2026-08-07 — vars: global var search

vars built (2026-08-07) — item (1) from the in-situ wishlist. outline's matcher and entry machinery mapped across all-ns; surfaced as __r/vars. Measured on build day against this project's own JVM (101 namespaces, via the live MCP connection): the broadest possible search — the single letter "a", 2031 hits — completes in ~18 ms, linear meta reads with no index, so a 1900-namespace JVM extrapolates to a few hundred ms worst case and far less for any real term. Verified live: a private var found and marked (designated), docstring hits quoting :matched evidence (a search for "designated" surfacing defrecord's docstring line), symbol/string/regex all matching, the nil-match throw reading plainly, and the composability invariant round-tripped — a hit's :ns fed outline, the qualified symbol fed doc. One shape observed and kept: within a namespace hits arrive in source order, so a docstring mention can precede the exact-name definition ((vars 'gate-task) leads with gate, whose docstring mentions it) — grep semantics, judged not worth a ranking pass. Suite green after the build: 71 tests, 251 assertions.

Revised the same day: the flat ordering was falsified by first real use — (vars 'status) put the literal (defn status …) in co.multiply.remontoire third, behind docstring mentions, exactly the "where does it live" question answering itself badly. Scoring added: three tiers — exact name match, name hit, docstring-only hit — namespace-then-source-line within each; the shape stays one flat vector, the ordering carrying the ranking. Verified live: (vars 'status) now leads with the two exact-named defns before any mention. Suite green: 71 tests, 252 assertions.