diff --git a/src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.test.ts b/src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.test.ts
index 822b79322d81..e68f1c604024 100644
--- a/src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.test.ts
+++ b/src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.test.ts
@@ -289,6 +289,24 @@ describe("SearchableSelectList", () => {
     expect(output).toContain("*gpt*");
   });
 
+  it("discards compiled regexes from previous searches", () => {
+    const queryLength = 300;
+    const list = new SearchableSelectList(
+      [{ value: "match", label: "a".repeat(queryLength) }],
+      5,
+      mockTheme,
+    );
+
+    for (let index = 0; index < queryLength; index += 1) {
+      list.handleInput("a");
+      list.render(queryLength + 10);
+    }
+
+    const regexCache = (list as unknown as { regexCache: Map<string, RegExp> }).regexCache;
+    expect(regexCache.size).toBe(1);
+    expect(list.render(queryLength + 10).join("\n")).toContain(`*${"a".repeat(queryLength)}*`);
+  });
+
   it("shows no match message when filter yields no results", () => {
     const list = new SearchableSelectList(testItems, 5, mockTheme);
 
diff --git a/src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.ts b/src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.ts
index f1e14685b77a..752081fd8366 100644
--- a/src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.ts
+++ b/src/tui/components/searchable-select-list.ts
@@ -365,6 +365,8 @@ export class SearchableSelectList implements Component {
     const newValue = this.searchInput.getValue();
 
     if (prevValue !== newValue) {
+      // Only current-query patterns are reusable; retaining older edits grows without bound.
+      this.regexCache.clear();
       this.updateFilter();
     }
   }