diff --git a/packages/cli/src/setup-embeddings.test.ts b/packages/cli/src/setup-embeddings.test.ts
index 5f37697e..67ef83b3 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/setup-embeddings.test.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/setup-embeddings.test.ts
@@ -133,6 +133,12 @@ describe('setup embeddings step', () => {
     const healthCheck = vi.fn(async () => ({ ok: true as const }));
     const prompts = makePromptAdapter({ selectValues: ['sentence-transformers'] });
     const ensureLocalEmbeddings = vi.fn(async () => managedDaemon());
+    const spinnerEvents: string[] = [];
+    const spinner = vi.fn(() => ({
+      start: (msg: string) => spinnerEvents.push(`start:${msg}`),
+      stop: (msg: string) => spinnerEvents.push(`stop:${msg}`),
+      error: (msg: string) => spinnerEvents.push(`error:${msg}`),
+    }));
 
     const result = await runKtxSetupEmbeddingsStep(
       {
@@ -143,7 +149,7 @@ describe('setup embeddings step', () => {
         skipEmbeddings: false,
       },
       io.io,
-      { prompts, env: {}, healthCheck, ensureLocalEmbeddings },
+      { prompts, env: {}, healthCheck, ensureLocalEmbeddings, spinner },
     );
 
     expect(result.status).toBe('ready');
@@ -168,8 +174,8 @@ describe('setup embeddings step', () => {
     expect(config.scan.enrichment.embeddings).toMatchObject(config.ingest.embeddings);
     expect(config.setup?.completed_steps).toEqual(undefined);
     expect((await readKtxSetupState(tempDir)).completed_steps).toContain('embeddings');
-    expect(io.stdout()).toContain(
-      'Testing local sentence-transformers embeddings (all-MiniLM-L6-v2, 384 dimensions). First run may take up to 60 seconds.',
+    expect(spinnerEvents).toContainEqual(
+      'start:Testing local sentence-transformers embeddings (all-MiniLM-L6-v2, 384 dimensions). First run may take up to 60 seconds.',
     );
     expect(io.stdout()).toContain('Embeddings ready: yes');
   });
@@ -184,6 +190,12 @@ describe('setup embeddings step', () => {
           resolveHealthCheck = resolve;
         }),
     );
+    const spinnerEvents: string[] = [];
+    const spinner = vi.fn(() => ({
+      start: (msg: string) => spinnerEvents.push(`start:${msg}`),
+      stop: (msg: string) => spinnerEvents.push(`stop:${msg}`),
+      error: (msg: string) => spinnerEvents.push(`error:${msg}`),
+    }));
 
     const result = runKtxSetupEmbeddingsStep(
       {
@@ -194,12 +206,12 @@ describe('setup embeddings step', () => {
         skipEmbeddings: false,
       },
       io.io,
-      { prompts, env: {}, healthCheck, ensureLocalEmbeddings: vi.fn(async () => managedDaemon()) },
+      { prompts, env: {}, healthCheck, ensureLocalEmbeddings: vi.fn(async () => managedDaemon()), spinner },
     );
 
     await vi.waitFor(() => {
-      expect(io.stdout()).toContain(
-        '\r│  - Testing local sentence-transformers embeddings (all-MiniLM-L6-v2, 384 dimensions). First run may take up to 60 seconds.',
+      expect(spinnerEvents).toContainEqual(
+        'start:Testing local sentence-transformers embeddings (all-MiniLM-L6-v2, 384 dimensions). First run may take up to 60 seconds.',
       );
     });
 
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/setup-embeddings.ts b/packages/cli/src/setup-embeddings.ts
index 9354ad75..8d3d3765 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/setup-embeddings.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/setup-embeddings.ts
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import {
 } from '@ktx/context/project';
 import { type KtxEmbeddingConfig, type KtxEmbeddingHealthCheckResult, runKtxEmbeddingHealthCheck } from '@ktx/llm';
 import type { KtxCliIo } from './cli-runtime.js';
+import { createClackSpinner, type KtxCliSpinner } from './clack.js';
 import {
   ensureManagedLocalEmbeddingsDaemon,
   managedLocalEmbeddingHealthConfig,
@@ -61,6 +62,7 @@ export interface KtxSetupEmbeddingsDeps {
     installPolicy: KtxManagedPythonInstallPolicy;
     io: KtxCliIo;
   }) => Promise<ManagedLocalEmbeddingsDaemon>;
+  spinner?: () => KtxCliSpinner;
 }
 
 type BackendChoice = KtxSetupEmbeddingBackend | 'back';
@@ -83,14 +85,6 @@ const EMBEDDING_OPTION_PROMPT_CONTEXT =
   'KTX uses embeddings for semantic search over semantic-layer sources, wiki context, schema metadata, ' +
   'and relationship evidence.';
 const LOCAL_EMBEDDING_HEALTH_TIMEOUT_MS = 120_000;
-const HEALTH_CHECK_SPINNER_FRAMES = ['-', '\\', '|', '/'] as const;
-const HEALTH_CHECK_SPINNER_INTERVAL_MS = 120;
-const CLEAR_CURRENT_LINE = '\x1b[2K\r';
-
-interface HealthCheckProgress {
-  succeed(message: string): void;
-  fail(message: string): void;
-}
 
 function createPromptAdapter(): KtxSetupEmbeddingsPromptAdapter {
   return {
@@ -350,42 +344,14 @@ function healthCheckStartText(backend: KtxSetupEmbeddingBackend, model: string,
   return `Checking ${backend} embeddings (${model}, ${dimensions} dimensions).`;
 }
 
-function startHealthCheckProgress(io: KtxCliIo, message: string): HealthCheckProgress {
-  if (io.stdout.isTTY !== true) {
-    io.stdout.write(`│  ${message}\n`);
-    const noop = () => undefined;
-    return {
-      succeed: noop,
-      fail: noop,
-    };
-  }
-
-  let frameIndex = 0;
-  let stopped = false;
-  const writeFrame = () => {
-    io.stdout.write(`${CLEAR_CURRENT_LINE}│  ${HEALTH_CHECK_SPINNER_FRAMES[frameIndex]} ${message}`);
-  };
-  writeFrame();
-  const interval = setInterval(() => {
-    frameIndex = (frameIndex + 1) % HEALTH_CHECK_SPINNER_FRAMES.length;
-    writeFrame();
-  }, HEALTH_CHECK_SPINNER_INTERVAL_MS);
-
-  const stop = (finalMessage: string) => {
-    if (stopped) {
-      return;
-    }
-    stopped = true;
-    clearInterval(interval);
-    io.stdout.write(`${CLEAR_CURRENT_LINE}│  ${finalMessage}\n`);
-  };
-
+function startHealthCheckProgress(spinner: KtxCliSpinner, message: string): { succeed(msg: string): void; fail(msg: string): void } {
+  spinner.start(message);
   return {
-    succeed(message) {
-      stop(message);
+    succeed(msg: string) {
+      spinner.stop(msg);
     },
-    fail(message) {
-      stop(message);
+    fail(msg: string) {
+      spinner.error(msg);
     },
   };
 }
@@ -474,7 +440,8 @@ export async function runKtxSetupEmbeddingsStep(
             dimensions,
             credentialValue,
           });
-    const progress = startHealthCheckProgress(io, healthCheckStartText(selectedBackend, model, dimensions));
+    const healthSpinner = (deps.spinner ?? createClackSpinner)();
+    const progress = startHealthCheckProgress(healthSpinner, healthCheckStartText(selectedBackend, model, dimensions));
     let health: KtxEmbeddingHealthCheckResult;
     try {
       health = await healthCheck(healthConfig);