- **GFQL Cypher parser: Earley → LALR(1) (~70× faster parse, same AST)**: `parse_cypher` now uses a single LALR(1) parser (contextual lexer) instead of Earley (dynamic lexer) — ~0.25ms vs ~17ms per query on representative queries. The WHERE grammar was unified to one `where_clause: "WHERE" expr` rule (the former `where_predicates | expr` dual rule was a genuine reduce/reduce ambiguity that forced Earley), and the structured flat-AND predicate form is recovered by a post-parse lift that re-parses the WHERE body with a LALR sub-parser (`start="where_predicate_chain"`). The full WHERE language is preserved — OR/XOR/NOT, parentheses, arithmetic, IN, pattern predicates — nothing is restricted to a subset. The grammar was then **purified to (near-)unambiguous**: WHERE binds to its preceding clause *in the grammar* (bundled into `match_clause`; the WITH..WHERE attachment ambiguity is eliminated, not tie-broken), and name-rooted dot chains derive only via `qualified_name` (the `property_access` redundancy is gone) — dropping the redundant `label_predicate_expr` rule (`(n:Admin)` parses via `grouped_expr`), and excluding a top-level `IN` from list-literal elements (`[x IN xs ...` is comprehension syntax; allowing a bare `IN` list element made it overlap). Net: the LALR conflict profile goes from 8 shift/reduce to **ZERO conflicts** — the grammar is now **provably unambiguous LALR(1)** and builds under Lark's `strict=True` (a build-time proof, machine-checked in CI as zero conflicts, plus a strict-mode build test where the optional `interegular` dep is present). Every input has a single derivation. **Machine-checked invariants** (`test_grammar_invariants.py`): (1) **zero LALR conflicts** (dependency-free, always-on in CI) plus a `strict=True` build test (skipped where the optional `interegular` dep is absent) — a grammar edit that introduces any ambiguity fails CI; (2) semantic ambiguity is ZERO — every corpus query has exactly one Earley derivation and it transforms to a single AST, no exceptions; (3) a rule-coverage gate (`test_every_grammar_rule_is_exercised_by_the_corpus`) forces every new grammar rule through the invariants; (4) differential tests run the production pipeline under both parsers (byte-identical ASTs, identical rejections). **Full-repo differentials** (1,850+ scraped queries, LALR-vs-Earley and old-vs-new production): **zero AST divergences**, and a small set of deliberate language fixes — accept-by-accident shapes with ill-defined semantics, now honest syntax errors and pinned as tests (`DELIBERATE_LANGUAGE_FIXES`): `RETURN DISTINCT` with no items (Earley re-lexed DISTINCT as a variable name), double WHERE (the old positional attachment kept *both* predicates in different AST fields), double post-WITH WHERE, WHERE after UNWIND, WHERE before MATCH in a graph constructor, and the invalid "list of IN-booleans" (`[x IN xs, y]`; use `[(x IN xs), y]` for a genuine bool list). The lift stays an internal optimization: only a flat `AND` chain over present columns lifts to `filter_dict`; parens / OR / XOR / NOT and any absent-column case stay on `where_rows` (a correctness boundary, since `where_rows` treats an absent property as null while `filter_dict` would raise). Full cypher suite (1,681 tests) passes. Downstream execution (`filter_dict` vs `where_rows` routing) is unchanged. A pre-existing `<>`-over-null 3VL divergence between the two execution paths (surfaced by #1653's metamorphic test) is tracked separately in #1683.
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