diff --git a/packages/context/src/sl/schemas.ts b/packages/context/src/sl/schemas.ts
index 218c0435..706a4add 100644
--- a/packages/context/src/sl/schemas.ts
+++ b/packages/context/src/sl/schemas.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { z } from 'zod';
+import { tableUsageOutputSchema } from '../ingest/adapters/historic-sql/skill-schemas.js';
 
 // Literal vocabularies — kept in lockstep with the Python Pydantic model at
 // python/ktx-sl/semantic_layer/models.py (SourceColumn / ColumnRole /
@@ -125,6 +126,7 @@ export const sourceDefinitionSchema = z
     default_time_dimension: defaultTimeDimensionDbtSchema.optional(),
     tags: sourceKeyedStringArraySchema.optional(),
     freshness: sourceFreshnessSchema.optional(),
+    usage: tableUsageOutputSchema.optional(),
   })
   .strict()
   .refine((s) => (s.table || s.sql) && !(s.table && s.sql), {
@@ -145,6 +147,7 @@ export const sourceOverlaySchema = z
     exclude_columns: z.array(z.string()).optional(),
     disable_joins: z.array(z.string()).optional(),
     default_time_dimension: defaultTimeDimensionDbtSchema.optional(),
+    usage: tableUsageOutputSchema.optional(),
   })
   .strict();
 
diff --git a/packages/context/src/sl/semantic-layer.service.test.ts b/packages/context/src/sl/semantic-layer.service.test.ts
index 0b9656de..3adde085 100644
--- a/packages/context/src/sl/semantic-layer.service.test.ts
+++ b/packages/context/src/sl/semantic-layer.service.test.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import {
   composeOverlay,
   enrichColumnsFromManifest,
   findDanglingSegmentRefs,
+  projectManifestEntry,
   SemanticLayerService,
 } from './semantic-layer.service.js';
 import { sourceDefinitionSchema } from './schemas.js';
@@ -129,6 +130,39 @@ describe('composeOverlay', () => {
       dbt: 'dbt description',
     });
   });
+
+  it('replaces manifest usage only when an overlay explicitly provides usage', () => {
+    const baseWithUsage: SemanticLayerSource = {
+      ...baseTable,
+      usage: {
+        narrative: 'Orders are commonly queried by lifecycle status.',
+        frequencyTier: 'high',
+        commonFilters: ['status'],
+        commonJoins: [{ table: 'public.customers', on: ['customer_id'] }],
+      },
+    };
+
+    expect(composeOverlay(baseWithUsage, { name: 'fct_labs', measures: [] }).usage).toEqual(baseWithUsage.usage);
+
+    const composed = composeOverlay(baseWithUsage, {
+      name: 'fct_labs',
+      usage: {
+        narrative: 'Overlay-curated usage note.',
+        frequencyTier: 'mid',
+        commonFilters: ['created_at'],
+        commonGroupBys: ['created_at'],
+        commonJoins: [],
+      },
+    });
+
+    expect(composed.usage).toEqual({
+      narrative: 'Overlay-curated usage note.',
+      frequencyTier: 'mid',
+      commonFilters: ['created_at'],
+      commonGroupBys: ['created_at'],
+      commonJoins: [],
+    });
+  });
 });
 
 describe('enrichColumnsFromManifest', () => {
@@ -299,6 +333,61 @@ describe('sourceDefinitionSchema', () => {
       dbt: { loaded_at_field: 'updated_at', raw: { warn_after: { count: 12, period: 'hour' } } },
     });
   });
+
+  it('accepts historic SQL usage on standalone sources', () => {
+    const result = sourceDefinitionSchema.safeParse({
+      name: 'orders',
+      table: 'public.orders',
+      grain: ['id'],
+      columns: [{ name: 'id', type: 'string' }],
+      joins: [],
+      measures: [],
+      usage: {
+        narrative: 'Orders are queried for fulfillment and revenue analysis.',
+        frequencyTier: 'high',
+        commonFilters: ['status', 'created_at'],
+        commonJoins: [{ table: 'public.customers', on: ['customer_id'] }],
+        externalOwner: 'analytics',
+      },
+    });
+
+    expect(result.success).toBe(true);
+    if (!result.success) {
+      return;
+    }
+    expect(result.data.usage).toMatchObject({
+      narrative: 'Orders are queried for fulfillment and revenue analysis.',
+      frequencyTier: 'high',
+      commonFilters: ['status', 'created_at'],
+      commonJoins: [{ table: 'public.customers', on: ['customer_id'] }],
+      externalOwner: 'analytics',
+    });
+  });
+});
+
+describe('projectManifestEntry', () => {
+  it('projects manifest usage onto the semantic-layer source', () => {
+    const source = projectManifestEntry('orders', {
+      table: 'public.orders',
+      usage: {
+        narrative: 'Orders are frequently filtered by status.',
+        frequencyTier: 'high',
+        commonFilters: ['status'],
+        commonJoins: [{ table: 'public.customers', on: ['customer_id'] }],
+      },
+      columns: [
+        { name: 'id', type: 'string', pk: true },
+        { name: 'status', type: 'string' },
+      ],
+    });
+
+    expect(source.usage).toEqual({
+      narrative: 'Orders are frequently filtered by status.',
+      frequencyTier: 'high',
+      commonFilters: ['status'],
+      commonJoins: [{ table: 'public.customers', on: ['customer_id'] }],
+    });
+  });
 });
 
 describe('findManifestEntryByTableRef', () => {
diff --git a/packages/context/src/sl/semantic-layer.service.ts b/packages/context/src/sl/semantic-layer.service.ts
index 0ccce66a..ffae0b12 100644
--- a/packages/context/src/sl/semantic-layer.service.ts
+++ b/packages/context/src/sl/semantic-layer.service.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import YAML from 'yaml';
 import type { KtxFileStorePort, KtxLogger } from '../core/index.js';
 import { noopLogger } from '../core/index.js';
+import type { TableUsageOutput } from '../ingest/adapters/historic-sql/skill-schemas.js';
 import type { SlConnectionCatalogPort, SlPythonPort } from './ports.js';
 import { normalizeSemanticLayerDescriptions } from './description-normalization.js';
 import { isOverlaySource, sourceDefinitionSchema, sourceOverlaySchema } from './schemas.js';
@@ -884,6 +885,7 @@ export interface ManifestTableEntry {
   joins?: ManifestJoinEntry[];
   tags?: { dbt?: string[] };
   freshness?: { dbt?: { raw?: unknown; loaded_at_field?: string | null } };
+  usage?: TableUsageOutput;
 }
 
 /** Migrate legacy flat description/db_description fields to a descriptions map. */
@@ -930,6 +932,7 @@ export function projectManifestEntry(name: string, entry: ManifestTableEntry): S
     measures: [],
     ...(entry.tags?.dbt?.length ? { tags: entry.tags } : {}),
     ...(entry.freshness?.dbt ? { freshness: entry.freshness } : {}),
+    ...(entry.usage ? { usage: entry.usage } : {}),
   };
 }
 
@@ -1005,6 +1008,7 @@ const COMPOSE_KNOWN_KEYS = new Set([
   'exclude_columns',
   'disable_joins',
   'default_time_dimension',
+  'usage',
 ]);
 
 export function composeOverlay(base: SemanticLayerSource, overlay: Record<string, unknown>): SemanticLayerSource {
@@ -1028,6 +1032,10 @@ export function composeOverlay(base: SemanticLayerSource, overlay: Record<string
     };
   }
 
+  if (normalizedOverlay.usage !== undefined) {
+    result.usage = normalizedOverlay.usage as SemanticLayerSource['usage'];
+  }
+
   // Filter out excluded columns
   const excluded = new Set((normalizedOverlay.exclude_columns as string[] | undefined) ?? []);
   let columns = result.columns.filter((c) => !excluded.has(c.name));
diff --git a/packages/context/src/sl/types.ts b/packages/context/src/sl/types.ts
index ff0334c1..7f153c58 100644
--- a/packages/context/src/sl/types.ts
+++ b/packages/context/src/sl/types.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import type { TableUsageOutput } from '../ingest/adapters/historic-sql/skill-schemas.js';
+
 export interface SemanticLayerSource {
   name: string;
   descriptions?: Record<string, string>;
@@ -42,6 +44,7 @@ export interface SemanticLayerSource {
   default_time_dimension?: { dbt?: string };
   tags?: { dbt?: string[] };
   freshness?: { dbt?: { raw?: unknown; loaded_at_field?: string | null } };
+  usage?: TableUsageOutput;
 }
 
 export interface SemanticLayerQueryInput {