fix(web): unescape quoted keyword search terms

The query grammar accepts backslash escapes inside quoted strings, and the syntax docs say `"foo \"bar\""` matches `foo "bar"`. The IR transform only stripped the outer quotes, so keyword (non-regex) search sent the literal pattern `foo \"bar\"` to zoekt and found nothing. Resolve backslash escapes for quoted terms and quoted `content:` values in keyword mode. Regex mode still passes the escapes to the regex engine. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
breken-ai · Sep 25, 2026 · Sep 26, 2026 · Sep 27, 2026 · Sep 25, 2026 · 209b08109d208f555f9209744beab4ccbb570b54
commit 209b08109d208f555f9209744beab4ccbb570b54
diff --git a/packages/web/src/features/search/parser.test.ts b/packages/web/src/features/search/parser.test.ts
@@ -42,4 +42,60 @@ describe('parseQuerySyntaxIntoIR', () => {
         expect(JSON.stringify(ir)).toContain('org/repo-a');
         expect(JSON.stringify(ir)).toContain('org/repo-b');
     });
+
+    describe('quoted keyword terms', () => {
+        const prisma = {} as unknown as PrismaClient;
+
+        it('unescapes escaped quotes so the literal phrase is searched', async () => {
+            const ir = await parseQuerySyntaxIntoIR({
+                query: '"foo \\"bar\\""',
+                options: {},
+                prisma,
+            });
+
+            expect(ir).toMatchObject({
+                query: 'substring',
+                substring: { pattern: 'foo "bar"' },
+            });
+        });
+
+        it('unescapes escaped backslashes', async () => {
+            const ir = await parseQuerySyntaxIntoIR({
+                query: '"path\\\\to\\\\file"',
+                options: {},
+                prisma,
+            });
+
+            expect(ir).toMatchObject({
+                query: 'substring',
+                substring: { pattern: 'path\\to\\file' },
+            });
+        });
+
+        it('unescapes a quoted content: value', async () => {
+            const ir = await parseQuerySyntaxIntoIR({
+                query: 'content:"say \\"hi\\""',
+                options: {},
+                prisma,
+            });
+
+            expect(ir).toMatchObject({
+                query: 'substring',
+                substring: { pattern: 'say "hi"' },
+            });
+        });
+
+        it('leaves escapes to the regex engine in regex mode', async () => {
+            const ir = await parseQuerySyntaxIntoIR({
+                query: '"foo \\"bar\\""',
+                options: { isRegexEnabled: true },
+                prisma,
+            });
+
+            expect(ir).toMatchObject({
+                query: 'regexp',
+                regexp: { regexp: 'foo \\"bar\\"' },
+            });
+        });
+    });
 });
diff --git a/packages/web/src/features/search/parser.ts b/packages/web/src/features/search/parser.ts
@@ -71,6 +71,15 @@ const findLinguistLanguage = (value: string): string => {
     return languageKeyLowerCaseMap.get(value.toLowerCase()) ?? value;
 }
 
+/**
+ * Quoted strings may contain backslash escapes (e.g. `\"`). Keyword search
+ * matches patterns literally, so the escapes are resolved here. In regex mode
+ * they are left in place for the regex engine to interpret.
+ */
+const unescapeQuotedString = (value: string): string => {
+    return value.replace(/\\(.)/g, '$1');
+}
+
 /**
  * Given a query string, parses it into the query intermediate representation.
  */
@@ -221,7 +230,7 @@ const transformTreeToIR = async ({
                     query: "regexp"
                 } : {
                     substring: {
-                        pattern: termText,
+                        pattern: node.type.id === QuotedTerm ? unescapeQuotedString(termText) : termText,
                         case_sensitive: isCaseSensitivityEnabled,
                         file_name: false,
                         content: true
@@ -252,7 +261,9 @@ const transformTreeToIR = async ({
         }
 
         // Get the value part after the colon and remove quotes if present
-        const value = fullText.substring(colonIndex + 1).replace(/^"|"$/g, '');
+        const rawValue = fullText.substring(colonIndex + 1);
+        const isQuoted = rawValue.length >= 2 && rawValue.startsWith('"') && rawValue.endsWith('"');
+        const value = rawValue.replace(/^"|"$/g, '');
 
         switch (prefixTypeId) {
             case FileExpr:
@@ -296,7 +307,7 @@ const transformTreeToIR = async ({
                     query: "regexp"
                 } : {
                     substring: {
-                        pattern: value,
+                        pattern: isQuoted ? unescapeQuotedString(value) : value,
                         case_sensitive: isCaseSensitivityEnabled,
                         file_name: false,
                         content: true