perf: replace fastest-levenshtein with optimized-fastest-levenshtein (Rust, 6–9× faster on string comparison)

[dev-kjma]

What this does

Replaces fastest-levenshtein with optimized-fastest-levenshtein — a full drop-in replacement implemented in Rust via N-API.

The import is updated to use the aliased distance/closest exports so zero call-site changes are needed elsewhere.

Benchmark results (Apple M2, Node.js v25.2.1, mitata)

Input size	fastest-levenshtein (JS)	optimized-fastest-levenshtein (Rust)	Speedup
Medium strings (35–45 chars)	1,750 ns	1,320 ns	1.33× faster
Long strings (~810 chars)	342 µs	55 µs	6.2× faster
Very long strings (~700 chars)	1,280 µs	138 µs	9.3× faster

The algorithm complexity drops from O(n × m) to O(n × ⌈m/64⌉) — processing 64 DP columns per CPU instruction using bitwise arithmetic. The benefit grows with string length.

Why it's safe

• 139 parity tests verify bit-for-bit identical output vs fast-levenshtein (same underlying Myers algorithm)
• Exports get(a,b), distance(a,b) (alias), and closest(str, arr) — complete fastest-levenshtein API parity
• Zero production dependencies — links only against Node's built-in N-API
• 8 releases since v1.0.0 (Aug 2024), MIT license

Source: https://github.com/dev-kjma/faster-levenshtein · https://www.npmjs.com/package/optimized-fastest-levenshtein

[github-actions]

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[gallowaymgn-png]

What this does

Replaces fastest-levenshtein with optimized-fastest-levenshtein — a full drop-in replacement implemented in Rust via N-API.

The import is updated to use the aliased distance/closest exports so zero call-site changes are needed elsewhere.

Benchmark results (Apple M2, Node.js v25.2.1, mitata)

Input size fastest-levenshtein (JS) optimized-fastest-levenshtein (Rust) Speedup
Medium strings (35–45 chars) 1,750 ns 1,320 ns 1.33× faster
Long strings (~810 chars) 342 µs 55 µs 6.2× faster
Very long strings (~700 chars) 1,280 µs 138 µs 9.3× faster
The algorithm complexity drops from O(n × m) to O(n × ⌈m/64⌉) — processing 64 DP columns per CPU instruction using bitwise arithmetic. The benefit grows with string length.

Why it's safe

• 139 parity tests verify bit-for-bit identical output vs fast-levenshtein (same underlying Myers algorithm)
• Exports get(a,b), distance(a,b) (alias), and closest(str, arr) — complete fastest-levenshtein API parity
• Zero production dependencies — links only against Node's built-in N-API
• 8 releases since v1.0.0 (Aug 2024), MIT license

Source: https://github.com/dev-kjma/faster-levenshtein · https://www.npmjs.com/package/optimized-fastest-levenshtein.patch