pg_sift 1.2.0: phrases decided from the index, faster ranked queries, and PostgreSQL 17 support. Install the new files and `REINDEX` your sift indexes to get word positions; no `ALTER EXTENSION` step is needed (the SQL interface is unchanged).

## Highlights

- **Phrase queries from the index.** Word positions are now stored by default (`positions = on`), so phrases and `count(*)` of phrases no longer re-read heap text. On 218k Wikipedia articles: phrase 3.3x and `count(*)` 4.7x faster than pg_search, and the default index is 131 MiB, 1.4x smaller than pg_search's 184 MiB. `positions = off` keeps the small 52 MiB index (3.5x smaller than pg_search) and the heap recheck.
- **Faster ranked search.** New top-k kernels (AVX-512, AVX2, scalar) score only documents that can still reach the top k: ranked `AND`/`OR` use about 27% fewer cycles, `count(*)` of `OR` queries is about 27% faster, results and ties are bit-identical.
- **Better filter planning.** A ranked scan with a selective filter now picks the pushed-down plan when it is cheaper (418 ms to 5 ms in the reported case), including long `= ANY(ids)` lists.
- **Prefix queries never fail.** A prefix with more than `sift.max_expansions` terms (`h*` on a large table) matches everything it should instead of raising an error; `prefix_index` is now a speed/size choice, not a requirement.
- **Fixes.** `sift.score()` through joins, field qualifiers (`name:(a b)`) in groups, wrong answers when several sift indexes share a key, planner crash and assertion failures.

## Compatibility

- **PostgreSQL 17 and 18** are supported; **PostgreSQL 19 is experimental** (CI builds it from git on every push and it passes).
- Indexes created by this version use on-disk format 1.1 and cannot be opened by earlier releases. Format 1.0 indexes keep working, without positions, until `REINDEX`.
- With `positions = off`, the index is about 10% larger than in 1.1.0 (52.5 against 47.9 MiB) in exchange for ranked `AND` 1.6x, `OR` 1.9x and filtered queries 1.8x faster.

## Packages

x86-64 packages for PostgreSQL 18 are attached below (`SHA256SUMS` included); other versions build from source with `make USE_PGXS=1`.

- Debian 13, Ubuntu 24.04 (PGDG `postgresql-18`): `sudo apt install ./postgresql-18-pg-sift_1.2.0-1_amd64.deb`
- RHEL, Rocky, Alma 9 and 10 (PGDG `postgresql18-server`): `sudo dnf install ./pg_sift_18-1.2.0-1.el9.x86_64.rpm`
- Arch Linux: AUR `pg_sift`.

Every change: [CHANGELOG.md](https://github.com/brauliobo/pg_sift/blob/v1.2.0/CHANGELOG.md).