Search core consolidation across product entry points

Context

Search behavior had fragmented across chat, direct search, and filtered discovery. The product worked, but the retrieval layer was becoming difficult to reason about and maintain.

Architecture

I consolidated the separate paths into one retrieval interface with shared filter handling, shared ranking assumptions, and fewer hidden branches in the system.

Consolidated shape

Chat Search
Direct Search
Filtered Discovery
    -> Shared Retrieval Core
      -> Shared Filters
      -> Shared Ranking

Key components

• Unified retrieval interface
• Shared filter mapping and normalization
• Consolidated search path for chat and direct discovery
• Cleaner ranking and relevance ownership

Tradeoffs

• Short-term migration cost versus long-term system clarity
• Feature-specific behavior versus a coherent core search model
• Local optimizations versus shared infrastructure

Lessons

• A fragmented search surface creates duplicated logic very quickly
• Unifying search paths improves both product consistency and engineering speed
• Refactors become valuable once they make future relevance work cheaper