diff --git a/lib/editor/search/search_ranking.dart b/lib/editor/search/search_ranking.dart
new file mode 100644
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/editor/search/search_ranking.dart
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+// lib/editor/search/search_ranking.dart
+//
+// Pure ranking + aggregation for full-text search (F8). Given many sources (PDF
+// text pages, typed boxes, OCR'd handwriting) keyed by a ref string, score each
+// for a query and return the best hits with display snippets. This is the
+// search_indexer's ranking core; the FTS pre-filter/index lives in the DB.
+//
+// Pure (no storage/widgets); builds on search_text (normalize/match) +
+// search_snippet (excerpt). Fully unit-tested.
+
+import 'search_snippet.dart';
+import 'search_text.dart';
+
+/// A ranked search result: WHERE it is ([ref]), the display [snippet], and the
+/// [score] (higher = better).
+class SearchHit {
+  const SearchHit({required this.ref, required this.snippet, required this.score});
+
+  final String ref;
+  final Snippet snippet;
+  final double score;
+
+  @override
+  String toString() => 'SearchHit($ref, score=${score.toStringAsFixed(3)})';
+}
+
+/// Score [source] for [query]: more (normalized) occurrences rank higher, and an
+/// earlier first match breaks ties. 0 when there is no match.
+double scoreText(String source, String query) {
+  final q = normalizeForIndex(query);
+  if (q.isEmpty) return 0;
+  final s = normalizeForIndex(source);
+  if (s.isEmpty) return 0;
+
+  var count = 0;
+  var from = 0;
+  var firstPos = -1;
+  while (true) {
+    final idx = s.indexOf(q, from);
+    if (idx < 0) break;
+    if (firstPos < 0) firstPos = idx;
+    count++;
+    from = idx + q.length;
+  }
+  if (count == 0) return 0;
+
+  // Earliness in (0,1]: a match at position 0 scores 1.0.
+  final earliness = 1.0 - (firstPos / s.length);
+  return count + earliness;
+}
+
+/// Build + rank hits across [sources] (ref → raw text) for [query]: drop
+/// non-matches, attach a display snippet of the ORIGINAL text, sort best-first.
+/// Ties (equal score) keep input order (stable).
+List<SearchHit> rankHits(
+  Map<String, String> sources,
+  String query, {
+  int window = 80,
+}) {
+  final indexed = <({int order, SearchHit hit})>[];
+  var order = 0;
+  for (final entry in sources.entries) {
+    final i = order++;
+    final score = scoreText(entry.value, query);
+    if (score <= 0) continue;
+    final snippet = snippetFor(entry.value, query, window: window);
+    if (snippet == null) continue; // matched normalized but not raw (rare)
+    indexed.add((
+      order: i,
+      hit: SearchHit(ref: entry.key, snippet: snippet, score: score),
+    ));
+  }
+  // Descending score; ties keep input order (Dart's sort isn't stable, so the
+  // input index is an explicit tiebreaker).
+  indexed.sort((a, b) {
+    final byScore = b.hit.score.compareTo(a.hit.score);
+    return byScore != 0 ? byScore : a.order.compareTo(b.order);
+  });
+  return [for (final e in indexed) e.hit];
+}
diff --git a/test/search_ranking_test.dart b/test/search_ranking_test.dart
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c7b2c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/search_ranking_test.dart
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+// Tests for search ranking + aggregation (F8).
+
+import 'package:flutter_test/flutter_test.dart';
+
+import 'package:badnote/editor/search/search_ranking.dart';
+
+void main() {
+  group('scoreText', () {
+    test('0 for empty query or no match', () {
+      expect(scoreText('hello world', ''), 0);
+      expect(scoreText('hello world', 'zzz'), 0);
+      expect(scoreText('', 'x'), 0);
+    });
+
+    test('more occurrences score higher', () {
+      final one = scoreText('cat dog', 'cat');
+      final three = scoreText('cat cat cat', 'cat');
+      expect(three, greaterThan(one));
+    });
+
+    test('earlier first match breaks ties (same count)', () {
+      final early = scoreText('needle then padding padding', 'needle');
+      final late = scoreText('padding padding then needle', 'needle');
+      expect(early, greaterThan(late));
+    });
+
+    test('a match at position 0 gives earliness 1 (score = count + 1)', () {
+      expect(scoreText('cat', 'cat'), closeTo(2.0, 1e-9)); // 1 occ + 1.0
+    });
+  });
+
+  group('rankHits', () {
+    test('drops non-matches and orders best-first', () {
+      final hits = rankHits({
+        'p1': 'one mention of fox',
+        'p2': 'fox fox fox everywhere', // 3 occ → highest
+        'p3': 'nothing relevant here',
+      }, 'fox');
+      expect(hits.map((h) => h.ref), ['p2', 'p1']);
+      expect(hits.first.score, greaterThan(hits.last.score));
+    });
+
+    test('each hit carries a display snippet of the original text', () {
+      final hits = rankHits({'p1': 'The quick brown fox jumps'}, 'fox');
+      expect(hits, hasLength(1));
+      expect(hits.first.snippet.match, 'fox');
+      expect(hits.first.ref, 'p1');
+    });
+
+    test('equal scores keep input order (explicit tiebreak)', () {
+      final hits = rankHits({
+        'a': 'match',
+        'b': 'match',
+      }, 'match');
+      expect(hits.map((h) => h.ref), ['a', 'b']);
+      expect(hits[0].score, hits[1].score);
+    });
+
+    test('empty query → no hits', () {
+      expect(rankHits({'a': 'anything'}, ''), isEmpty);
+    });
+  });
+}