fix(query-language): don't treat dash before a non-prefix colon word as negation (#1301)

* fix(query-language): don't treat a dash before a non-prefix colon word as negation

A query like `-foo:bar` or `-http://example.com` raised a SyntaxError.
The negate tokenizer accepted `-` as negation whenever any colon appeared
in the following word, but the grammar only allows a NegateExpr to wrap a
known PrefixExpr. With no matching prefix, the strict parser used in search
failed the whole query. Now negation is only emitted when the dash is
immediately followed by a known prefix keyword; other colon-bearing words
parse as a single Term.

* fix changelog

---------

Co-authored-by: Brendan Kellam <brendan@sourcebot.dev>

Author: devteamaegis

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - Upgraded `tar` to `^7.5.22`. [#1472](https://github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot/pull/1472)
 - Fixed GitLab topic filters being incorrectly case-sensitive. [#1393](https://github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot/pull/1393)
 - Fixed a crash when searching with `context:` referencing a search context that does not exist; it now returns a graceful error. [#1362](https://github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot/pull/1362)
+- Fixed search queries failing to parse when negating a bare term that contains a colon (e.g. `-foo:bar`, `-http://example.com`). [#1301](https://github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot/pull/1301)
 
 ## [5.1.5] - 2026-07-31
 

packages/queryLanguage/src/tokens.ts

@@ -673,27 +673,12 @@ export const negateToken = new ExternalTokenizer((input, stack) => {
         }
     }
 
-    // Check if followed by a prefix keyword (by checking for keyword followed by colon)
-    let foundColon = false;
-    let peekOffset = offset;
-    
-    while (true) {
-        const ch = input.peek(peekOffset);
-        if (ch === EOF) break;
-        
-        if (ch === COLON) {
-            foundColon = true;
-            break;
-        }
-        // Hit a delimiter (whitespace, paren, or quote) - not a prefix keyword
-        if (isWhitespace(ch) || ch === OPEN_PAREN || ch === CLOSE_PAREN || ch === QUOTE) {
-            break;
-        }
-        peekOffset++;
-    }
-    
-    if (foundColon) {
-        // It's a prefix keyword, accept as negate
+    // Only accept as negate when the dash is immediately followed by a known
+    // prefix keyword (e.g. `-file:`). A bare word that merely contains a colon
+    // (e.g. `-foo:bar`, `-http://x`) is not a prefix and must be left for
+    // wordToken; otherwise the grammar has no PrefixExpr to follow the negate
+    // token and the (strict) parser throws a SyntaxError.
+    if (startsWithPrefixAt(input, offset)) {
         input.advance();
         input.acceptToken(negate);
         return;

packages/queryLanguage/test/negation.txt

@@ -277,3 +277,27 @@ chat lang:TypeScript -file:(test|spec)
 ==>
 
 Program(AndExpr(Term,PrefixExpr(LangExpr),NegateExpr(PrefixExpr(FileExpr))))
+
+# Dash term with non-prefix colon word (e.g. a URL) stays a single Term
+
+-http://example.com
+
+==>
+
+Program(Term)
+
+# Dash term with unknown colon key stays a single Term
+
+-time:12
+
+==>
+
+Program(Term)
+
+# Prefix combined with a negated non-prefix colon word
+
+repo:x -foo:bar
+
+==>
+
+Program(AndExpr(PrefixExpr(RepoExpr),Term))