The explorer ranks apps by likes: `sort:likes` and a Liked tab, with each row's like count #8377

/explore now ranks apps by likes: sort:likes, a Liked tab, and N likes on each row where N > 0.

gate, design-lint, tsc and the new test file pass. The explore, rank-inputs, TUI-explore and MCP tests also pass once I fixed two stale assertions. A different ten-file run (explore*, api-explore-timing, rank-inputs, tui-dashboard-explore, mcp) showed two failures, both in test/explore-unknown-words.test.ts. I ran that file alone after the fix and it passes; I did not re-run the whole set.

What changed

• Count and sort: ExploreSort gains likes in src/actions/explore.ts. An app's count is the feed_like rows whose repository is one the viewer can read, so a private app's likes never reach a viewer who can't read it. sort:likes round-trips through readExploreLine and exploreLine. Each row carries numbers.likes, and a person's count is the sum over the apps shown.
• Page: src/web/studio/explore.ts adds the Liked tab and the N likes text.
• Score: likes add 0.5 × log(1 + likes) to the score sort. That is small next to the default forks weight of 3 and ships weight of 2. The weight is a constant in explore.ts, not one of the admin-set front weights.
• Cache: likes are now part of the cache key in src/core/rank_inputs.ts, so a new like re-ranks the explorer on the next request.
• Sort list: the sort list in src/web/standards.ts names likes.
• Tests: test/explore-likes.test.ts covers ordering, private likes not counting for a stranger or signed-out viewer (the owner sees them), the score lift, and the URL round trip. In test/explore-unknown-words.test.ts I changed the expected "use score, forks, …" text to include likes; the test was stale, not wrong.

Left out

• Likes are not an admin-tunable front-page weight.
• Likes on a fork's posts are not credited to its parent.
• The terminal's explorer rows do not show a like count yet.

To try it, open /explore?q=sort:likes or press Liked on the sort tabs.

Closes #7753

/explore now ranks apps by likes: sort:likes, a Liked tab, and N likes on each row where N > 0.

gate, design-lint, tsc and the new test file pass. The explore, rank-inputs, TUI-explore and MCP tests also pass once I fixed two stale assertions. A different ten-file run (explore*, api-explore-timing, rank-inputs, tui-dashboard-explore, mcp) showed two failures, both in test/explore-unknown-words.test.ts. I ran that file alone after the fix and it passes; I did not re-run the whole set.

What changed

• Count and sort: ExploreSort gains likes in src/actions/explore.ts. An app's count is the feed_like rows whose repository is one the viewer can read, so a private app's likes never reach a viewer who can't read it. sort:likes round-trips through readExploreLine and exploreLine. Each row carries numbers.likes, and a person's count is the sum over the apps shown.
• Page: src/web/studio/explore.ts adds the Liked tab and the N likes text.
• Score: likes add 0.5 × log(1 + likes) to the score sort. That is small next to the default forks weight of 3 and ships weight of 2. The weight is a constant in explore.ts, not one of the admin-set front weights.
• Cache: likes are now part of the cache key in src/core/rank_inputs.ts, so a new like re-ranks the explorer on the next request.
• Sort list: the sort list in src/web/standards.ts names likes.
• Tests: test/explore-likes.test.ts covers ordering, private likes not counting for a stranger or signed-out viewer (the owner sees them), the score lift, and the URL round trip. In test/explore-unknown-words.test.ts I changed the expected "use score, forks, …" text to include likes; the test was stale, not wrong.

Left out

• Likes are not an admin-tunable front-page weight.
• Likes on a fork's posts are not credited to its parent.
• The terminal's explorer rows do not show a like count yet.

To try it, open /explore?q=sort:likes or press Liked on the sort tabs.

I fixed both blockers and the sort-list point; the score sort is the one place I'm keeping as it was. I pushed to the same branch.

Changes

• Terminal rows: numbersOf in src/tui/screens/dashboard.ts now shows N like(s), with the same wording and position as the web row (after forks, before shipped). A new test in test/tui-dashboard-explore.test.ts types kind:app sort:likes, adds two likes to an app, and checks the row says 2 likes and ranks first. I did not confirm it fails without the change.
• How-to: docs/features/explore.md lists every sort, how likes count (only repositories the viewer can read, summed per person), and the score lift. The README is untouched.
• Sort lists: I grepped src, docs and README.md. The only other copy that needed likes was explore.query in docs/MCP.md, now updated. The explore MCP tool and the OpenAPI routes don't list the sort values. The remaining "forks, ships, use, fresh" matches are the front page's admin weights, which have no likes weight.

Disagreement: score stays changed Issue #7753 lists "Likes also feed the score sort at a modest weight" under what done looks like, so I didn't treat it as extra. The lift is 0.5 × ln(1 + likes), small next to forks (3) and ships (2). The weight is a constant in explore.ts, not an admin setting, as the feature doc says. If you want an admin-tunable weight, I can split that into its own pull.

bun scripts/gate.ts is clean and tsc shows no errors. test/tui-dashboard-explore.test.ts passes (11 tests). I did not re-run the wider explorer test set after this round.