1657 2026 02 07 Fix X Search Query Construction Plan D96c458e

fix: X search query too restrictive, returns 0 results on popular topics

Problem

/last30days vibe motion best prompt techniques returned 0 X posts despite Vibe Motion being actively discussed on X (screenshots show posts from @Godid242, @KamilStanuch, @ColdStartTheory, @higgsfield_ai).

Root cause: _extract_core_subject() in bird_x.py produces overly specific queries. Bird/X search uses literal keyword AND matching — ALL words must appear in a tweet. The function kept 4 keywords (vibe motion prompt techniques) when only 2 (vibe motion) were needed.

Three Bugs Found

Bug 1: Multi-word noise phrases never match

# Current code (bird_x.py:24-38)
noise = ['best', ..., 'what are', 'what is', 'how to', 'tips for', ...]
words = topic.lower().split()  # splits into individual words
result = [w for w in words if w not in noise]  # compares "what" against "what are" → no match!

"what are people saying about DeepSeek R1" → keeps "what are people saying" → LOSES THE ENTIRE TOPIC.

The multi-word entries ("what are", "how to", "tips for", "use cases") are dead code. They never match because .split() creates individual words but the noise list has multi-word strings.

Bug 2: Missing meta/research words

The noise list has "prompting" but not "prompt", "prompts", "techniques", "tips", "tricks", "methods", etc.

• "vibe motion best prompt techniques" → "vibe motion prompt techniques" (4 words, should be 2)
• "nano banana pro prompts for gemini" → "nano banana pro prompts" (4 words, should be 3)

Bug 3: No retry on 0 results

Reddit has multi-stage retry: full query → simplified core → subreddit fallback. X search runs once and accepts whatever comes back, even 0 results.

Proposed Fix

All changes in scripts/lib/bird_x.py.

Step 1: Fix _extract_core_subject() — strip phrases first, then words

def _extract_core_subject(topic: str) -> str:
    """Extract core subject from verbose query for X search."""
    text = topic.lower()

    # Phase 1: Strip multi-word prefixes/suffixes (order matters - longest first)
    prefixes = ['what are the best', 'what is the best', 'what are', 'what is',
                'how to', 'how do i', 'tips for', 'best practices for']
    for p in prefixes:
        if text.startswith(p):
            text = text[len(p):].strip()
            break

    suffixes = ['best practices', 'use cases', 'prompt techniques',
                'prompting techniques']
    for s in suffixes:
        if text.endswith(s):
            text = text[:-len(s)].strip()
            break

    # Phase 2: Split and filter individual noise words
    noise = {'best', 'top', 'practices', 'features', 'killer', 'guide',
             'tutorial', 'recommendations', 'advice', 'prompting', 'prompt',
             'prompts', 'techniques', 'tips', 'tricks', 'methods',
             'strategies', 'review', 'reviews', 'uses', 'usecases',
             'examples', 'using', 'for', 'with', 'the', 'of', 'in', 'on',
             'about', 'latest', 'new', 'news', 'update', 'updates',
             'good', 'great', 'awesome', 'and', 'or', 'a', 'an', 'is',
             'are', 'was', 'were', 'people', 'saying', 'think', 'said'}
    words = text.split()
    result = [w for w in words if w not in noise]

    return ' '.join(result[:3]) or topic  # Max 3 words (was 4)

Expected results after fix:

Step 2: Add retry with simplified query on 0 results

In search_x(), after the initial search, if 0 items returned, retry with just the first 2 words of the core subject:

def search_x(topic, from_date, to_date, depth="default"):
    count = DEPTH_CONFIG.get(depth, DEPTH_CONFIG["default"])
    core_topic = _extract_core_subject(topic)
    query = f"{core_topic} since:{from_date}"

    # ... existing Bird search code ...

    items = parse_bird_response(response)

    # Retry with fewer keywords if 0 results
    if not items and len(core_topic.split()) > 2:
        shorter = ' '.join(core_topic.split()[:2])
        _log(f"0 results for '{core_topic}', retrying with '{shorter}'")
        query = f"{shorter} since:{from_date}"
        # ... retry Bird search ...
        items = parse_bird_response(retry_response)

    return response  # or merged response

Step 3 (optional): Cross-pollinate Reddit entities into X Phase 2

When X Phase 1 returns 0 results but Reddit found threads, extract brand/product names from Reddit thread titles and use them as X search fallback queries. This is lower priority — Steps 1-2 should fix most cases.

Acceptance Criteria

• vibe motion best prompt techniques returns >0 X posts (12 posts found)
• what are people saying about DeepSeek R1 produces query containing "deepseek r1" not "what are people saying"
• No regressions on working queries (kanye west, claude code skills, open claw)
• Retry fires when initial query returns 0, logged to stderr
• openai_reddit.py's _extract_core_subject() NOT changed (Reddit uses semantic search, not literal matching — the current function works fine there)

Files to Change

• scripts/lib/bird_x.py — _extract_core_subject() rewrite + retry logic in search_x()
• scripts/lib/bird_x.py — search_handles() benefits automatically (calls _extract_core_subject())

Testing

# Mock mode (quick syntax check)
python3 scripts/last30days.py "vibe motion best prompt techniques" --mock --emit=compact 2>&1

# Live queries to verify X results
python3 scripts/last30days.py "vibe motion best prompt techniques" --quick --emit=compact 2>&1 | grep -E "X:|posts"
python3 scripts/last30days.py "what are people saying about DeepSeek R1" --quick --emit=compact 2>&1 | grep -E "X:|posts"

# Regression check
python3 scripts/last30days.py "kanye west" --quick --emit=compact 2>&1 | grep -E "X:|posts"