diff --git a/packages/client-runtime/src/state/filesystem.test.ts b/packages/client-runtime/src/state/filesystem.test.ts
index 038fc23cb9858..3234454bc7a8c 100644
--- a/packages/client-runtime/src/state/filesystem.test.ts
+++ b/packages/client-runtime/src/state/filesystem.test.ts
@@ -116,6 +116,7 @@ describe("filesystem browse model", () => {
       exactEntry: null,
     });
     expect(filterFilesystemBrowseEntries([entry], "De").visibleEntries).toEqual([entry]);
+    expect(filterFilesystemBrowseEntries([entry], "dévpt").visibleEntries).toEqual([entry]);
     expect(filterFilesystemBrowseEntries([entry], "D\u00e9veloppement").exactEntry).toBe(entry);
     // Linux keeps both spellings as separate folders; the one typed exactly wins.
     const composed = { name: "D\u00e9veloppement", fullPath: "/home/me/D\u00e9veloppement" };
@@ -155,3 +156,42 @@ describe("browse navigation", () => {
     expect(commits).toEqual(["second"]);
   });
 });
+
+describe("browse entry filtering", () => {
+  const entries = ["my-t3code", "t3code", "cotton", "T3Code-old", ".t3", "docs"].map((name) => ({
+    name,
+    fullPath: `~/code/${name}`,
+  }));
+  const names = (query: string) =>
+    filterFilesystemBrowseEntries(entries, query).visibleEntries.map((entry) => entry.name);
+
+  it("keeps every visible entry in order for an empty query", () => {
+    expect(names("")).toEqual(["my-t3code", "t3code", "cotton", "T3Code-old", "docs"]);
+  });
+
+  it("matches substrings and subsequences, best match first", () => {
+    expect(names("code")).toEqual(["t3code", "T3Code-old", "my-t3code"]);
+    expect(names("t3c")).toEqual(["t3code", "T3Code-old", "my-t3code"]);
+    expect(names("tcd")).toEqual(["t3code", "T3Code-old", "my-t3code"]);
+    expect(names("xyz")).toEqual([]);
+  });
+
+  it("ranks a word-start match in a long name above any substring match", () => {
+    const longName = `${"a".repeat(240)}-foo`;
+    const folders = [
+      { name: "xfoo", fullPath: "~/xfoo" },
+      { name: longName, fullPath: "~/long" },
+    ];
+    expect(
+      filterFilesystemBrowseEntries(folders, "foo").visibleEntries.map((entry) => entry.name),
+    ).toEqual([longName, "xfoo"]);
+  });
+
+  it("shows dot folders only when the query starts with a dot", () => {
+    expect(names("t3")).not.toContain(".t3");
+    expect(filterFilesystemBrowseEntries(entries, ".t3")).toEqual({
+      visibleEntries: [entries[4]],
+      exactEntry: entries[4],
+    });
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/client-runtime/src/state/filesystem.ts b/packages/client-runtime/src/state/filesystem.ts
index 4f369d2ffde41..c5b3072f4b199 100644
--- a/packages/client-runtime/src/state/filesystem.ts
+++ b/packages/client-runtime/src/state/filesystem.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import {
   sessionGrantsScope,
   type SessionGrantInput,
 } from "@t3tools/contracts";
+import { scoreQueryMatch } from "@t3tools/shared/searchRanking";
 import { Atom } from "effect/reactivity";
 
 import type {
@@ -79,12 +80,44 @@ export function filterFilesystemBrowseEntries(
   const lowerQuery = query.toLowerCase();
   const lowerNormalizedQuery = normalizedQuery.toLowerCase();
   const showHidden = query.startsWith(".");
-  const visibleEntries = entries.filter(
-    (entry) =>
-      (entry.name.toLowerCase().startsWith(lowerQuery) ||
-        entry.name.normalize("NFC").toLowerCase().startsWith(lowerNormalizedQuery)) &&
-      (showHidden || !entry.name.startsWith(".")),
-  );
+  const candidates = entries.filter((entry) => showHidden || !entry.name.startsWith("."));
+  const visibleEntries =
+    lowerQuery.length === 0
+      ? candidates
+      : candidates
+          .map((entry) => {
+            const options = {
+              // Position penalties stay under 1000 for 255-character names, so tiers never overlap.
+              query: lowerNormalizedQuery,
+              exactBase: 0,
+              prefixBase: 1000,
+              boundaryBase: 2000,
+              includesBase: 3000,
+              fuzzyBase: 4000,
+              boundaryMarkers: [" ", "-", "_", "."],
+            };
+            const rawScore = scoreQueryMatch({
+              ...options,
+              value: entry.name.toLowerCase(),
+              query: lowerQuery,
+            });
+            const normalizedScore = scoreQueryMatch({
+              ...options,
+              value: entry.name.normalize("NFC").toLowerCase(),
+            });
+            const score =
+              rawScore === null
+                ? normalizedScore
+                : normalizedScore === null
+                  ? rawScore
+                  : Math.min(rawScore, normalizedScore);
+            return { entry, score };
+          })
+          .filter((match): match is { entry: FilesystemBrowseEntry; score: number } => {
+            return match.score !== null;
+          })
+          .sort((left, right) => left.score - right.score)
+          .map((match) => match.entry);
   const normalizedMatches = visibleEntries.filter(
     (entry) => entry.name.normalize("NFC") === normalizedQuery,
   );