fix(web): unescape quoted keyword search terms

[breken-ai]

Fixes #1687

In keyword mode the parser stripped the outer quotes of a quoted term but kept the escapes, so "foo \"bar\"" searched for foo \"bar\" and the example from the syntax reference found nothing. Quoted terms and quoted content: values now have \x resolved to x before the substring query is built. Regex mode is unchanged, since the regex engine interprets the escapes itself.

How I verified it

New tests in packages/web/src/features/search/parser.test.ts:

• On main (b493151), 3 of them fail. For example pattern is foo \"bar\" where foo "bar" is expected.
• With the fix, all 6 in the file pass. The regex-mode control test passes both times.
• The whole web suite passes (147 files, 1507 tests), and eslint is clean on both files.

A reviewer can confirm it by searching "foo \"bar\"" against a file that contains foo "bar".

AI disclosure: an AI coding agent working for the breken-ai account found, fixed and tested this.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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Note

Low Risk
Localized search-parser change with tests; regex mode behavior is explicitly preserved.

Overview
Fixes keyword (substring) search so backslash escapes inside quoted strings are resolved before building the Zoekt pattern. Queries like "foo \"bar\"" and content:"say \"hi\"" now match literal foo "bar" instead of searching for the backslash characters. Regex mode is unchanged—escaped strings still pass through to the regex engine.

Implementation adds unescapeQuotedString (quotes, backslashes, and line breaks after \) for QuotedTerm nodes and quoted content: values only. Changelog updated; six parser tests cover escapes, Windows paths, and the regex control case.

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Summary by cubic

Fixes #1687. Keyword search now resolves backslash escapes in quoted terms and quoted content: values, so "foo \"bar\"" matches foo "bar" instead of the literal foo \"bar\".

• Escaped quotes, backslashes, and line terminators are resolved; other backslashes stay literal.
• Regex mode is unchanged; escapes are left for the regex engine to interpret.
• Adds a changelog entry and parser tests covering quoted terms, content: values, and both modes.

^{Written for commit 2426084. Summary will update on new commits.}

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed keyword search so escaped quotes and backslashes in quoted terms are interpreted correctly, including quoted content: values. Escaped carriage returns and line feeds are also converted to line breaks, while backslashes before other characters remain literal.
  • Preserved escape sequences in regex searches and left unquoted content: values unchanged.

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ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Advanced

Run ID: 2a0d9bc9-d167-4be5-b952-b8bf6543379c

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between ae3ba70 and 2426084.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• packages/web/src/features/search/parser.test.ts
• packages/web/src/features/search/parser.ts

🚧 Files skipped from review as they are similar to previous changes (1)

• packages/web/src/features/search/parser.ts

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Walkthrough

Quoted terms and quoted content: values in keyword searches now resolve supported backslash escapes before substring patterns are built. Regex-mode terms retain their escapes. Tests cover the escape behavior, and the changelog records the fix.

Changes

Quoted Search Escape Handling

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Quoted substring parsing packages/web/src/features/search/parser.ts, packages/web/src/features/search/parser.test.ts, CHANGELOG.md	The parser tracks quoted values and resolves supported escapes for substring searches, including quoted content: values. Tests cover escaped quotes and backslashes, line terminators, other backslashes, and regex mode. The changelog records the fix.

Priority: ⬇️ Low

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Change: Bug fix · Severity of issue fixed: Low

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 24260

Quoted keyword searches now handle the documented escapes while regex searches retain their escapes. No concrete merge-blocking risk remains; the change is suitable to merge after normal checks.

Architecture Summary

Architecture risk: 🔵 Low · up to 24260

The change affects 2 systems.

Changed systems: packages/web, CHANGELOG.md

Architecture concerns
No architecture-level concerns identified.

Review details

Systems and components

• observed — packages/web (ui) was modified; 2 changed files map to changed impact.
• observed — CHANGELOG.md (service) was modified; 1 changed file maps to changed impact.

Before / after behavior

• observed — Modified behavior in CHANGELOG.md: Added an Unreleased fix entry stating that keyword search now handles backslash escapes in quoted terms, with an example and PR reference.
• observed — Modified behavior in packages/web/src/features/search/parser.test.ts: Added tests for quoted substring terms covering escaped quotes and backslashes, backslash-escaped newlines, preservation of backslashes before other characters, quoted content: values, and escape preservation in regex mode.
• observed — Modified behavior in packages/web/src/features/search/parser.ts: unescapeQuotedString now removes a backslash only before a quote, backslash, or line terminator; other backslashes remain literal. The helper’s comment now describes these escape rules and regex-mode handling.
• observed — Modified behavior in packages/web/src/features/search/parser.ts: For non-regex searches, quoted terms have supported escapes resolved before becoming substring patterns; unquoted terms are unchanged.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely describes the main change: unescaping quoted keyword search terms in the web application.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The PR meets the coding requirements in #1687. parser.ts unescapes \\", \\\\, CR, and LF in quoted keyword terms and quoted content: values before creating substring queries. Regex-mode terms ret…
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The changes stay within #1687. The parser change implements the requested keyword-search behavior. The parser tests verify the behavior. The changelog entry documents the same fix. No unrelated produc…
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 2…

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[cubic-dev-ai]

All reported issues were addressed

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[cubic-dev-ai]

All reported issues were addressed across 3 files

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

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• 🪄 Fix CodeRabbit comments on this PR

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Inline comments:
In @packages/web/src/features/search/parser.ts:
- Line 80: Update unescapeQuotedString to remove backslashes only when escaping
a quote or another backslash; preserve backslashes before all other characters
so quoted paths such as "C:\temp" remain literal.

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ℹ️ Review info

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Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Advanced

Run ID: ccde9f1a-8453-4215-b093-c3a8820a325b

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between b493151 and ae3ba70.

📒 Files selected for processing (3)

• CHANGELOG.md
• packages/web/src/features/search/parser.test.ts
• packages/web/src/features/search/parser.ts

Included review availability: This review used your included allowance. Your plan provides up to 8 included reviews per hour; 6 remain after this review.

[breken-ai]

Addressed the quoted-escape review findings in 2426084. Unquoted line terminators after a backslash are now unescaped, while backslashes before other characters are preserved (including Windows paths). The focused parser test suite passes (8/8); both new regressions failed with the prior implementation and pass with this change.