From e8d5c6b44642e6749ef1a05bd6aa7a75e9276241 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Peter Meyers <meyers@openai.com>
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2026 14:04:33 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Make fuzzy file search case insensitive (#15772)

Makes fuzzy file search use case-insensitive matching instead of
smart-case in `codex-file-search`. I find smart-case to be a poor user
experience -using the wrong case for a letter drops its match so
significantly, it often drops off the results list, effectively making a
search case-sensitive.
---
 .../tests/suite/fuzzy_file_search.rs          | 24 +++++++++++++++++++
 codex-rs/file-search/src/lib.rs               |  4 ++--
 2 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/codex-rs/app-server/tests/suite/fuzzy_file_search.rs b/codex-rs/app-server/tests/suite/fuzzy_file_search.rs
index 5a34fa4d3..1520d99e3 100644
--- a/codex-rs/app-server/tests/suite/fuzzy_file_search.rs
+++ b/codex-rs/app-server/tests/suite/fuzzy_file_search.rs
@@ -366,6 +366,30 @@ async fn test_fuzzy_file_search_session_streams_updates() -> Result<()> {
     Ok(())
 }
 
+#[tokio::test(flavor = "multi_thread", worker_threads = 2)]
+async fn test_fuzzy_file_search_session_update_is_case_insensitive() -> Result<()> {
+    let codex_home = TempDir::new()?;
+    let root = TempDir::new()?;
+    std::fs::write(root.path().join("alpha.txt"), "contents")?;
+    let mut mcp = initialized_mcp(&codex_home).await?;
+
+    let root_path = root.path().to_string_lossy().to_string();
+    let session_id = "session-case-insensitive";
+
+    mcp.start_fuzzy_file_search_session(session_id, vec![root_path.clone()])
+        .await?;
+    mcp.update_fuzzy_file_search_session(session_id, "ALP")
+        .await?;
+
+    let payload =
+        wait_for_session_updated(&mut mcp, session_id, "ALP", FileExpectation::NonEmpty).await?;
+    assert_eq!(payload.files.len(), 1);
+    assert_eq!(payload.files[0].root, root_path);
+    assert_eq!(payload.files[0].path, "alpha.txt");
+
+    Ok(())
+}
+
 #[tokio::test(flavor = "multi_thread", worker_threads = 2)]
 async fn test_fuzzy_file_search_session_no_updates_after_complete_until_query_edited() -> Result<()>
 {
diff --git a/codex-rs/file-search/src/lib.rs b/codex-rs/file-search/src/lib.rs
index 95cfa8be4..c49e57aeb 100644
--- a/codex-rs/file-search/src/lib.rs
+++ b/codex-rs/file-search/src/lib.rs
@@ -336,7 +336,7 @@ where
 fn create_pattern(pattern: &str) -> Pattern {
     Pattern::new(
         pattern,
-        CaseMatching::Smart,
+        CaseMatching::Ignore,
         Normalization::Smart,
         AtomKind::Fuzzy,
     )
@@ -508,7 +508,7 @@ fn matcher_worker(
                         nucleo.pattern.reparse(
                             0,
                             &query,
-                            CaseMatching::Smart,
+                            CaseMatching::Ignore,
                             Normalization::Smart,
                             append,
                         );