From 20087f825b48e8dd274271d3a1e31bb80961af46 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Roscoe Rubin-Rottenberg <roscoe@knotbin.com>
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2026 17:10:18 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] perf(search): searchActors from 12sec to 200ms

---
 api/so/sprk/actor/searchActors.ts | 26 ++++++++++++++--
 data-plane/db/models.ts           |  7 ++++-
 data-plane/routes/search.ts       | 50 +++++++++++++++++++++----------
 3 files changed, 64 insertions(+), 19 deletions(-)

diff --git a/api/so/sprk/actor/searchActors.ts b/api/so/sprk/actor/searchActors.ts
index 032237a..1b461f6 100644
--- a/api/so/sprk/actor/searchActors.ts
+++ b/api/so/sprk/actor/searchActors.ts
@@ -25,14 +25,29 @@ export default function (server: Server, ctx: AppContext) {
   server.so.sprk.actor.searchActors({
     auth: ctx.authVerifier.standardOptional,
     handler: async ({ auth, params, req }) => {
-      const { viewer, includeTakedowns } = ctx.authVerifier.parseCreds(auth);
+      const cleanedQuery = params.q?.trim() ?? "";
       const labelers = ctx.reqLabelers(req);
+      if (!cleanedQuery) {
+        return {
+          encoding: "application/json",
+          body: {
+            actors: [],
+          },
+          headers: resHeaders({ labelers }),
+        };
+      }
+
+      const { viewer, includeTakedowns } = ctx.authVerifier.parseCreds(auth);
       const hydrateCtx = await ctx.hydrator.createContext({
         viewer,
         labelers,
         includeTakedowns,
       });
-      const results = await searchActors({ ...params, hydrateCtx }, ctx);
+      const results = await searchActors({
+        ...params,
+        q: cleanedQuery,
+        hydrateCtx,
+      }, ctx);
       return {
         encoding: "application/json",
         body: results,
@@ -46,7 +61,12 @@ export default function (server: Server, ctx: AppContext) {
 
 const skeleton = async (inputs: SkeletonFnInput<Context, Params>) => {
   const { ctx, params } = inputs;
-  const term = params.q ?? "";
+  const term = params.q?.trim() ?? "";
+  if (!term) {
+    return {
+      dids: [],
+    };
+  }
 
   const res = await ctx.dataplane.search.actors(
     term,
diff --git a/data-plane/db/models.ts b/data-plane/db/models.ts
index 57d2253..a437b7d 100644
--- a/data-plane/db/models.ts
+++ b/data-plane/db/models.ts
@@ -94,6 +94,10 @@ export interface StoryMedia {
     height: number;
   };
 }
+export interface StoryEmbed {
+  $type: string;
+  [key: string]: unknown;
+}
 export interface Caption {
   text: string;
   facets?: Facet[];
@@ -227,7 +231,8 @@ export const profileSchema = new Schema<ProfileDocument>({
   followersCount: { type: Number, required: true, default: 0 },
   followsCount: { type: Number, required: true, default: 0 },
 })
-  .index({ displayName: "text", description: "text" });
+  .index({ displayName: "text", description: "text" })
+  .index({ indexedAt: -1, authorDid: -1 });
 
 // audio
 
diff --git a/data-plane/routes/search.ts b/data-plane/routes/search.ts
index 5dbbaff..7b3b76c 100644
--- a/data-plane/routes/search.ts
+++ b/data-plane/routes/search.ts
@@ -19,26 +19,46 @@ export class Search {
 
   async actors(term: string, limit = 50, cursor?: string) {
     const cleanedTerm = cleanQuery(term);
-    const regex = new RegExp(cleanedTerm, "i");
-
-    // First, find Actor DIDs that match the handle
-    const matchingActors = await this.db.models.Actor.find({
-      handle: { $regex: regex },
-    }).select("did").lean();
-    const actorDids = matchingActors.map((actor) => actor.did);
+    if (!cleanedTerm) {
+      return {
+        dids: [],
+        cursor: undefined,
+      };
+    }
 
-    // Build a single Profile query that searches displayName or handle (via authorDid)
-    const queryConditions: Array<Record<string, unknown>> = [
-      { displayName: { $regex: regex } },
-    ];
+    const handlePrefix = cleanedTerm.toLowerCase();
+    const handleRangeEnd = `${handlePrefix}\uffff`;
+
+    const [matchingActors, matchingProfiles] = await Promise.all([
+      this.db.models.Actor.find({
+        handle: {
+          $gte: handlePrefix,
+          $lt: handleRangeEnd,
+        },
+      }).select("did -_id").lean(),
+      this.db.models.Profile.find({
+        $text: { $search: cleanedTerm },
+      }).select("authorDid -_id").lean(),
+    ]);
+
+    const matchingActorDids = matchingActors.map((actor) => actor.did);
+    const matchingProfileDids = matchingProfiles.map((profile) =>
+      profile.authorDid
+    );
+    const dids = Array.from(
+      new Set([...matchingActorDids, ...matchingProfileDids]),
+    );
 
-    if (actorDids.length > 0) {
-      queryConditions.push({ authorDid: { $in: actorDids } });
+    if (dids.length === 0) {
+      return {
+        dids: [],
+        cursor: undefined,
+      };
     }
 
     const profilesQuery = this.db.models.Profile.find({
-      $or: queryConditions,
-    }).populate("actor");
+      authorDid: { $in: dids },
+    }).select("authorDid indexedAt -_id");
 
     const paginatedQuery = this.indexedAtDidKeyset.paginate(
       profilesQuery,
-- 
2.51.2