From e45d62ba26ab6565cb78c47bfe5d47d163981550 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Peter Steinberger <steipete@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2026 22:41:38 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] fix(memory): preserve BM25 relevance ordering (#33757, thanks
 @lsdcc01)
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Land #33757 by @lsdcc01 without the unrelated dependency bump. Preserve negative FTS5 BM25 ordering in hybrid scoring and add changelog coverage for #5767.

Co-authored-by: 丁春才0668000523 <ding.chuncai1@xydigit.com>
---
 CHANGELOG.md              |  1 +
 src/memory/hybrid.test.ts | 13 ++++++++++++-
 src/memory/hybrid.ts      | 10 ++++++++--
 3 files changed, 21 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d5d749e95..edd5a441b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 ### Fixes
 
 - Security/Config: fail closed when `loadConfig()` hits validation or read errors so invalid configs cannot silently fall back to permissive runtime defaults. (#9040) Thanks @joetomasone.
+- Memory/Hybrid search: preserve negative FTS5 BM25 relevance ordering in `bm25RankToScore()` so stronger keyword matches rank above weaker ones instead of collapsing or reversing scores. (#33757) Thanks @lsdcc01.
 - LINE/`requireMention` group gating: align inbound and reply-stage LINE group policy resolution across raw, `group:`, and `room:` keys (including account-scoped group config), preserve plugin-backed reply-stage fallback behavior, and add regression coverage for prefixed-only group/room config plus reply-stage policy resolution. (#35847) Thanks @kirisame-wang.
 - Onboarding/local setup: default unset local `tools.profile` to `coding` instead of `messaging`, restoring file/runtime tools for fresh local installs while preserving explicit user-set profiles. (from #38241, overlap with #34958) Thanks @cgdusek.
 - Gateway/Telegram stale-socket restart guard: only apply stale-socket restarts to channels that publish event-liveness timestamps, preventing Telegram providers from being misclassified as stale solely due to long uptime and avoiding restart/pairing storms after upgrade. (openclaw#38464)
diff --git a/src/memory/hybrid.test.ts b/src/memory/hybrid.test.ts
index 98e67f034..134e7bfe7 100644
--- a/src/memory/hybrid.test.ts
+++ b/src/memory/hybrid.test.ts
@@ -14,7 +14,18 @@ describe("memory hybrid helpers", () => {
     expect(bm25RankToScore(0)).toBeCloseTo(1);
     expect(bm25RankToScore(1)).toBeCloseTo(0.5);
     expect(bm25RankToScore(10)).toBeLessThan(bm25RankToScore(1));
-    expect(bm25RankToScore(-100)).toBeCloseTo(1);
+    expect(bm25RankToScore(-100)).toBeCloseTo(1, 1);
+  });
+
+  it("bm25RankToScore preserves FTS5 BM25 relevance ordering", () => {
+    const strongest = bm25RankToScore(-4.2);
+    const middle = bm25RankToScore(-2.1);
+    const weakest = bm25RankToScore(-0.5);
+
+    expect(strongest).toBeGreaterThan(middle);
+    expect(middle).toBeGreaterThan(weakest);
+    expect(strongest).not.toBe(middle);
+    expect(middle).not.toBe(weakest);
   });
 
   it("mergeHybridResults unions by id and combines weighted scores", async () => {
diff --git a/src/memory/hybrid.ts b/src/memory/hybrid.ts
index af045ade7..00c5985d7 100644
--- a/src/memory/hybrid.ts
+++ b/src/memory/hybrid.ts
@@ -44,8 +44,14 @@ export function buildFtsQuery(raw: string): string | null {
 }
 
 export function bm25RankToScore(rank: number): number {
-  const normalized = Number.isFinite(rank) ? Math.max(0, rank) : 999;
-  return 1 / (1 + normalized);
+  if (!Number.isFinite(rank)) {
+    return 1 / (1 + 999);
+  }
+  if (rank < 0) {
+    const relevance = -rank;
+    return relevance / (1 + relevance);
+  }
+  return 1 / (1 + rank);
 }
 
 export async function mergeHybridResults(params: {