diff --git a/packages/coding-agent/CHANGELOG.md b/packages/coding-agent/CHANGELOG.md
index 4306590fd..16f11c730 100644
--- a/packages/coding-agent/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/packages/coding-agent/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 ### Added
 
-- Added the `mnemopi.embeddingVariant` setting (`en` | `multilingual`) selecting a stronger SOTA local embedding model — `en` → `BAAI/bge-base-en-v1.5` (768d), `multilingual` → `intfloat/multilingual-e5-large` (1024d). `mnemopi.embeddingModel` still works as an advanced explicit override (it wins over the variant). Changing the active model wipes and rebuilds stored embeddings on the next start ([#2476](https://github.com/can1357/oh-my-pi/issues/2476))
+- Added the `mnemopi.embeddingVariant` setting (`en` | `multilingual`) selecting a stronger SOTA local embedding model — `en` → `BAAI/bge-base-en-v1.5` (768d), `multilingual` → `intfloat/multilingual-e5-large` (1024d). Resolution precedence is `mnemopi.embeddingModel` setting > `MNEMOPI_EMBEDDING_MODEL` env > variant default, so the documented env override is still honored. Changing the active model wipes and rebuilds stored embeddings on the next writable start ([#2476](https://github.com/can1357/oh-my-pi/issues/2476))
 
 ## [15.12.5] - 2026-06-13
 ### Changed
diff --git a/packages/coding-agent/src/mnemopi/backend.ts b/packages/coding-agent/src/mnemopi/backend.ts
index a4ce091c7..291ec9233 100644
--- a/packages/coding-agent/src/mnemopi/backend.ts
+++ b/packages/coding-agent/src/mnemopi/backend.ts
@@ -305,6 +305,7 @@ function createStatsMemory(config: MnemopiBackendConfig, bank: string): Mnemopi
 		authorType: "agent",
 		channelId: bank,
 		...providerOptions,
+		reconcile: false,
 	} as ConstructorParameters<typeof Mnemopi>[0]);
 }
 
diff --git a/packages/coding-agent/src/mnemopi/config.ts b/packages/coding-agent/src/mnemopi/config.ts
index f0def843b..db5de0c08 100644
--- a/packages/coding-agent/src/mnemopi/config.ts
+++ b/packages/coding-agent/src/mnemopi/config.ts
@@ -55,7 +55,10 @@ export function loadMnemopiConfig(settings: Settings, agentDir: string): Mnemopi
 	// other than the multilingual variant falls back to the English default.
 	const variantModel =
 		embeddingVariant === "multilingual" ? "intfloat/multilingual-e5-large" : "BAAI/bge-base-en-v1.5";
-	const embeddingModel = embeddingOverride?.trim() || variantModel;
+	// Precedence: explicit `mnemopi.embeddingModel` setting > `MNEMOPI_EMBEDDING_MODEL`
+	// env (documented model-level override) > variant-derived default. Without the env
+	// term a variant default would silently shadow a user's configured env model.
+	const embeddingModel = embeddingOverride?.trim() || Bun.env.MNEMOPI_EMBEDDING_MODEL?.trim() || variantModel;
 	return {
 		dbPath,
 		baseBank: scope.baseBank,
diff --git a/packages/coding-agent/test/mnemopi-embedding-variant.test.ts b/packages/coding-agent/test/mnemopi-embedding-variant.test.ts
index 8cbaa17db..669f2931f 100644
--- a/packages/coding-agent/test/mnemopi-embedding-variant.test.ts
+++ b/packages/coding-agent/test/mnemopi-embedding-variant.test.ts
@@ -33,4 +33,29 @@ describe("loadMnemopiConfig embedding variant resolution", () => {
 			"BAAI/bge-base-en-v1.5",
 		);
 	});
+
+	it("honors MNEMOPI_EMBEDDING_MODEL when no explicit model setting is present", () => {
+		const previous = Bun.env.MNEMOPI_EMBEDDING_MODEL;
+		Bun.env.MNEMOPI_EMBEDDING_MODEL = "BAAI/bge-large-en-v1.5";
+		try {
+			// The documented env override must not be shadowed by the variant default.
+			expect(embeddingModelFor({ "mnemopi.embeddingVariant": "en" })).toBe("BAAI/bge-large-en-v1.5");
+		} finally {
+			if (previous === undefined) delete Bun.env.MNEMOPI_EMBEDDING_MODEL;
+			else Bun.env.MNEMOPI_EMBEDDING_MODEL = previous;
+		}
+	});
+
+	it("lets an explicit embeddingModel setting win over the env var", () => {
+		const previous = Bun.env.MNEMOPI_EMBEDDING_MODEL;
+		Bun.env.MNEMOPI_EMBEDDING_MODEL = "BAAI/bge-large-en-v1.5";
+		try {
+			expect(embeddingModelFor({ "mnemopi.embeddingModel": "openai/text-embedding-3-small" })).toBe(
+				"openai/text-embedding-3-small",
+			);
+		} finally {
+			if (previous === undefined) delete Bun.env.MNEMOPI_EMBEDDING_MODEL;
+			else Bun.env.MNEMOPI_EMBEDDING_MODEL = previous;
+		}
+	});
 });
diff --git a/packages/mnemopi/CHANGELOG.md b/packages/mnemopi/CHANGELOG.md
index a4c8ad3cd..b8e071b39 100644
--- a/packages/mnemopi/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/packages/mnemopi/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 ### Added
 
-- Added a wipe-and-rebuild reconcile (`reconcileEmbeddingModel`) that runs when the configured embedding model changes. At store open, if the model stamped on stored `memory_embeddings` rows differs from the active `currentEmbeddingModel()`, the stale embeddings and their binary vectors are dropped and every existing memory is enqueued for background re-embedding (in bounded batches) at the new model/dimension. The destructive wipe is skipped whenever it could not be rebuilt — embeddings disabled via the runtime option or the `MNEMOPI_NO_EMBEDDINGS` env, or an unresolved (empty) active model — so a stale-but-valid corpus is never destroyed without a replacement. Recall degrades gracefully (FTS-only) for memories whose vectors are not yet rebuilt ([#2476](https://github.com/can1357/oh-my-pi/issues/2476))
+- Added a wipe-and-rebuild reconcile (`reconcileEmbeddingModel`) that runs when the configured embedding model changes. At store open, if the model stamped on stored `memory_embeddings` rows differs from the active `currentEmbeddingModel()`, the stale embeddings and their binary vectors are dropped and every existing memory is enqueued for background re-embedding (in bounded batches) at the new model/dimension. The destructive wipe is skipped whenever it could not be rebuilt — embeddings disabled via the runtime option or the `MNEMOPI_NO_EMBEDDINGS` env, an unresolved (empty) active model, or a read-only open (`reconcile: false`, used by ephemeral stats readers that would exit before the async rebuild finished) — so a stale-but-valid corpus is never destroyed without a replacement. Recall degrades gracefully (FTS-only) for memories whose vectors are not yet rebuilt ([#2476](https://github.com/can1357/oh-my-pi/issues/2476))
 
 ## [15.12.4] - 2026-06-13
 
diff --git a/packages/mnemopi/src/core/memory.ts b/packages/mnemopi/src/core/memory.ts
index 90d911710..912d787cd 100644
--- a/packages/mnemopi/src/core/memory.ts
+++ b/packages/mnemopi/src/core/memory.ts
@@ -45,6 +45,13 @@ export interface MnemopiOptions {
 	readonly llm?: false | MnemopiLlmRuntimeOptions | Model<Api> | MnemopiLlmCompletion;
 	/** Escalate best-effort failure logs (embedding pipeline) from debug to warn. */
 	readonly debug?: boolean;
+	/**
+	 * When `false`, skip the embedding-model reconcile (wipe-and-rebuild) on open.
+	 * Read-only / ephemeral consumers (e.g. a stats snapshot) set this so an open
+	 * never triggers a destructive migration whose background rebuild the process
+	 * would exit before completing. Defaults to `true`.
+	 */
+	readonly reconcile?: boolean;
 }
 
 export interface RememberInput extends MemoryInput {
@@ -392,7 +399,12 @@ export class Mnemopi {
 		// Wipe-and-rebuild stale embeddings when the configured model changed since
 		// the vectors were written. Runs inside the runtime scope so
 		// `currentEmbeddingModel()` reflects this instance's configured model.
-		this.#withRuntimeOptions(() => reconcileEmbeddingModel(this.beam));
+		// Skipped for read-only opens (`reconcile: false`) so an ephemeral stats
+		// reader never triggers a destructive migration whose async rebuild it would
+		// exit before completing — which would otherwise lose the embeddings.
+		if (options.reconcile !== false) {
+			this.#withRuntimeOptions(() => reconcileEmbeddingModel(this.beam));
+		}
 	}
 
 	close(): void {
diff --git a/packages/mnemopi/test/embedding-model-reconcile.test.ts b/packages/mnemopi/test/embedding-model-reconcile.test.ts
index 9612fde59..890cd1e97 100644
--- a/packages/mnemopi/test/embedding-model-reconcile.test.ts
+++ b/packages/mnemopi/test/embedding-model-reconcile.test.ts
@@ -137,4 +137,23 @@ describe("reconcileEmbeddingModel on store open", () => {
 			db.close();
 		}
 	});
+
+	it("does not reconcile a read-only open (reconcile: false), even on a model change", () => {
+		const { db } = seedDb(OLD_MODEL);
+		let memory: Mnemopi | undefined;
+		try {
+			// A stats/read-only open is short-lived and would exit before its async
+			// rebuild completed, so it must not perform the destructive wipe.
+			memory = new Mnemopi({ db, embeddings: { model: NEW_MODEL, provider: fakeEmbed() }, reconcile: false });
+			expect(countEmbeddings(memory)).toBe(2);
+			expect(memory.beam.pendingExtractions.size).toBe(0);
+			const ep = memory.conn.query("SELECT binary_vector AS v FROM episodic_memory WHERE id = 'ep-1'").get() as {
+				v: Uint8Array | null;
+			};
+			expect(ep.v).not.toBeNull();
+		} finally {
+			memory?.close();
+			db.close();
+		}
+	});
 });