diff --git a/internal/searchindex/service.go b/internal/searchindex/service.go
index 778a340..c0531c7 100644
--- a/internal/searchindex/service.go
+++ b/internal/searchindex/service.go
@@ -181,10 +181,7 @@ func (s *Service) SearchMentions(ctx context.Context, repositoryID uint, request
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
-	if request.Mode == ModeFuzzy {
-		return s.searchFallback(ctx, repositoryID, request, documentTypes)
-	}
-	if s.db.Dialector.Name() == "postgres" {
+	if request.Mode == ModeFTS && s.db.Dialector.Name() == "postgres" {
 		return s.searchPostgres(ctx, repositoryID, request, documentTypes)
 	}
 	return s.searchFallback(ctx, repositoryID, request, documentTypes)
@@ -199,15 +196,6 @@ func (s *Service) searchPostgres(ctx context.Context, repositoryID uint, request
 			Where("to_tsvector('simple', search_text) @@ websearch_to_tsquery('simple', ?)", request.Query).
 			Order("score DESC").
 			Order("object_updated_at DESC")
-	case ModeRegex:
-		if _, err := regexp.Compile(request.Query); err != nil {
-			return nil, invalidMentionRequest("invalid regex")
-		}
-		query = query.
-			Select("search_documents.*, 1.0 AS score").
-			Where("(title_text ~* ? OR body_text ~* ?)", request.Query, request.Query).
-			Order("object_updated_at DESC").
-			Order("document_github_id ASC")
 	default:
 		return nil, invalidMentionRequest("unsupported mode")
 	}
@@ -223,7 +211,10 @@ func (s *Service) searchPostgres(ctx context.Context, repositoryID uint, request
 }
 
 func (s *Service) searchFallback(ctx context.Context, repositoryID uint, request MentionRequest, documentTypes []string) ([]MentionMatch, error) {
-	query := s.baseQuery(ctx, repositoryID, request, documentTypes).Order("object_updated_at DESC")
+	query, err := s.prefilterFallbackQuery(ctx, repositoryID, request, documentTypes)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
 	var docs []database.SearchDocument
 	if err := query.Find(&docs).Error; err != nil {
 		return nil, err
@@ -264,6 +255,41 @@ func (s *Service) searchFallback(ctx context.Context, repositoryID uint, request
 	return buildMentionMatches(scored[start:end], request)
 }
 
+func (s *Service) prefilterFallbackQuery(ctx context.Context, repositoryID uint, request MentionRequest, documentTypes []string) (*gorm.DB, error) {
+	query := s.baseQuery(ctx, repositoryID, request, documentTypes).Order("object_updated_at DESC")
+	switch request.Mode {
+	case ModeFuzzy:
+		return applyFallbackCandidateFilter(query, fuzzyCandidateFragments(request.Query)), nil
+	case ModeRegex:
+		if _, err := regexp.Compile(request.Query); err != nil {
+			return nil, invalidMentionRequest("invalid regex")
+		}
+		return applyFallbackCandidateFilter(query, regexCandidateFragments(request.Query)), nil
+	default:
+		return query, nil
+	}
+}
+
+func applyFallbackCandidateFilter(query *gorm.DB, fragments []string) *gorm.DB {
+	if len(fragments) == 0 {
+		return query
+	}
+	clauses := make([]string, 0, len(fragments))
+	args := make([]any, 0, len(fragments))
+	for _, fragment := range fragments {
+		fragment = strings.TrimSpace(fragment)
+		if fragment == "" {
+			continue
+		}
+		clauses = append(clauses, "normalized_text LIKE ?")
+		args = append(args, "%"+fragment+"%")
+	}
+	if len(clauses) == 0 {
+		return query
+	}
+	return query.Where("("+strings.Join(clauses, " OR ")+")", args...)
+}
+
 func (s *Service) baseQuery(ctx context.Context, repositoryID uint, request MentionRequest, documentTypes []string) *gorm.DB {
 	query := s.db.WithContext(ctx).Model(&database.SearchDocument{}).Where("repository_id = ?", repositoryID)
 	if len(documentTypes) > 0 {
@@ -766,6 +792,88 @@ func normalizeSearchText(text string) string {
 	return strings.TrimSpace(b.String())
 }
 
+func fuzzyCandidateFragments(query string) []string {
+	normalized := normalizeSearchText(query)
+	if normalized == "" {
+		return nil
+	}
+	fragments := make([]string, 0, 8)
+	for _, token := range strings.Fields(normalized) {
+		if len(token) >= 3 {
+			fragments = append(fragments, token)
+		}
+	}
+	collapsed := strings.ReplaceAll(normalized, " ", "")
+	if len(collapsed) >= 3 {
+		fragments = append(fragments, collapsed)
+	}
+	return rankedCandidateFragments(fragments)
+}
+
+func regexCandidateFragments(pattern string) []string {
+	var fragments []string
+	var current strings.Builder
+	flush := func() {
+		if current.Len() >= 3 {
+			fragments = append(fragments, strings.ToLower(current.String()))
+		}
+		current.Reset()
+	}
+	escaped := false
+	for _, r := range pattern {
+		if escaped {
+			if unicode.IsLetter(r) || unicode.IsNumber(r) {
+				current.WriteRune(unicode.ToLower(r))
+			} else {
+				flush()
+			}
+			escaped = false
+			continue
+		}
+		if r == '\\' {
+			flush()
+			escaped = true
+			continue
+		}
+		if unicode.IsLetter(r) || unicode.IsNumber(r) {
+			current.WriteRune(unicode.ToLower(r))
+			continue
+		}
+		flush()
+	}
+	flush()
+	return rankedCandidateFragments(fragments)
+}
+
+func rankedCandidateFragments(fragments []string) []string {
+	if len(fragments) == 0 {
+		return nil
+	}
+	seen := make(map[string]struct{}, len(fragments))
+	unique := make([]string, 0, len(fragments))
+	for _, fragment := range fragments {
+		fragment = strings.TrimSpace(fragment)
+		if fragment == "" {
+			continue
+		}
+		if _, ok := seen[fragment]; ok {
+			continue
+		}
+		seen[fragment] = struct{}{}
+		unique = append(unique, fragment)
+	}
+	sort.SliceStable(unique, func(i, j int) bool {
+		if len(unique[i]) == len(unique[j]) {
+			return unique[i] < unique[j]
+		}
+		return len(unique[i]) > len(unique[j])
+	})
+	if len(unique) > 6 {
+		unique = unique[:6]
+	}
+	return unique
+}
+
 func trigramSimilarity(a, b string) float64 {
 	if a == "" || b == "" {
 		return 0