phi-thread

You ask a question

phi-thread "docker container keeps restarting"

The query string is parsed. Platforms are set (default: so, reddit, hn, github, google). Keywords are extracted: {"docker", "container", "restarting"} — stopwords like "keeps" are filtered out.

Layer 1 — Cache check (instant)

Query is hashed: sha256("docker container keeps restarting")[:16] → a3f8b2c1d4e5f6a7

Checks ~/.phi-thread/cache/a3f8b2c1d4e5f6a7.json
If it exists and is < 24 hours old → return cached results immediately. Done in < 1ms.

Cache MISS? → Move to Layer 2...

Layer 2 — Keyword index (the self-building KB)

Checks ~/.phi-thread/index.json — a persistent keyword → answer-coordinate map that grows with every query you ever make.

Looks up each keyword: index["docker"], index["container"], index["restarting"]
Each returns a list of previously-seen answer coordinates with scores. Answers matching more keywords rank higher.

These indexed results are kept as backup candidates. Live search still runs to find fresh answers.

Layer 3 — Live search across 5 platforms

Hits real APIs. All use urllib (zero dependencies, stdlib only):

Thread Math — Deep-link into the answer tree

This is the core insight. We don't just link to the question page. We follow the thread tree and link to the exact answer.

Stack Overflow: API returns accepted_answer_id → we call /questions/{ids}/answers to get the answer body → link to /a/{answer_id}

Reddit: For each post, we fetch {permalink}.json?limit=1&sort=top → extract top comment → link to /comments/{post}/{slug}/{comment_id}

HN: Algolia returns both stories AND comments. If it's a comment, the objectID IS the direct link: /item?id={comment_id}

This is thread math: every answer has a deterministic coordinate in (platform, thread, answer) space.

Rank — Platform score × Title relevance

Each platform scores answers differently, then a relevance multiplier ensures matching titles beat popular-but-unrelated results:

Then: final_score = platform_score × title_relevance
Where title_relevance = |query_keywords ∩ title_keywords| / |query_keywords|

A perfectly matching SO title with 5 upvotes beats a Reddit post with 500 upvotes but irrelevant title (gets 0.1× penalty).

Save — Cache + Index (the KB grows)

Cache: Full results saved to ~/.phi-thread/cache/{hash}.json with 24hr TTL. Same exact query = instant next time.

Index: Every answer gets its keywords extracted. Each keyword maps to the answer's coordinate + score in ~/.phi-thread/index.json.

This means: you search "docker container restarting" today. Tomorrow someone searches "docker restart loop" — the keyword index finds the answers from yesterday, even though it's a different query. The KB builds itself.

Return — Pretty-printed answers with deep-links