scoring: use repo freshness as tiebreaker

api.go

@@ -635,7 +635,16 @@ func (r *Repository) UnmarshalJSON(data []byte) error {
 		r.ID = uint32(id)
 	}
 
-	if v, ok := repo.RawConfig["priority"]; ok {
+	// Sourcegraph indexserver doesn't set repo.Rank, so we set it here. Setting it
+	// on read instead of during indexing allows us to avoid a complete reindex.
+	//
+	// Prefer "latest_commit_date" over "priority" for ranking. We keep priority for
+	// backwards compatibility.
+	if _, ok := repo.RawConfig["latest_commit_date"]; ok {
+		// We use the number of months since 1970 as a simple measure of repo freshness.
+		// It is monotonically increasing and stable across re-indexes and restarts.
+		r.Rank = monthsSince1970(repo.LatestCommitDate)
+	} else if v, ok := repo.RawConfig["priority"]; ok {
 		r.priority, err = strconv.ParseFloat(v, 64)
 		if err != nil {
 			r.priority = 0
@@ -645,14 +654,28 @@ func (r *Repository) UnmarshalJSON(data []byte) error {
 		// based on priority. Setting it on read instead of during indexing
 		// allows us to avoid a complete reindex.
 		if r.Rank == 0 && r.priority > 0 {
-			// Normalize the repo score within [0, 1), with the midpoint at 5,000. This means popular
-			// repos (roughly ones with over 5,000 stars) see diminishing returns from more stars.
+			// Normalize the repo score within [0, maxUint16), with the midpoint at 5,000.
+			// This means popular repos (roughly ones with over 5,000 stars) see diminishing
+			// returns from more stars.
 			r.Rank = uint16(r.priority / (5000.0 + r.priority) * maxUInt16)
 		}
 	}
+
 	return nil
 }
 
+// monthsSince1970 returns the number of months since 1970. It returns values in
+// the range [0, maxUInt16]. The upper bound is reached in the year 7431, the
+// lower bound for all dates before 1970.
+func monthsSince1970(t time.Time) uint16 {
+	base := time.Unix(0, 0)
+	if t.Before(base) {
+		return 0
+	}
+	months := int(t.Year()-1970)*12 + int(t.Month()-1)
+	return uint16(min(months, maxUInt16))
+}
+
 // MergeMutable will merge x into r. mutated will be true if it made any
 // changes. err is non-nil if we needed to mutate an immutable field.
 //

api_test.go

@@ -368,3 +368,29 @@ func TestRepositoryMergeMutable(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	})
 }
+
+func TestMonthsSince1970(t *testing.T) {
+	tests := []struct {
+		name     string
+		input    time.Time
+		expected uint16
+	}{
+		{"Before 1970", time.Date(1950, 12, 31, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC), 0},
+		{"Unix 0", time.Date(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC), 0},
+		{"Feb 1970", time.Date(1970, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC), 1},
+		{"Year 1989", time.Date(1989, 12, 13, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC), 239},
+		{"Sep 2024", time.Date(2024, 9, 20, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC), 656},
+		{"Oct 2024", time.Date(2024, 10, 20, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC), 657},
+		{"Apr 7431", time.Date(7431, 4, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC), 65535},
+		{"9999", time.Date(9999, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC), 65535},
+	}
+
+	for _, tt := range tests {
+		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			result := monthsSince1970(tt.input)
+			if result != tt.expected {
+				t.Errorf("expected %d, got %d", tt.expected, result)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}