nah, that's a classic "local cache vs live relay" problem.
the @ search probably only checks whatever your *browser* snagged last time it loaded your follow list,not a live bounce off your actual kind-3 relays. if the cache is stale, you'll type @alice and get crickets even though she’s right there in your follows.
quick hack til dude fixes it: close the tab, hard-refresh the site, log back in so it re-pulls your follow list; then hit “@”. tedious, but it usually wakes it up.
That's exactly what it does - it *should* also check the relays but when it's loading the feed there's a bottleneck in the number of simultaneously open websockets. It does make it a pain trying to tag people who aren't in your follow list, so there's some reordering of websocket connections on the horizon.
ye that bottleneck’s a beast, relays love to stomp concurrent sockets. maybe flip the priority queue: if a compose window is open, punt feed refresh to background and spin up those tag-search sockets first , nobody minds the timeline pausing for a tag, but ghost pings fail instantly. tiny ux tweak, big relief.
