diff --git a/gitnexus/src/core/search/bm25-index.ts b/gitnexus/src/core/search/bm25-index.ts
index ae433ad28..d7294772b 100644
--- a/gitnexus/src/core/search/bm25-index.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/src/core/search/bm25-index.ts
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ export interface BM25SearchResult {
   filePath: string;
   score: number;
   rank: number;
+  nodeIds?: string[];
 }
 
 /**
@@ -23,7 +24,7 @@ async function queryFTSViaExecutor(
   indexName: string,
   query: string,
   limit: number,
-): Promise<Array<{ filePath: string; score: number }>> {
+): Promise<Array<{ filePath: string; score: number; nodeId: string }>> {
   // Escape single quotes and backslashes to prevent Cypher injection
   const escapedQuery = query.replace(/\\/g, '\\\\').replace(/'/g, "''");
   const cypher = `
@@ -40,6 +41,7 @@ async function queryFTSViaExecutor(
       return {
         filePath: node.filePath || '',
         score: typeof score === 'number' ? score : parseFloat(score) || 0,
+        nodeId: node.id || '',
       };
     });
   } catch {
@@ -99,17 +101,13 @@ export const searchFTSFromLbug = async (
     );
   }
 
-  // Merge results by filePath, summing scores for same file
-  const merged = new Map<string, { filePath: string; score: number }>();
+  // Collect all node scores per filePath to track which nodes actually matched
+  const fileNodeScores = new Map<string, Array<{ score: number; nodeId: string }>>();
 
   const addResults = (results: any[]) => {
     for (const r of results) {
-      const existing = merged.get(r.filePath);
-      if (existing) {
-        existing.score += r.score;
-      } else {
-        merged.set(r.filePath, { filePath: r.filePath, score: r.score });
-      }
+      if (!fileNodeScores.has(r.filePath)) fileNodeScores.set(r.filePath, []);
+      fileNodeScores.get(r.filePath)!.push({ score: r.score, nodeId: r.nodeId });
     }
   };
 
@@ -119,6 +117,19 @@ export const searchFTSFromLbug = async (
   addResults(methodResults);
   addResults(interfaceResults);
 
+  // Sum the top-3 highest-scoring nodes per file and collect their nodeIds.
+  // Summing all nodes naively inflates scores for files with many mediocre
+  // matches (e.g. test files) over files with a single highly-relevant symbol.
+  const merged = new Map<string, { filePath: string; score: number; nodeIds: string[] }>();
+  for (const [filePath, entries] of fileNodeScores) {
+    const top3 = entries.sort((a, b) => b.score - a.score).slice(0, 3);
+    merged.set(filePath, {
+      filePath,
+      score: top3.reduce((acc, e) => acc + e.score, 0),
+      nodeIds: top3.map(e => e.nodeId).filter(id => id),
+    });
+  }
+
   // Sort by score descending and add rank
   const sorted = Array.from(merged.values())
     .sort((a, b) => b.score - a.score)
@@ -128,5 +139,6 @@ export const searchFTSFromLbug = async (
     filePath: r.filePath,
     score: r.score,
     rank: index + 1,
+    nodeIds: r.nodeIds,
   }));
 };
diff --git a/gitnexus/src/mcp/local/local-backend.ts b/gitnexus/src/mcp/local/local-backend.ts
index 041bd27eb..23d2c75cd 100644
--- a/gitnexus/src/mcp/local/local-backend.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/src/mcp/local/local-backend.ts
@@ -775,16 +775,30 @@ export class LocalBackend {
     for (const bm25Result of bm25Results) {
       const fullPath = bm25Result.filePath;
       try {
-        const symbols = await executeParameterized(
-          repo.id,
-          `
-          MATCH (n)
-          WHERE n.filePath = $filePath
-          RETURN n.id AS id, n.name AS name, labels(n)[0] AS type, n.filePath AS filePath, n.startLine AS startLine, n.endLine AS endLine
-          LIMIT 3
-        `,
-          { filePath: fullPath },
-        );
+        // Prefer direct nodeId lookup (exact FTS-matched nodes) over filePath fallback.
+        // Without this, LIMIT 3 on filePath returns arbitrary symbols rather than
+        // the nodes that actually scored highest in the BM25 index.
+        const nodeIds = bm25Result.nodeIds?.length ? bm25Result.nodeIds : null;
+        const symbols = nodeIds
+          ? await executeParameterized(
+              repo.id,
+              `
+              MATCH (n)
+              WHERE n.id IN $nodeIds
+              RETURN n.id AS id, n.name AS name, labels(n)[0] AS type, n.filePath AS filePath, n.startLine AS startLine, n.endLine AS endLine
+            `,
+              { nodeIds },
+            )
+          : await executeParameterized(
+              repo.id,
+              `
+              MATCH (n)
+              WHERE n.filePath = $filePath
+              RETURN n.id AS id, n.name AS name, labels(n)[0] AS type, n.filePath AS filePath, n.startLine AS startLine, n.endLine AS endLine
+              LIMIT 3
+            `,
+              { filePath: fullPath },
+            );
 
         if (symbols.length > 0) {
           for (const sym of symbols) {