diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5b102d99
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+repos:
+  - repo: https://github.com/astral-sh/ruff-pre-commit
+    rev: v0.11.0
+    hooks:
+      - id: ruff
+        args: [--fix]
+      - id: ruff-format
+
+  - repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/mirrors-mypy
+    rev: v1.15.0
+    hooks:
+      - id: mypy
+        additional_dependencies: [types-pyyaml]
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 5f39c75b..f6463c64 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -19,25 +19,22 @@ classifiers = [
 dependencies = [
     "pydantic>=2.13.4,<3",
     "click>=8.4.0,<9",
-    "click>=8.1,<9",
     "pyyaml>=6,<7",
     "mcp>=1.0,<2",
 ]
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
+embeddings = [
+    "sentence-transformers>=3,<4",
+    "numpy>=1.26,<2",
+]
 dev = [
     "pytest>=9.0.3,<10",
     "pytest-cov>=5,<6",
     "mypy>=2.1.0",
     "ruff>=0.15.13",
-    "mypy>=1.10",
     "types-pyyaml",
 ]
-embeddings = [
-    "sentence-transformers>=2.7,<4",
-    "numpy>=1.26,<3",
-    "sqlite-vec>=0.1,<1",
-]
 embeddings-fast = [
     "fastembed>=0.3,<1",
     "onnxruntime>=1.18,<2",
diff --git a/src/vouch/bundle.py b/src/vouch/bundle.py
index 7a1959a0..1faefd95 100644
--- a/src/vouch/bundle.py
+++ b/src/vouch/bundle.py
@@ -209,8 +209,6 @@ class ImportCheckResult:
 
 
 def _validate_content(path: str, data: bytes, issues: list[str]) -> None:
-    if not any(path.endswith(ext) for ext in (".yaml", ".yml", ".md")):
-        return
     subdir = path.split("/")[0]
     # Source artifacts have two file kinds:
     #   sources/<sha>/meta.yaml  -- the Source pydantic model (validate)
@@ -222,6 +220,8 @@ def _validate_content(path: str, data: bytes, issues: list[str]) -> None:
     validator = VALIDATORS.get(subdir)
     if validator is None:
         return
+    if not any(path.lower().endswith(ext) for ext in (".yaml", ".yml", ".md")):
+        return
     try:
         validator(data)
     except Exception as e:
diff --git a/src/vouch/capabilities.py b/src/vouch/capabilities.py
index c54df48f..4d4fc087 100644
--- a/src/vouch/capabilities.py
+++ b/src/vouch/capabilities.py
@@ -57,10 +57,18 @@
 
 
 def capabilities() -> Capabilities:
+    retrieval = ["fts5", "substring"]
+    try:
+        from .embeddings import get_embedder
+        get_embedder()
+        retrieval.append("embedding")
+        retrieval.append("hybrid")
+    except Exception:
+        pass
     return Capabilities(
         version=__version__,
         methods=METHODS,
-        retrieval=["fts5", "substring"],
+        retrieval=retrieval,
         review_gated=True,
         transports=["mcp", "jsonl"],
     )
diff --git a/src/vouch/cli.py b/src/vouch/cli.py
index c00877d3..86e09b91 100644
--- a/src/vouch/cli.py
+++ b/src/vouch/cli.py
@@ -465,20 +465,36 @@ def crystallize(session_id: str, no_page: bool) -> None:
 @cli.command()
 @click.argument("query")
 @click.option("--limit", default=10, show_default=True, type=int)
-def search(query: str, limit: int) -> None:
+@click.option("--embedding", "use_embedding", is_flag=True,
+              help="Use embedding-based semantic search")
+def search(query: str, limit: int, use_embedding: bool) -> None:
     """Search claims, pages, and entities (embedding → fts5 → substring)."""
     from . import index_db
     store = _load_store()
-    try:
-        hits = index_db.search(store.kb_dir, query, limit=limit)
-        if not hits:
+
+    if use_embedding:
+        try:
+            from .embeddings import get_embedder
+            embedder = get_embedder()
+        except Exception:
+            click.echo("Error: sentence-transformers not installed. "
+                       "pip install vouch[embeddings]", err=True)
+            raise SystemExit(1) from None
+        vec = embedder.encode(query).tolist()
+        hits = index_db.search_embedding(store.kb_dir, query_vec=vec, limit=limit)
+        backend = "embedding"
+    else:
+        try:
+            hits = index_db.search(store.kb_dir, query, limit=limit)
+            if not hits:
+                hits = store.search_substring(query, limit=limit)
+                backend = "substring"
+            else:
+                backend = "fts5"
+        except Exception:
             hits = store.search_substring(query, limit=limit)
             backend = "substring"
-        else:
-            backend = "fts5"
-    except Exception:
-        hits = store.search_substring(query, limit=limit)
-        backend = "substring"
+
     for kind, hid, snippet, score in hits:
         click.echo(f"[{kind}] {hid}  score={score:.3f}  ({backend})")
         click.echo(f"    {snippet[:200]}")
diff --git a/src/vouch/health.py b/src/vouch/health.py
index 0bc684cb..d83b99b9 100644
--- a/src/vouch/health.py
+++ b/src/vouch/health.py
@@ -164,9 +164,35 @@ def rebuild_index(store: KBStore) -> dict:
                 conn, id=e.id, name=e.name, description=e.description,
                 type=e.type.value, aliases=e.aliases,
             )
+    _rebuild_embeddings(store)
     return index_db.stats(store.kb_dir)
 
 
+def _rebuild_embeddings(store: KBStore) -> None:
+    try:
+        from .embeddings import get_embedder
+        embedder = get_embedder()
+    except Exception:
+        return
+    with index_db.open_db(store.kb_dir) as conn:
+        texts: list[tuple[str, str, str]] = []
+        for c in store.list_claims():
+            texts.append(("claim", c.id, c.text))
+        for p in store.list_pages():
+            texts.append(("page", p.id, f"{p.title} {p.body}"))
+        for e in store.list_entities():
+            texts.append(("entity", e.id, f"{e.name} {e.description or ''}"))
+        if not texts:
+            return
+        batch_size = 64
+        for i in range(0, len(texts), batch_size):
+            batch = texts[i:i + batch_size]
+            vecs = embedder.encode_batch([t[2] for t in batch])
+            for (kind, eid, _), row in zip(batch, vecs, strict=True):
+                index_db.index_embedding(conn, kind=kind, id=eid,
+                                         vec=row.tolist())
+
+
 # --- helpers used by `vouch discover` (CLI) -------------------------------
 
 def hash_path(p: Path) -> str:
diff --git a/src/vouch/index_db.py b/src/vouch/index_db.py
index 71c7734a..bb350c6a 100644
--- a/src/vouch/index_db.py
+++ b/src/vouch/index_db.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import datetime as _dt
+import json
 import sqlite3
 from collections.abc import Iterable
 from contextlib import contextmanager, suppress
@@ -33,6 +34,14 @@
     id UNINDEXED, name, description, type UNINDEXED, aliases
 );
 
+CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS embeddings (
+    kind TEXT NOT NULL,
+    id TEXT NOT NULL,
+    vec BLOB NOT NULL,
+    model TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT 'all-MiniLM-L6-v2',
+    PRIMARY KEY (kind, id)
+);
+
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS index_meta (
     key TEXT PRIMARY KEY, value TEXT NOT NULL
 );
@@ -108,6 +117,52 @@ def reset(kb_dir: Path) -> None:
         )
 
 
+def index_embedding(conn: sqlite3.Connection, *, kind: str, id: str,
+                    vec: list[float]) -> None:
+    conn.execute(
+        "INSERT OR REPLACE INTO embeddings (kind, id, vec) VALUES (?, ?, ?)",
+        (kind, id, json.dumps(vec)),
+    )
+
+
+def search_embeddings(kb_dir: Path, query_vec: list[float], *,
+                      limit: int = 10
+                      ) -> list[tuple[str, str, str, float]]:
+    """Return (kind, id, snippet, cosine_score) via brute-force NumPy scan."""
+    import numpy as np  # type: ignore[import-not-found]
+    out: list[tuple[str, str, str, float]] = []
+    if not query_vec:
+        return out
+    q = np.array(query_vec, dtype=np.float32)
+    q_norm = np.linalg.norm(q)
+    if q_norm == 0.0:
+        return out
+    q = q / q_norm
+    with open_db(kb_dir) as conn:
+        rows = conn.execute(
+            "SELECT kind, id, vec FROM embeddings"
+        ).fetchall()
+    for kind, eid, vec_json in rows:
+        v = np.array(json.loads(vec_json), dtype=np.float32)
+        if v.ndim != 1 or v.shape[0] != q.shape[0]:
+            continue
+        score = float(np.dot(q, v))
+        snippet = _snippet_for(kb_dir, kind, eid)
+        out.append((kind, eid, snippet, score))
+    out.sort(key=lambda x: x[3], reverse=True)
+    return out[:limit]
+
+
+def _snippet_for(kb_dir: Path, kind: str, eid: str) -> str:
+    path = kb_dir / kind / f"{eid}.yaml"
+    if not path.exists():
+        path = kb_dir / kind / f"{eid}.md"
+    if not path.exists():
+        return eid
+    text = path.read_text()
+    return text[:200].replace("\n", " ")
+
+
 def index_claim(conn: sqlite3.Connection, *, id: str, text: str,
                 type: str, status: str, tags: Iterable[str]) -> None:
     conn.execute("DELETE FROM claims_fts WHERE id = ?", (id,))
diff --git a/src/vouch/jsonl_server.py b/src/vouch/jsonl_server.py
index f6f6a293..aaf7e472 100644
--- a/src/vouch/jsonl_server.py
+++ b/src/vouch/jsonl_server.py
@@ -81,9 +81,6 @@ def _h_search(p: dict) -> list[dict]:
     hits: list[tuple[str, str, str, float]] = []
     used = backend_arg
 
-    # Reject unknown backends with a clear error rather than silently
-    # returning []. Falling through hides client typos and diverges from
-    # the MCP transport, which raises ValueError on the same input.
     valid_backends = {"auto", "embedding", "fts5", "substring", "hybrid"}
     if backend_arg not in valid_backends:
         raise ValueError(
@@ -128,6 +125,7 @@ def _h_search(p: dict) -> list[dict]:
     ]
 
 
+
 def _h_context(p: dict) -> dict:
     return build_context_pack(
         _store(),