diff --git a/application/defs/candidate_cre_defs.py b/application/defs/candidate_cre_defs.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0c8218858
--- /dev/null
+++ b/application/defs/candidate_cre_defs.py
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+import re
+from dataclasses import dataclass
+
+
+@dataclass
+class CandidateCRE:
+    """Represents a single CRE candidate match for a CheatsheetRecord."""
+
+    cre_id: str
+    name: str
+    description: str
+    score: float
+
+    def __post_init__(self):
+        for field_name, value in [("cre_id", self.cre_id), ("name", self.name)]:
+            if not isinstance(value, str) or not value.strip():
+                raise ValueError(
+                    f"CandidateCRE: field '{field_name}' must be a non-empty string"
+                )
+
+        # description is optional in CRE DB model, empty string allowed.
+        if not isinstance(self.description, str):
+            raise ValueError("CandidateCRE: field 'description' must be a string")
+
+        if not re.match(r"\d{3}-\d{3}", self.cre_id):
+            raise ValueError(
+                f"CandidateCRE: field 'cre_id' must match pattern 'NNN-NNN', got {self.cre_id!r}"
+            )
+
+        if not isinstance(self.score, float):
+            raise ValueError("CandidateCRE: field 'score' must be a float")
+
+        if not (0.0 <= self.score <= 1.0):
+            raise ValueError(
+                f"CandidateCRE: field 'score' must be between 0.0 and 1.0, got {self.score}"
+            )
+
+        self.cre_id = self.cre_id.strip()
+        self.name = self.name.strip()
+        self.description = self.description.strip()
diff --git a/application/utils/external_project_parsers/parsers/cheatsheet_cre_retriever.py b/application/utils/external_project_parsers/parsers/cheatsheet_cre_retriever.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..cf6388f6d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/application/utils/external_project_parsers/parsers/cheatsheet_cre_retriever.py
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+import numpy as np
+
+from scipy import sparse
+from sklearn.metrics.pairwise import cosine_similarity
+from typing import List
+
+from application.database import db
+from application.defs.candidate_cre_defs import CandidateCRE
+from application.defs.cheatsheet_defs import CheatsheetRecord
+from application.defs import cre_defs
+from application.prompt_client import prompt_client
+
+
+def retrieve_candidate_cres(
+    record: CheatsheetRecord,
+    cache: db.Node_collection,
+    ph: prompt_client.PromptHandler,
+    top_k: int = 20,
+) -> List[CandidateCRE]:
+    """Retrieve top-k CRE candidates for a CheatsheetRecord using embedding similarity.
+
+    Args:
+        record: the cheatsheet record to find CRE candidates for.
+        cache: database instance for retrieving CRE embeddings.
+        ph: PromptHandler instance for generating text embeddings.
+        top_k: number of top candidates to return, defaults to 20.
+
+    Returns:
+        List of CandidateCRE objects sorted descending by similarity score.
+    """
+    # build query text from record summary and headings
+    query_text = record.summary + " " + " ".join(record.headings)
+
+    # embed query text via PromptHandler
+    query_vector = ph.get_text_embeddings(query_text)
+
+    # fetch all pre-stored CRE vectors from DB
+    db_cre_embeddings = cache.get_embeddings_by_doc_type(cre_defs.Credoctypes.CRE.value)
+
+    # build ordered lists of internal ids and their vectors
+    internal_ids = list(db_cre_embeddings.keys())
+    cre_matrix = sparse.csr_matrix(
+        np.array(list(db_cre_embeddings.values())).astype(np.float64)
+    )
+
+    # compute cosine similarity between query and all CRE vectors
+    query_array = sparse.csr_matrix(
+        np.array(query_vector).reshape(1, -1).astype(np.float64)
+    )
+    similarities = cosine_similarity(query_array, cre_matrix)[0]
+
+    # get top-k indices sorted descending by score
+    top_k_indices = np.argsort(similarities)[::-1][:top_k]
+
+    # fetch full CRE objects and build CandidateCRE list
+    candidates = []
+    for idx in top_k_indices:
+        internal_id = internal_ids[idx]
+        cre = cache.get_cre_by_db_id(internal_id)
+        candidates.append(
+            CandidateCRE(
+                cre_id=cre.id,
+                name=cre.name,
+                description=cre.description or "",
+                score=float(similarities[idx]),
+            )
+        )
+
+    return candidates