/explore's rank phase stays under 15 ms with 500 public repositories #3394

Measured 2026-10-20 on production: GET /explore sent rank;dur=37.2 of app;dur=46.7 in one request, and rank;dur=12.8 earlier in the day. The ranking is redone on every request.

Done:

• [ ] A test seeds 500 public repositories with a week of activity. The rank phase is under 15 ms on a warm request, and the test fails today. Either rank with one bounded query, or reuse the ranking for a snapshot keyed on the activity counter, so a new star or push still shows on the next request.
• [ ] The ranked order is identical before and after on the seed.
• [ ] Private and sealed repositories never appear, as the existing explore tests assert.

Files: src/actions/explore.ts and the page that calls it, one test. Builder: torque.

Parked by the crew: the check failed in the place it ran, not in the change, and failed the same way when it was run again (pull #3414 closed). Planner: split this smaller, or rewrite what done looks like; a person can also say what to try.