diff --git a/python/ebook_search/bm25_corpus.py b/python/ebook_search/bm25_corpus.py
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+++ b/python/ebook_search/bm25_corpus.py
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+"""Persisted BM25 corpus management."""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import json
+import logging
+import shutil
+import tempfile
+from dataclasses import dataclass
+from datetime import UTC, datetime
+from functools import cache
+from pathlib import Path
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
+
+import bm25s
+from sqlalchemy import func, select, union_all
+
+from python.orm.richie import EbookChapter, EbookChunk, EbookSource
+
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from sqlalchemy.orm import Session
+
+    from python.ebook_search.config import EbookSearchConfig
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+MANIFEST_NAME = "manifest.json"
+REQUIRED_INDEX_FILES = frozenset(
+    {
+        "data.csc.index.npy",
+        "indices.csc.index.npy",
+        "indptr.csc.index.npy",
+        "params.index.json",
+        "vocab.index.json",
+        "corpus.jsonl",
+    }
+)
+
+
+@dataclass(frozen=True)
+class BM25Manifest:
+    """Metadata describing a persisted BM25 corpus."""
+
+    created_at: datetime
+    db_updated_at: datetime | None
+    chunk_count: int
+
+
+@dataclass(frozen=True)
+class BM25Corpus:
+    """Loaded persisted BM25 corpus and retriever."""
+
+    retriever: object | None
+    records: tuple[dict[str, object], ...]
+    manifest: BM25Manifest
+
+
+class BM25CorpusUnavailableError(RuntimeError):
+    """Raised when the persisted BM25 corpus cannot be loaded."""
+
+
+def bm25_index_path(config: EbookSearchConfig) -> Path:
+    """Return the configured BM25 index path relative to the current working directory."""
+    path = Path(config.bm25_index_dir).expanduser()
+    if path.is_absolute():
+        return path
+    return Path.cwd() / path
+
+
+def ensure_bm25_corpus(session: Session, config: EbookSearchConfig) -> None:
+    """Create or refresh the persisted BM25 corpus when it is missing or stale."""
+    index_path = bm25_index_path(config)
+    manifest = read_bm25_manifest(index_path)
+    db_updated_at = corpus_last_updated_at(session)
+    if not bm25_index_exists(index_path, manifest):
+        logger.info("ebook_bm25_index_missing path=%s", index_path)
+        refresh_bm25_corpus(session, config, db_updated_at=db_updated_at)
+        return
+    if db_updated_at is not None and manifest is not None and manifest.created_at < db_updated_at:
+        logger.info(
+            "ebook_bm25_index_stale path=%s created_at=%s db_updated_at=%s",
+            index_path,
+            manifest.created_at.isoformat(),
+            db_updated_at.isoformat(),
+        )
+        refresh_bm25_corpus(session, config, db_updated_at=db_updated_at)
+        return
+    logger.info(
+        "ebook_bm25_index_current path=%s chunks=%s created_at=%s",
+        index_path,
+        manifest.chunk_count if manifest else 0,
+        manifest.created_at.isoformat() if manifest else None,
+    )
+
+
+def refresh_bm25_corpus(
+    session: Session,
+    config: EbookSearchConfig,
+    *,
+    db_updated_at: datetime | None = None,
+) -> BM25Manifest:
+    """Rebuild and persist the BM25 corpus from the current database chunks."""
+    index_path = bm25_index_path(config)
+    records = fetch_bm25_corpus_records(session)
+    manifest = BM25Manifest(
+        created_at=datetime.now(tz=UTC),
+        db_updated_at=db_updated_at if db_updated_at is not None else corpus_last_updated_at(session),
+        chunk_count=len(records),
+    )
+    write_bm25_corpus(index_path, records, manifest)
+    logger.info(
+        "ebook_bm25_index_refreshed path=%s chunks=%s created_at=%s note=%s",
+        index_path,
+        manifest.chunk_count,
+        manifest.created_at.isoformat(),
+        "restart_service_to_use_refreshed_bm25_cache",
+    )
+    return manifest
+
+
+@cache
+def load_bm25_corpus(config: EbookSearchConfig) -> BM25Corpus:
+    """Load the BM25 corpus into memory once per process.
+
+    This cache intentionally does not notice later on-disk corpus refreshes. Restart the service after rebuilding the
+    BM25 corpus for searches to use the new index.
+    """
+    index_path = bm25_index_path(config)
+    logger.info(
+        "ebook_bm25_corpus_cache_load path=%s note=%s",
+        index_path,
+        "restart_service_after_bm25_refresh",
+    )
+    manifest = read_bm25_manifest(index_path)
+    if manifest is None or not bm25_index_exists(index_path, manifest):
+        msg = f"BM25 corpus is not available: {index_path}"
+        raise BM25CorpusUnavailableError(msg)
+    if manifest.chunk_count == 0:
+        return BM25Corpus(retriever=None, records=(), manifest=manifest)
+
+    retriever = bm25s.BM25.load(index_path, load_corpus=True, mmap=True)
+    records = tuple(dict(record) for record in retriever.corpus)
+    return BM25Corpus(retriever=retriever, records=records, manifest=manifest)
+
+
+def score_bm25_corpus(query: str, corpus: BM25Corpus, *, limit: int) -> list[tuple[dict[str, object], float]]:
+    """Score a query against a loaded BM25 corpus."""
+    if corpus.retriever is None or not corpus.records:
+        return []
+    k = min(limit, len(corpus.records))
+    documents, scores = corpus.retriever.retrieve(
+        bm25s.tokenize(query, show_progress=False),
+        corpus=list(corpus.records),
+        k=k,
+        show_progress=False,
+    )
+    results: list[tuple[dict[str, object], float]] = []
+    for document, score in zip(documents[0], scores[0], strict=True):
+        score_value = float(score)
+        if score_value <= 0:
+            continue
+        results.append((dict(document), score_value))
+    return results
+
+
+def fetch_bm25_corpus_records(session: Session) -> list[dict[str, object]]:
+    """Fetch BM25 corpus records from the database."""
+    statement = (
+        select(
+            EbookChunk.id.label("chunk_id"),
+            EbookChunk.text.label("text"),
+            EbookSource.title.label("source_title"),
+            EbookSource.author.label("source_author"),
+            EbookChapter.title.label("chapter_title"),
+            EbookChunk.page_label.label("page_label"),
+            func.concat_ws(
+                " ",
+                EbookSource.title,
+                EbookSource.author,
+                EbookChapter.title,
+                EbookChunk.search_text,
+            ).label("bm25_text"),
+        )
+        .select_from(EbookChunk)
+        .join(EbookSource, EbookSource.id == EbookChunk.source_id)
+        .outerjoin(EbookChapter, EbookChapter.id == EbookChunk.chapter_id)
+        .order_by(EbookChunk.id)
+    )
+    return [dict(row) for row in session.execute(statement).mappings()]
+
+
+def corpus_last_updated_at(session: Session) -> datetime | None:
+    """Return the latest source/chapter/chunk update timestamp relevant to BM25 text."""
+    update_times = union_all(
+        select(func.max(EbookSource.updated).label("updated")),
+        select(func.max(EbookChapter.updated).label("updated")),
+        select(func.max(EbookChunk.updated).label("updated")),
+    ).subquery()
+    return session.scalar(select(func.max(update_times.c.updated)))
+
+
+def write_bm25_corpus(index_path: Path, records: list[dict[str, object]], manifest: BM25Manifest) -> None:
+    """Write a BM25 corpus and manifest atomically."""
+    index_path.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+    temp_path = Path(tempfile.mkdtemp(prefix=f"{index_path.name}.", dir=index_path.parent))
+    try:
+        if records:
+            retriever = bm25s.BM25()
+            texts = [str(record["bm25_text"]) for record in records]
+            retriever.index(bm25s.tokenize(texts, show_progress=False), show_progress=False)
+            retriever.save(temp_path, corpus=records, show_progress=False)
+        write_bm25_manifest(temp_path, manifest)
+        if index_path.exists():
+            shutil.rmtree(index_path)
+        temp_path.rename(index_path)
+    except Exception:
+        shutil.rmtree(temp_path, ignore_errors=True)
+        raise
+
+
+def read_bm25_manifest(index_path: Path) -> BM25Manifest | None:
+    """Read the BM25 manifest if it exists and is valid."""
+    manifest_path = index_path / MANIFEST_NAME
+    if not manifest_path.exists():
+        return None
+    body = json.loads(manifest_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
+    return BM25Manifest(
+        created_at=datetime.fromisoformat(str(body["created_at"])),
+        db_updated_at=datetime.fromisoformat(str(body["db_updated_at"])) if body.get("db_updated_at") else None,
+        chunk_count=int(body["chunk_count"]),
+    )
+
+
+def write_bm25_manifest(index_path: Path, manifest: BM25Manifest) -> None:
+    """Write the BM25 manifest to an index directory."""
+    body = {
+        "created_at": manifest.created_at.isoformat(),
+        "db_updated_at": manifest.db_updated_at.isoformat() if manifest.db_updated_at else None,
+        "chunk_count": manifest.chunk_count,
+    }
+    (index_path / MANIFEST_NAME).write_text(json.dumps(body, indent=2, sort_keys=True), encoding="utf-8")
+
+
+def bm25_index_exists(index_path: Path, manifest: BM25Manifest | None) -> bool:
+    """Return whether a usable persisted BM25 index exists."""
+    if manifest is None or not index_path.is_dir():
+        return False
+    if manifest.chunk_count == 0:
+        return True
+    return all((index_path / file_name).exists() for file_name in REQUIRED_INDEX_FILES)