  const source = normalizeForSearch(projection ? projection.text : value, caseSensitive)
-  const target = normalizeForSearch(query, caseSensitive)
   const ranges: Array<{ start: number; end: number }> = []
 
-  let index = source.indexOf(target)
-  while (index !== -1) {
-    const end = index + target.length
-    ranges.push(
-      projection
-        ? { start: projection.starts[index], end: projection.starts[end] }
-        : { start: index, end }
-    )
-    index = source.indexOf(target, index + Math.max(target.length, 1))
-  }
+  forEachSearchOccurrence(
+    projection ? projection.text : value,
+    query,
+    (start, end) => {
+      ranges.push(
+        projection
+          ? { start: projection.starts[start], end: projection.starts[end] }
+          : { start, end }
+      )
+    },
+    caseSensitive
+  )
 
   return ranges
 }

packages/utils/src/string.ts

@@ -182,6 +182,42 @@ export function foldSearchWhitespace(value: string): string {
   return value.replace(/\s/g, ' ')
 }
 
+/**
+ * Visits every occurrence of `query` in `text`, without overlaps.
+ *
+ * The single definition of what "an occurrence" means for search, shared by the
+ * workflow search index and by the Note card that has to mark the same hits on
+ * the canvas. They live in different packages and cannot see each other, so a
+ * second copy of this loop is a silent disagreement waiting to happen: the
+ * panel counts a match the card never paints, which is exactly the bug that
+ * arrived when only the whitespace fold was shared and the scan was not.
+ *
+ * Whitespace is folded first (see {@link foldSearchWhitespace}) and the fold is
+ * one-to-one, so both bounds index the caller's own unfolded string.
+ */
+export function forEachSearchOccurrence(
+  text: string,
+  query: string,
+  visit: (start: number, end: number) => void,
+  caseSensitive = false
+): void {
+  if (!query) return
+
+  const normalize = (value: string) => {
+    const folded = foldSearchWhitespace(value)
+    return caseSensitive ? folded : folded.toLowerCase()
+  }
+  const haystack = normalize(text)
+  const needle = normalize(query)
+  const step = Math.max(needle.length, 1)
+
+  let index = haystack.indexOf(needle)
+  while (index !== -1) {
+    visit(index, index + needle.length)
+    index = haystack.indexOf(needle, index + step)
+  }
+}
+
 /**
  * ASCII punctuation a backslash may escape in markdown, per CommonMark. A
  * backslash before anything else is a literal backslash.

packages/workflow-renderer/src/note/note-search-highlight.test.tsx

@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
  */
 
 import { act } from 'react'
+import { forEachSearchOccurrence } from '@sim/utils/string'
 import type { Element, ElementContent, Root, RootContent } from 'hast'
 import { createRoot, type Root as ReactRoot } from 'react-dom/client'
 import { afterEach, beforeAll, describe, expect, it } from 'vitest'
@@ -24,7 +25,6 @@ import {
 } from '../index'
 import {
   countNoteSearchOccurrencesBefore,
-  forEachNoteSearchOccurrence,
   noteSearchHighlightPlugin,
 } from './note-search-highlight'
 
@@ -125,13 +125,13 @@ function paragraphTree(...values: string[]): Root {
 describe('note search occurrence scanning', () => {
   it('matches case-insensitively, like the workflow search index', () => {
     const starts: number[] = []
-    forEachNoteSearchOccurrence('Secret and secret', 'SECRET', (start) => starts.push(start))
+    forEachSearchOccurrence('Secret and secret', 'SECRET', (start) => starts.push(start))
     expect(starts).toEqual([0, 11])
   })
 
   it('does not overlap a self-overlapping query', () => {
     const starts: number[] = []
-    forEachNoteSearchOccurrence('aaaa', 'aa', (start) => starts.push(start))
+    forEachSearchOccurrence('aaaa', 'aa', (start) => starts.push(start))
     expect(starts).toEqual([0, 2])
   })
 

packages/workflow-renderer/src/note/note-search-highlight.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { foldSearchWhitespace, projectEscapedMarkdownForSearch } from '@sim/utils/string'
+import { forEachSearchOccurrence, projectEscapedMarkdownForSearch } from '@sim/utils/string'
 import type { Element, Root, Text } from 'hast'
 
 /**
@@ -41,46 +41,6 @@ export interface NoteSearchRange {
  */
 export const NOTE_SEARCH_MARK_INDEX_PROPERTY = 'dataNoteSearchIndex'
 
-/**
- * Visits every occurrence of `query` in `text`, case-insensitively and without
- * overlaps.
- *
- * Deliberately the same scan the workflow search indexer runs over the raw
- * value (`findTextRanges`), down to folding whitespace with the shared
- * {@link foldSearchWhitespace}: counting and marking have to agree on what "the
- * third occurrence" means. An overlapping scan here against a non-overlapping
- * one there would silently offset every mark in a note whose query
- * self-overlaps (`aa` in `aaaa`), and an unfolded one would miss a phrase the
- * indexer matched across a line break.
- *
- * Case sensitivity is not plumbed through: the search panel is the only caller
- * of the indexer and never enables it. If it ever does, this is the second
- * place that has to change.
- */
-export function forEachNoteSearchOccurrence(
-  text: string,
-  query: string,
-  visit: (start: number, end: number) => void
-): void {
-  if (!query) return
-
-  /* Folding is length-preserving, so every index below is also a valid index
-     into the caller's unfolded string. */
-  const haystack = foldSearchWhitespace(text).toLowerCase()
-  const needle = foldSearchWhitespace(query).toLowerCase()
-  const step = Math.max(needle.length, 1)
-
-  let index = haystack.indexOf(needle)
-  while (index !== -1) {
-    visit(index, index + needle.length)
-    index = haystack.indexOf(needle, index + step)
-  }
-}
-
-/**
- * How many occurrences of `query` start before `offset` in `content` — the
- * ordinal of the occurrence that starts there.
- */
 /**
  * Visits every occurrence of `query` in a note's markdown SOURCE, reporting each
  * start in source coordinates.
@@ -96,7 +56,7 @@ export function forEachNoteSourceOccurrence(
   visit: (sourceStart: number) => void
 ): void {
   const projection = projectEscapedMarkdownForSearch(content)
-  forEachNoteSearchOccurrence(projection.text, query, (start) => {
+  forEachSearchOccurrence(projection.text, query, (start) => {
     visit(projection.starts[start])
   })
 }
@@ -279,7 +239,7 @@ export function noteSearchHighlightPlugin({ query }: NoteSearchHighlightOptions)
 
     for (const run of builder.runs) {
       const text = run.map((entry) => entry.node.value).join('')
-      forEachNoteSearchOccurrence(text, query, (start, end) => {
+      forEachSearchOccurrence(text, query, (start, end) => {
         const current = ordinal
         ordinal += 1
         for (const entry of run) {