diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 16a1d0e..3958380 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y libpq-dev postgresql-client-12
 RUN adduser geocode-city-api
 USER geocode-city-api
 
+COPY --from=build /opt/geocode-city-api/migrations /opt/geocode-city-api/migrations
 COPY --from=build /opt/geocode-city-api/bin /opt/geocode-city-api
 
 WORKDIR /opt/geocode-city-api
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f8f814d..b5c438c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -30,6 +30,31 @@ is that for the hyperloglog entries to "fall off" as we reach max memory, I'm us
 heroku redis:maxmemory REDIS-NAME --policy allkeys-lru -a geocode-city
 ```
 
+#### Database migrations (Heroku specific)
+
+I _should_ set up a [`release` phase](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/container-registry-and-runtime#release-phase) to [run migrations automatically](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/release-phase). However, I'd rather not have that overhead for something that
+happens somewhat seldom, so I instead use a [one-off dyno](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/container-registry-and-runtime#one-off-dynos):
+
+```sh
+> heroku run bash -a geocode-city
+Running bash on ⬢ geocode-city... up, run.7528 (Hobby)
+~ $ pwd
+/opt/geocode-city-api
+~ $ ls
+geocode-city-api-exe  migrations
+~ $ ./geocode-city-api-exe --migrate
+Initializing schema
+NOTICE:  relation "schema_migrations" already exists, skipping
+Ok:	202101182025_geonames_raw.sql
+Ok:	202101182130_non_city_tables.sql
+Ok:	202101182140_city_table.sql
+Ok:	202101182150_ft_and_indexes.sql
+Ok:	202101191900_api_keys_table.sql
+Ok:	202101201800_materialize_autocomplete.sql
+Ok:	202101231600_api_quotas.sql
+Execute:	202101301530_full_text_autocomplete.sql
+All migrations ran.
+```
 
 ## Development
 
diff --git a/migrations/202101301530_full_text_autocomplete.sql b/migrations/202101301530_full_text_autocomplete.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1f41dea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/migrations/202101301530_full_text_autocomplete.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+drop materialized view if exists geocode.city_autocomplete;
+
+-- we're using a precalculated to_tsvector column to pay some
+-- storage in return for some performance (the vector doesn't
+-- have to be calculated in every query.)
+-- more about weights and ranks:
+-- https://www.postgresql.org/docs/12/textsearch-controls.html#TEXTSEARCH-RANKING
+-- https://rob.conery.io/2019/10/29/fine-tuning-full-text-search-with-postgresql-12/
+create materialized view if not exists geocode.city_autocomplete
+  as select geocode.city.geonameid, geocode.city.name,
+      location[0] as longitude, location[1] as latitude,
+      population, timezone,
+      geocode.country.iso as country_code,
+      geocode.country.name as country_name,
+      geocode.region.name as region_name,
+      geocode.district.name as district_name,
+      (
+        setweight(to_tsvector('simple', geocode.city.name), 'A') || ' ' ||
+        setweight(to_tsvector(coalesce(geocode.district.name, '')), 'C') || ' ' ||
+        setweight(to_tsvector(coalesce(geocode.region.name, '')), 'C') || ' ' ||
+        setweight(to_tsvector(coalesce(geocode.country.iso, '')), 'B') || ' ' ||
+        setweight(to_tsvector(coalesce(geocode.country.name, '')), 'B') || ' ' ||
+        setweight(to_tsvector(replace(coalesce(alternatenames, ''), ',', ' ')), 'D')
+      ) as autocomplete_doc
+    from geocode.city
+     left join geocode.country using(isocode) 
+     left join geocode.region using(isocode, regcode)
+     left join geocode.district using(isocode, regcode, discode);
+
+-- cf. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/12/textsearch-tables.html
+create index if not exists idx_full_text_autocomplete
+  on geocode.city_autocomplete using gin(autocomplete_doc);
+
+-- cf. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/12/sql-createfunction.html
+create or replace function web_to_tsquery_prefix(text) returns tsquery
+  as 'select to_tsquery(quote_literal($1) || '':*'');'
+  language sql
+  immutable
+  returns null on null input;
diff --git a/src/Database/Queries.hs b/src/Database/Queries.hs
index 82b4dcf..b235eb9 100644
--- a/src/Database/Queries.hs
+++ b/src/Database/Queries.hs
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ cityCount :: Has Database sig m => m Int
 cityCount = do
   counts <- query_ "select count(geonameid) from geocode.city"
   pure $ maybe 0 fromOnly (listToMaybe counts)
+
+
 -- | Given an API Key, find out if it exists and is enabled;
 -- return status and current quota.
 findApiKey :: Has Database sig m => Text -> m (Bool, Maybe Integer)
@@ -41,14 +43,30 @@ findApiKey key = do
   pure $ fromMaybe (False, Just 0) (listToMaybe exists)
 
 
--- | Fast query for name autocomplete: biased towards more populous cities,
--- doesn't order by how close the name is to the input; uses a denormalized
--- materialized view.
+-- | Fast query for name autocomplete: uses a denormalized, materialized view
+-- that precomputes city, region, district, country and alternate names
+-- in a weighted full-text search vector
+-- see:
+-- https://www.postgresql.org/docs/12/textsearch-controls.html#TEXTSEARCH-RANKING
+-- https://www.postgresql.org/docs/12/textsearch-controls.html#TEXTSEARCH-RANKING
+-- https://rob.conery.io/2019/10/29/fine-tuning-full-text-search-with-postgresql-12/
+-- Note that `web_to_tsquery_prefix` is a function we defined, to sanitize
+-- input and interpret it as a simple query where each token is a prefix.
 cityAutoComplete :: Has Database sig m => Text -> Maybe Int -> m [CityQ]
 cityAutoComplete q limit' = do
   let limit = defaultLimit 5 limit'
   query
-    "select * from geocode.city_autocomplete where name %> ? order by name <-> ?, population desc limit ?"
+    [sql|
+      select geonameid, name, longitude, latitude,
+        population, timezone, country_code,
+        country_name, region_name, district_name
+      from geocode.city_autocomplete
+      where 
+        web_to_tsquery_prefix(?) @@ autocomplete_doc
+      order by
+        ts_rank(autocomplete_doc, web_to_tsquery_prefix(?)) desc
+      limit ?
+    |]
     (q, q, limit)
 
 -- | Slightly slower, but more precise, query to find a city that
@@ -108,6 +126,7 @@ defaultLimit def =
 -- NOTES
 {- to run queries manually:
 -- stack ghci
+-- import qualified Database.PostgreSQL.Simple as PG
 λ> let (DatabaseUrl url) = defaultConfig & appDatabaseUrl
 λ> conn <- PG.connectPostgreSQL $ encodeUtf8 url
 λ> runDatabaseWithConnection conn $ Database.Queries.cityCount