diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 6a2a6d375..c5f8dd25d 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -301,6 +301,80 @@ jobs:
           RUN_STUDIO_E2E: '1'
 
 
+  # better-sqlite3 publishes 10 Node-22 (ABI 127) prebuild targets for the pinned 12.9.0.
+  # Eight of them — darwin-arm64/x64, linux-x64/arm64/arm, linuxmusl-x64/arm64/arm — were
+  # verified on the build machine by loading the PUBLISHED release asset and driving it
+  # through an FTS5 MATCH. The two win32 targets could not be: there was no Windows kernel
+  # there, and the previous probe confirmed only the binaries' PE shape rather than
+  # synthesise a pass. This job closes that gap on real Windows kernels, at the same
+  # standard — a `require()` that returns an object only proves a file resolved, so each
+  # run builds an FTS5 index and queries it.
+  #
+  # windows-11-arm is a GitHub-hosted arm64 runner, free and generally available for PUBLIC
+  # repositories since 2025-08-07 (it is not a self-hosted label and needs no setup). This
+  # repository is public. On a private fork the label does not resolve and this leg will not
+  # start — that is a visibility fact about the fork, not a workflow bug.
+  #
+  # Deliberately no `npm ci`, and no npm at all: the probe unpacks the JS wrapper straight
+  # from the registry tarball the lockfile resolves to, checked against the lockfile's
+  # integrity hash. No install lifecycle runs, so prebuild-install and node-gyp cannot
+  # supply a locally built binding and let the probe verify itself. That also keeps this job
+  # independent of the better-sqlite3 v13 problem parked in PR #337 (v13 dropped its
+  # `install` script, so npm supplies an implicit `node-gyp rebuild` and `npm ci` hard-fails
+  # on a Windows box with no Visual Studio). The pin stays 12.9.0 and the probe reads it
+  # from package-lock.json.
+  #
+  # No `continue-on-error` anywhere in this job. The whole point of the Q6 phase is deleting
+  # greens that report success regardless of what their steps did.
+  win32-prebuild:
+    name: better-sqlite3 prebuild loads (${{ matrix.target }})
+    runs-on: ${{ matrix.runner }}
+    timeout-minutes: 15
+    strategy:
+      fail-fast: false
+      matrix:
+        include:
+          - runner: windows-latest
+            target: win32-x64
+            wrong_arch: win32-arm64
+          - runner: windows-11-arm
+            target: win32-arm64
+            wrong_arch: win32-x64
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v7
+
+      - uses: actions/setup-node@v7
+        with:
+          node-version: 22
+
+      - name: Published ${{ matrix.target }} prebuild loads + serves an FTS5 MATCH
+        shell: bash
+        run: node scripts/verify-better-sqlite3-prebuild.mjs --target ${{ matrix.target }}
+
+      # Five controls, each of which MUST be rejected. Without them a green above is
+      # unfalsifiable: a probe that cannot fail says nothing about the binding it loaded.
+      # `--expect-fail` inverts only the LOAD — the asset must still download and extract,
+      # so a control cannot "pass" by 404ing on a mistyped target.
+      - name: Negative control — wrong arch (${{ matrix.wrong_arch }})
+        shell: bash
+        run: node scripts/verify-better-sqlite3-prebuild.mjs --target ${{ matrix.wrong_arch }} --expect-fail
+
+      - name: Negative control — wrong platform (linux-x64 ELF)
+        shell: bash
+        run: node scripts/verify-better-sqlite3-prebuild.mjs --target linux-x64 --expect-fail
+
+      - name: Negative control — wrong libc (linuxmusl-x64)
+        shell: bash
+        run: node scripts/verify-better-sqlite3-prebuild.mjs --target linuxmusl-x64 --expect-fail
+
+      - name: Negative control — wrong ABI (Node 18, v115)
+        shell: bash
+        run: node scripts/verify-better-sqlite3-prebuild.mjs --target ${{ matrix.target }} --abi 115 --expect-fail
+
+      - name: Negative control — binding absent
+        shell: bash
+        run: node scripts/verify-better-sqlite3-prebuild.mjs --missing-binding --expect-fail
+
   # Clean-machine smoke on every desktop OS: a fresh global install, a real
   # `init`, then tool calls that LOAD and EXERCISE every dependency subsystem —
   # native SQLite, browser engine, ML reranker, semantic embeddings, and (when a
diff --git a/scripts/verify-better-sqlite3-prebuild.mjs b/scripts/verify-better-sqlite3-prebuild.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fd8f372a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/verify-better-sqlite3-prebuild.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,228 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+/**
+ * Verify that a PUBLISHED better-sqlite3 prebuild asset genuinely loads, and that the
+ * native surface it exposes actually works.
+ *
+ * Loading is not the bar. A `require()` that returns an object only proves a file
+ * resolved; it does not prove the extension's SQLite build carries FTS5, which is the
+ * one compile-time option wigolo's cache cannot run without. So every positive run
+ * builds an FTS5 index and drives a `MATCH` through it, and asserts a non-matching
+ * query returns nothing — a MATCH that returns every row is not a MATCH.
+ *
+ * The asset is downloaded from the release, not taken from `node_modules`: the point is
+ * to verify the artifact users receive, on the platform they receive it for. The JS
+ * wrapper is unpacked straight from the registry tarball, so no install lifecycle runs and
+ * nothing can quietly compile a fresh binding and verify itself.
+ *
+ * Usage:
+ *   node scripts/verify-better-sqlite3-prebuild.mjs                       # host target
+ *   node scripts/verify-better-sqlite3-prebuild.mjs --target win32-arm64
+ *   node scripts/verify-better-sqlite3-prebuild.mjs --target linux-x64 --expect-fail
+ *   node scripts/verify-better-sqlite3-prebuild.mjs --abi 115 --expect-fail
+ *   node scripts/verify-better-sqlite3-prebuild.mjs --missing-binding --expect-fail
+ *
+ * `--expect-fail` inverts the exit code, but only over the LOAD. Download and extract
+ * must still succeed: a control that "passes" because the asset 404'd would prove the
+ * URL was wrong, not that the binding was rejected.
+ */
+
+import { createRequire } from 'node:module';
+import { execFileSync } from 'node:child_process';
+import { createHash } from 'node:crypto';
+import fs from 'node:fs';
+import os from 'node:os';
+import path from 'node:path';
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
+
+const REPO_ROOT = path.resolve(path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)), '..');
+
+function parseArgs(argv) {
+  const opts = { target: null, abi: null, expectFail: false, missingBinding: false };
+  for (let i = 0; i < argv.length; i++) {
+    const arg = argv[i];
+    if (arg === '--expect-fail') opts.expectFail = true;
+    else if (arg === '--missing-binding') opts.missingBinding = true;
+    else if (arg === '--target') opts.target = argv[++i];
+    else if (arg === '--abi') opts.abi = argv[++i];
+    else if (arg.startsWith('--target=')) opts.target = arg.slice('--target='.length);
+    else if (arg.startsWith('--abi=')) opts.abi = arg.slice('--abi='.length);
+    else throw new Error(`unknown argument: ${arg}`);
+  }
+  return opts;
+}
+
+/** The pin is the lockfile's, never a literal here — a version bump must not silently
+ *  leave this probe verifying the previous release. */
+function lockedPackage() {
+  const lockPath = path.join(REPO_ROOT, 'package-lock.json');
+  const lock = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(lockPath, 'utf8'));
+  const entry = lock.packages?.['node_modules/better-sqlite3'];
+  if (!entry?.version || !entry.resolved || !entry.integrity) {
+    throw new Error(`no complete "node_modules/better-sqlite3" entry in ${lockPath}`);
+  }
+  return { version: entry.version, resolved: entry.resolved, integrity: entry.integrity };
+}
+
+function assetName(version, abi, target) {
+  return `better-sqlite3-v${version}-node-v${abi}-${target}.tar.gz`;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Extract `<dir>/<name>` in place.
+ *
+ * The tarball is named RELATIVELY with `cwd`, never as an absolute path with `-C`. Under
+ * `shell: bash` on a Windows runner, PATH resolves `tar` to GNU tar from Git for Windows,
+ * which reads `C:\...` as a `host:path` remote spec and fails with
+ * "Cannot connect to C: resolve failed". A relative name has no colon, so GNU tar and the
+ * bsdtar shipped in System32 both behave.
+ */
+function extract(dir, name) {
+  execFileSync('tar', ['-xzf', name], { stdio: 'inherit', cwd: dir });
+}
+
+async function download(url, dest) {
+  const res = await fetch(url, { redirect: 'follow' });
+  if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`GET ${url} -> HTTP ${res.status} ${res.statusText}`);
+  const bytes = Buffer.from(await res.arrayBuffer());
+  fs.writeFileSync(dest, bytes);
+  return bytes.length;
+}
+
+/**
+ * The JS wrapper, unpacked straight from the registry tarball the lockfile resolves to and
+ * checked against the lockfile's integrity hash.
+ *
+ * `npm install` is deliberately not used. It would need `npm.cmd` on Windows, which Node
+ * refuses to spawn without `shell: true` (the CVE-2024-27980 hardening) — the same trap
+ * that made `tests/e2e/init-command.e2e.test.ts` spawn a child that never started. Beyond
+ * dodging that, unpacking directly means no install lifecycle exists at all, so neither
+ * prebuild-install nor node-gyp can supply a binding and let this probe verify itself. The
+ * wrapper's only non-relative dependency is `bindings`, which `lib/database.js` requires
+ * lazily and only when `nativeBinding` is null — this probe always passes it a path.
+ */
+async function fetchWrapper(pkg, dir) {
+  const wrapperDir = path.join(dir, 'package');
+  if (fs.existsSync(path.join(wrapperDir, 'lib', 'database.js'))) return wrapperDir;
+  fs.rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  fs.mkdirSync(dir, { recursive: true });
+  const tarball = path.join(dir, 'wrapper.tgz');
+  await download(pkg.resolved, tarball);
+
+  const [algo, expected] = pkg.integrity.split('-');
+  const actual = createHash(algo).update(fs.readFileSync(tarball)).digest('base64');
+  if (actual !== expected) {
+    throw new Error(`${pkg.resolved} ${algo} is ${algo}-${actual}, lockfile says ${pkg.integrity}`);
+  }
+
+  extract(dir, 'wrapper.tgz');
+  if (!fs.existsSync(path.join(wrapperDir, 'lib', 'database.js'))) {
+    throw new Error(`registry tarball extracted without package/lib/database.js in ${dir}`);
+  }
+  return wrapperDir;
+}
+
+function driveFts5(Database, bindingPath) {
+  const db = new Database(':memory:', { nativeBinding: bindingPath });
+  try {
+    const sqliteVersion = db.prepare('SELECT sqlite_version() AS v').get().v;
+    db.exec('CREATE VIRTUAL TABLE docs USING fts5(title, body)');
+    const insert = db.prepare('INSERT INTO docs (title, body) VALUES (?, ?)');
+    insert.run('prebuild-under-test', 'the published asset carries a working fts5 module');
+    insert.run('unrelated-row', 'nothing here should answer the query below');
+    insert.run('second-unrelated-row', 'nor should this one');
+
+    const hits = db
+      .prepare('SELECT title FROM docs WHERE docs MATCH ? ORDER BY rank')
+      .all('fts5');
+    const titles = hits.map((r) => r.title);
+    if (titles.length !== 1 || titles[0] !== 'prebuild-under-test') {
+      throw new Error(`MATCH returned ${JSON.stringify(titles)}, expected ["prebuild-under-test"]`);
+    }
+
+    // A MATCH that answers everything is indistinguishable from a table scan.
+    const misses = db.prepare('SELECT title FROM docs WHERE docs MATCH ?').all('nonexistentterm');
+    if (misses.length !== 0) {
+      throw new Error(`non-matching MATCH returned ${misses.length} rows, expected 0`);
+    }
+    return { sqliteVersion, titles };
+  } finally {
+    db.close();
+  }
+}
+
+async function main() {
+  const opts = parseArgs(process.argv.slice(2));
+  const pkg = lockedPackage();
+  const version = pkg.version;
+  const abi = opts.abi ?? process.versions.modules;
+  const target = opts.target ?? `${process.platform}-${process.arch}`;
+  const hostTarget = `${process.platform}-${process.arch}`;
+
+  const work = path.join(os.tmpdir(), `bs3-prebuild-probe-${abi}-${target}`);
+  fs.rmSync(work, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  fs.mkdirSync(work, { recursive: true });
+
+  const wrapperDir = await fetchWrapper(pkg, path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'bs3-prebuild-wrapper'));
+
+  console.log(`better-sqlite3 version : ${version} (from package-lock.json)`);
+  console.log(`host                   : node ${process.version} / ${hostTarget} / ABI ${process.versions.modules}`);
+  console.log(`target under test      : ${target} / ABI ${abi}`);
+  console.log(`wrapper (no install lifecycle): ${wrapperDir}`);
+
+  let bindingPath;
+  if (opts.missingBinding) {
+    bindingPath = path.join(work, 'build', 'Release', 'better_sqlite3.node');
+    console.log(`binding                : ${bindingPath} (deliberately absent)`);
+    if (fs.existsSync(bindingPath)) throw new Error('the "missing" binding exists — control is void');
+  } else {
+    const name = assetName(version, abi, target);
+    const url = `https://github.com/WiseLibs/better-sqlite3/releases/download/v${version}/${name}`;
+    const tarball = path.join(work, name);
+    const bytes = await download(url, tarball);
+    extract(work, name);
+    bindingPath = path.join(work, 'build', 'Release', 'better_sqlite3.node');
+    if (!fs.existsSync(bindingPath)) {
+      throw new Error(`${name} extracted without build/Release/better_sqlite3.node`);
+    }
+    const sha = createHash('sha256').update(fs.readFileSync(bindingPath)).digest('hex');
+    console.log(`asset                  : ${name} (${bytes} bytes)`);
+    console.log(`asset url              : ${url}`);
+    console.log(`binding                : ${bindingPath}`);
+    console.log(`binding sha256         : ${sha}`);
+  }
+
+  const require = createRequire(import.meta.url);
+  const Database = require(wrapperDir);
+
+  let result = null;
+  let failure = null;
+  try {
+    result = driveFts5(Database, bindingPath);
+  } catch (err) {
+    failure = err;
+  }
+
+  if (opts.expectFail) {
+    if (failure) {
+      console.log(`\nNEGATIVE CONTROL HELD — ${target} / ABI ${abi} was REJECTED on ${hostTarget}`);
+      console.log(`  rejection: ${String(failure.message).split('\n')[0]}`);
+      return;
+    }
+    console.error(
+      `\nNEGATIVE CONTROL FAILED — ${target} / ABI ${abi} LOADED and ran FTS5 on ${hostTarget}.` +
+        ' A control that cannot fail proves nothing about the positive runs beside it.'
+    );
+    process.exitCode = 1;
+    return;
+  }
+
+  if (failure) throw failure;
+  console.log(`sqlite                 : ${result.sqliteVersion}`);
+  console.log(`fts5 MATCH             : ${JSON.stringify(result.titles)}`);
+  console.log(`\nVERIFIED — ${target} prebuild loaded and served an FTS5 MATCH on ${hostTarget}`);
+}
+
+main().catch((err) => {
+  console.error(`\nFAILED — ${err?.stack ?? err}`);
+  process.exitCode = 1;
+});