diff --git a/packages/coding-agent/CHANGELOG.md b/packages/coding-agent/CHANGELOG.md
index 930c2db9c..cb4353431 100644
--- a/packages/coding-agent/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/packages/coding-agent/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 ### Fixed
 
+- Fixed Ctrl+R history search results to remain globally sorted by prompt recency after merging FTS prefix matches with substring fallback matches.
 - Fixed Exa web search with no stored or environment credential to use the public Exa MCP fallback again, preserving the auth storage → `EXA_API_KEY` → `mcp.exa.ai` resolution order ([#1860](https://github.com/can1357/oh-my-pi/issues/1860)).
 - Fixed `provider.appendOnlyContext: "auto"` staying inactive for Xiaomi Token Plan/SGLang endpoints, preserving prefix-cache hits without forcing append-only mode globally ([#1851](https://github.com/can1357/oh-my-pi/issues/1851)).
 - Fixed `models.yml` compatibility parsing to preserve `compat.cacheControlFormat: "anthropic"` for custom OpenAI-compatible Claude proxies. ([#1845](https://github.com/can1357/oh-my-pi/issues/1845))
diff --git a/packages/coding-agent/src/modes/components/session-selector.ts b/packages/coding-agent/src/modes/components/session-selector.ts
index a3344b87e..c8d59f900 100644
--- a/packages/coding-agent/src/modes/components/session-selector.ts
+++ b/packages/coding-agent/src/modes/components/session-selector.ts
@@ -51,10 +51,10 @@ export type SessionHistoryMatcher = (query: string) => string[];
  *
  * - `fuzzy` is the ordered fuzzy-filter result over session metadata (best first).
  * - `historyIds` are session IDs whose recorded prompts matched the query,
- *   ordered by history relevance (best first); duplicates are tolerated.
+ *   ordered by prompt-history rank (typically newest matching prompt first); duplicates are tolerated.
  *
  * Ranking: sessions matched by **both** signals lead (keeping fuzzy order), then
- * fuzzy-only matches, then history-only matches (by history order). A fuzzy match
+ * fuzzy-only matches, then history-only matches (by prompt-history order). A fuzzy match
  * is never dropped, and history matches not present in `allSessions` (e.g. deleted
  * or out-of-scope sessions) are ignored since they cannot be resumed from here.
  */
diff --git a/packages/coding-agent/src/modes/components/tips.txt b/packages/coding-agent/src/modes/components/tips.txt
index 620e90bf4..e685aaf0c 100644
--- a/packages/coding-agent/src/modes/components/tips.txt
+++ b/packages/coding-agent/src/modes/components/tips.txt
@@ -12,4 +12,7 @@ Say `workflow` in your message to drive the task with parallel subagents in eval
 Log in to several accounts of the same provider — `/login` again — and omp load-balances across them automatically
 Run `omp auth-broker serve` once and every machine pulls live tokens over the wire — refresh keys never leave the host; `omp auth-gateway` fronts it as a drop-in proxy any OpenAI-compatible client can hit
 Press alt+p (or /switch) to switch provider, and ctrl+p to cycle role models smol -> slow -> etc
-Press ctrl+r to search your prompt history and reuse a past message
\ No newline at end of file
+Press ctrl+r to search your prompt history and reuse a past message
+`/force read` pins the next turn to one specific tool when the model keeps reaching for the wrong one
+`/copy code` grabs the last code block to your clipboard — `/copy cmd` grabs the last shell/python command
+`/shake` rips heavy tool results out of context to reclaim tokens without a full /compact — `/shake images` drops just images
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/packages/coding-agent/src/session/history-storage.ts b/packages/coding-agent/src/session/history-storage.ts
index 1001d788e..e8e46a9ae 100644
--- a/packages/coding-agent/src/session/history-storage.ts
+++ b/packages/coding-agent/src/session/history-storage.ts
@@ -209,10 +209,6 @@ CREATE TRIGGER IF NOT EXISTS history_ai AFTER INSERT ON history BEGIN
 			logger.debug("HistoryStorage FTS query failed, using substring only", { error: String(error) });
 		}
 
-		if (ftsRows.length >= safeLimit) {
-			return ftsRows.map(row => this.#toEntry(row));
-		}
-
 		// 2. Substring fallback (token-AND LIKE). Catches infix matches FTS5's
 		//    prefix-only wildcard cannot reach (e.g. "mit" -> "commit"). Bounded
 		//    by safeLimit, ordered by recency - no full-table load into JS.
@@ -227,27 +223,24 @@ CREATE TRIGGER IF NOT EXISTS history_ai AFTER INSERT ON history BEGIN
 			return subRows.map(row => this.#toEntry(row));
 		}
 
-		const seen = new Set<number>();
-		const merged: HistoryEntry[] = [];
+		const rowsById = new Map<number, HistoryRow>();
 		for (const row of ftsRows) {
-			if (seen.has(row.id)) continue;
-			seen.add(row.id);
-			merged.push(this.#toEntry(row));
+			rowsById.set(row.id, row);
 		}
 		for (const row of subRows) {
-			if (merged.length >= safeLimit) break;
-			if (seen.has(row.id)) continue;
-			seen.add(row.id);
-			merged.push(this.#toEntry(row));
+			if (!rowsById.has(row.id)) rowsById.set(row.id, row);
 		}
-		return merged;
+
+		return [...rowsById.values()]
+			.sort((a, b) => b.created_at - a.created_at || b.id - a.id)
+			.slice(0, safeLimit)
+			.map(row => this.#toEntry(row));
 	}
 
 	/**
-	 * IDs of the sessions whose stored prompts match `query`, ordered by match
-	 * relevance (most relevant/recent first) and de-duplicated. Prompts with no
-	 * recorded session are skipped. Used to augment session ranking in the
-	 * resume picker with prompts that the 4KB session-list prefix never sees.
+	 * IDs of the sessions whose stored prompts match `query`, ordered by prompt
+	 * recency and de-duplicated. Used to augment session ranking in the resume
+	 * picker with prompts that the 4KB session-list prefix never sees.
 	 */
 	matchingSessionIds(query: string, limit = 500): string[] {
 		const seen = new Set<string>();
diff --git a/packages/coding-agent/test/history-storage-search.test.ts b/packages/coding-agent/test/history-storage-search.test.ts
index ad78fb419..8e9ad3859 100644
--- a/packages/coding-agent/test/history-storage-search.test.ts
+++ b/packages/coding-agent/test/history-storage-search.test.ts
@@ -68,16 +68,16 @@ describe("HistoryStorage.search", () => {
 		expect(results.map(r => r.prompt)).toEqual(["commit and amend the patch"]);
 	});
 
-	it("returns FTS matches before substring-only fallback matches", async () => {
+	it("returns merged FTS and substring fallback matches by recency", async () => {
 		const storage = await freshStorage();
-		// Insert oldest -> newest. Substring-only match is the most recent;
-		// FTS prefix match is older. FTS results must still come first.
+		// Insert oldest -> newest. The newest row is substring-only; it must not
+		// be pushed behind older FTS prefix matches in Ctrl+R results.
 		await seed(storage, ["commit the changes", "precommit hook fix"]);
 
 		const results = storage.search("commit", 10);
 		expect(results.map(r => r.prompt)).toEqual([
-			"commit the changes", // FTS prefix match on token `commit`
 			"precommit hook fix", // substring-only (`commit` is infix of `precommit`)
+			"commit the changes", // FTS prefix match on token `commit`
 		]);
 	});
 
@@ -106,14 +106,13 @@ describe("HistoryStorage.search", () => {
 		expect(storage.search("  ", 10)).toEqual([]);
 	});
 
-	it("respects the limit when merging FTS and substring results", async () => {
+	it("respects the limit after globally sorting merged FTS and substring results", async () => {
 		const storage = await freshStorage();
 		await seed(storage, ["commit one", "commit two", "precommit three", "precommit four"]);
 
 		const results = storage.search("commit", 2);
 		expect(results).toHaveLength(2);
-		// Both FTS matches should fill the limit before substring fallback runs.
-		expect(results.map(r => r.prompt)).toEqual(["commit two", "commit one"]);
+		expect(results.map(r => r.prompt)).toEqual(["precommit four", "precommit three"]);
 	});
 
 	it("matches short tokens via the substring fallback", async () => {
diff --git a/packages/coding-agent/test/session-ranking.test.ts b/packages/coding-agent/test/session-ranking.test.ts
index 109162260..4be0da16e 100644
--- a/packages/coding-agent/test/session-ranking.test.ts
+++ b/packages/coding-agent/test/session-ranking.test.ts
@@ -37,10 +37,10 @@ describe("mergeSessionRanking", () => {
 		expect(ids(mergeSessionRanking(all, fuzzy, ["b"]))).toEqual(["a", "b"]);
 	});
 
-	it("surfaces purely history-matched sessions ordered by history relevance", () => {
+	it("surfaces purely history-matched sessions ordered by prompt-history rank", () => {
 		const all = ["a", "b", "c"].map(makeSession);
 
-		// No fuzzy match at all; c is the most relevant prompt match, then a. b is excluded.
+		// No fuzzy match at all; c is the best prompt-history match, then a. b is excluded.
 		expect(ids(mergeSessionRanking(all, [], ["c", "a"]))).toEqual(["c", "a"]);
 	});