diff --git a/src/completion.rs b/src/completion.rs
index d156ee9..f960ee0 100644
--- a/src/completion.rs
+++ b/src/completion.rs
@@ -73,6 +73,25 @@ pub struct Candidate {
     pub kind: CandidateKind,
 }
 
+/// Re-ranker for a freshly-computed candidate list (ADR-0024
+/// §ranker-layer).
+///
+/// The grammar tree declares *what's valid*; the ranker decides
+/// *what's likely useful first*. Lives outside the trie so
+/// frequency-based ranking, content-aware priors (e.g. `Email`
+/// → text first), and recency hooks can plug in without
+/// touching grammar declarations.
+///
+/// Default is `identity_ranker` — declaration order from the
+/// grammar tree is preserved.
+pub type Ranker = fn(Vec<Candidate>) -> Vec<Candidate>;
+
+/// Identity ranker: returns its input unchanged.
+#[must_use]
+pub const fn identity_ranker(candidates: Vec<Candidate>) -> Vec<Candidate> {
+    candidates
+}
+
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq)]
 pub enum CandidateKind {
     /// One of the parser's expected keywords.
@@ -120,6 +139,20 @@ pub fn candidates_at_cursor(
     input: &str,
     cursor: usize,
     cache: &SchemaCache,
+) -> Option<Completion> {
+    candidates_at_cursor_with(input, cursor, cache, identity_ranker)
+}
+
+/// Variant of [`candidates_at_cursor`] that applies a custom
+/// `Ranker` to the final candidate list (ADR-0024 §ranker-layer).
+/// The default `candidates_at_cursor` calls this with
+/// `identity_ranker`.
+#[must_use]
+pub fn candidates_at_cursor_with(
+    input: &str,
+    cursor: usize,
+    cache: &SchemaCache,
+    ranker: Ranker,
 ) -> Option<Completion> {
     let cursor = cursor.min(input.len());
 
@@ -305,6 +338,11 @@ pub fn candidates_at_cursor(
         return None;
     }
 
+    let candidates = ranker(candidates);
+    if candidates.is_empty() {
+        return None;
+    }
+
     Some(Completion {
         replaced_range: (start, cursor),
         partial_prefix,
@@ -1227,4 +1265,55 @@ mod tests {
         memo.selection_idx = 1;
         assert_eq!(memo.prev_idx(), 0);
     }
+
+    // ---- Ranker hook (ADR-0024 §ranker-layer) ----
+
+    #[test]
+    fn identity_ranker_preserves_input_order() {
+        let input = vec![
+            Candidate {
+                text: "b".to_string(),
+                kind: CandidateKind::Keyword,
+            },
+            Candidate {
+                text: "a".to_string(),
+                kind: CandidateKind::Keyword,
+            },
+            Candidate {
+                text: "c".to_string(),
+                kind: CandidateKind::Identifier,
+            },
+        ];
+        let out = identity_ranker(input.clone());
+        assert_eq!(out, input);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn ranker_can_reorder_candidates() {
+        // Hooks like frequency-based ranking or content-aware
+        // priors plug in through `Ranker` without touching the
+        // grammar. Smoke-test the call site with a sorter.
+        fn alphabetic_ranker(mut c: Vec<Candidate>) -> Vec<Candidate> {
+            c.sort_by(|a, b| a.text.cmp(&b.text));
+            c
+        }
+        // `add ` exposes `column` and `1:n` — alphabetic ranker
+        // flips them.
+        let cache = SchemaCache::default();
+        let comp = candidates_at_cursor_with("add ", 4, &cache, alphabetic_ranker)
+            .expect("some completion");
+        let texts: Vec<String> = comp.candidates.into_iter().map(|c| c.text).collect();
+        assert_eq!(texts, vec!["1:n".to_string(), "column".to_string()]);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn ranker_can_filter_to_empty() {
+        // A ranker that returns an empty list collapses the
+        // completion to `None`.
+        fn empty_ranker(_: Vec<Candidate>) -> Vec<Candidate> {
+            Vec::new()
+        }
+        let cache = SchemaCache::default();
+        assert!(candidates_at_cursor_with("create ", 7, &cache, empty_ranker).is_none());
+    }
 }