diff --git a/docs/dev/index.md b/docs/dev/index.md
index b23326b..b1dc4fb 100644
--- a/docs/dev/index.md
+++ b/docs/dev/index.md
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ Working documents for in-flight feature work. Removed when the work lands.
 | Server boots from cluster state — Phase 5 mode switch, applied-revision serving | [rfc-005-server-cluster-boot.md](rfc-005-server-cluster-boot.md) |
 | Per-operator config — `~/.omnigraph/` identity, keyed credentials, named servers (the operator slice of RFC-002) | [rfc-007-operator-config.md](rfc-007-operator-config.md) |
 | Deprecate `omnigraph.yaml` — one concern per config surface; key-by-key migration map and staged retirement | [rfc-008-deprecate-omnigraph-yaml.md](rfc-008-deprecate-omnigraph-yaml.md) |
+| Unify CLI embedded/remote access paths — parity referee, shared wire-DTO crate, `GraphClient` trait, declared plane capabilities | [rfc-009-unify-access-paths.md](rfc-009-unify-access-paths.md) |
 
 ## Boundary
 
diff --git a/docs/dev/rfc-002-config-cli-architecture.md b/docs/dev/rfc-002-config-cli-architecture.md
index 0a8e573..8095eda 100644
--- a/docs/dev/rfc-002-config-cli-architecture.md
+++ b/docs/dev/rfc-002-config-cli-architecture.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # RFC: Config & CLI Architecture — Layered Config, Client Targeting, File Naming
 
-**Status:** Proposed
+**Status:** Proposed (umbrella; implementation parked — PRs #139/#162). Its pieces have since landed or been superseded piecemeal: layered config/file-naming/credentials → [rfc-007-operator-config.md](rfc-007-operator-config.md) (landed); the project-manifest role of `omnigraph.yaml` → deprecated by [rfc-008-deprecate-omnigraph-yaml.md](rfc-008-deprecate-omnigraph-yaml.md) (stages 1–4 landed); the `omnigraph-api-types` extraction and client unification → [rfc-009-unify-access-paths.md](rfc-009-unify-access-paths.md) (proposed; salvages #139's clean extraction). Still exclusively here: `GraphLocator`/multi-homing (§1), roles (§3), the State layer / `omnigraph use`. Do not implement from this document without checking those successors first.
 **Date:** 2026-05-30
 **Tickets:** MR-668 (multi-graph server, shipped — the dependency this builds on), MR-969 (stored queries + MCP — supplies the in-repo agent tool surface), MR-973 (quickstart / onboarding), MR-974 (agent setup surface), MR-981 (agent-friendly CLI hardening)
 **Target release:** v0.8.x (tentative; phased — see Rollout)
diff --git a/docs/dev/rfc-007-operator-config.md b/docs/dev/rfc-007-operator-config.md
index 5bd8afb..1cbc0ef 100644
--- a/docs/dev/rfc-007-operator-config.md
+++ b/docs/dev/rfc-007-operator-config.md
@@ -319,6 +319,12 @@ Every mention of `omnigraph.yaml` in this RFC describes the deprecation
 window only. Sequencing couples them: RFC-007 PRs 1–2 land first, then
 RFC-008's migration stages run against them.
 
+[rfc-009-unify-access-paths.md](rfc-009-unify-access-paths.md) consumes
+this RFC's surfaces: the actor chain and keyed-credential chain become
+constructor-time inputs of its `RemoteClient`/`EmbeddedClient`, and
+`--server`/operator aliases resolve to the same (base URL, credential)
+pair before its `GraphClient` trait is touched.
+
 RFC-002 remains the umbrella architecture. This RFC implements its §2
 (layered config, global-first), §4 (file naming / one dir), and §5
 (credentials) in their minimal load-bearing form, and explicitly defers §1
diff --git a/docs/dev/rfc-008-deprecate-omnigraph-yaml.md b/docs/dev/rfc-008-deprecate-omnigraph-yaml.md
index 72baaf6..4b5bf35 100644
--- a/docs/dev/rfc-008-deprecate-omnigraph-yaml.md
+++ b/docs/dev/rfc-008-deprecate-omnigraph-yaml.md
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ contract), retirement is staged, loud, and tooled:
    `cluster.yaml` from `config migrate`.
 4. **Opt-in strict** *(landed — the release gap to stages 1–3 collapsed: no version boundary was crossed between them, so all four ship in the same release)*. `OMNIGRAPH_NO_LEGACY_CONFIG=1` turns the warning into
    an error — for teams that finished migrating and want regressions caught.
-5. **Remove at the next major.** Loading the file becomes an error pointing
+5. **Remove at the next major** *(eased by [rfc-009-unify-access-paths.md](rfc-009-unify-access-paths.md) Phases 4–5: declared plane capabilities and route alignment shrink the yaml-boot removal diff)*. Loading the file becomes an error pointing
    at `config migrate`. The `OmnigraphConfig` code path, the dual
    query-registry loaders, and the yaml-mode server boot source are deleted
    — the payoff that makes the whole exercise worth it.
diff --git a/docs/dev/rfc-009-unify-access-paths.md b/docs/dev/rfc-009-unify-access-paths.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..43dcdf2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/dev/rfc-009-unify-access-paths.md
@@ -0,0 +1,213 @@
+# RFC: Unify the CLI's Embedded and Remote Access Paths
+
+**Status:** Proposed
+**Date:** 2026-06-12
+**Audience:** engine/CLI/server maintainers
+**Builds on:** [rfc-007-operator-config.md](rfc-007-operator-config.md)
+(landed — `--server` targeting and operator aliases are remote-addressing
+surfaces the unified client must treat as first-class),
+[rfc-008-deprecate-omnigraph-yaml.md](rfc-008-deprecate-omnigraph-yaml.md)
+(stages 1–4 landed — the config-authority demotion this RFC's earlier
+drafts promised as a "companion" already happened; the remaining sliver,
+removing the yaml-mode server boot source, is RFC-008 stage 5 and is
+*eased* by Phases 4–5 here), [rfc-002-config-cli-architecture.md](rfc-002-config-cli-architecture.md)
+(umbrella; see Prior Art for what is salvageable from its parked
+implementation).
+**Sequencing:** post-v0.7.0 (the release cut comes first).
+
+## Summary
+
+Collapse the CLI's per-command `is_remote` forks into one execution path coded
+against a `GraphClient` trait with two implementations (embedded engine, HTTP),
+sharing one wire-DTO crate with the server. Establish an executable parity
+referee *before* the refactor. This is the same cure, in the same order, that
+fixed the storage layer: one contract, one implementation where semantics are
+one thing, an executable contract where two implementations must exist.
+
+## Motivation — validated facts
+
+Graph **semantics** cannot drift between paths today: both converge on the same
+engine `_as` entry points (verified: `omnigraph-server/src/handlers.rs` calls
+`mutate_as`, `apply_schema_as_with_catalog_check`, `load_as`,
+`branch_create_from_as`, `branch_delete_as`, `branch_merge_as` — the same
+functions the CLI's embedded arm calls), and Cedar enforcement lives inside
+those writers. What *can* drift is everything around them:
+
+1. **15 `is_remote` forks** in `crates/omnigraph-cli/src/main.rs`, each
+   duplicating request shaping and output mapping per command. (RFC-007 PR 3
+   threaded `apply_server_flag` through exactly these sites — the duplication
+   is measured, not estimated.)
+2. **Triple DTO construction.** "The result of a load" is built in three
+   places: the server handler (engine result → HTTP response), the CLI remote
+   arm (HTTP response → `LoadOutput` via `load_output_from_tables`), and the
+   CLI local arm (engine result → hand-built `LoadOutput`). Three mappings
+   that agree only by discipline — the exact shape of the storage-adapter bug
+   class (one prose contract, N implementations, no referee).
+3. **The remote `load` arm rides the deprecated `/ingest` route.** A
+   non-deprecated CLI verb coupled to a deprecated endpoint turns the
+   endpoint's eventual removal into a surprise CLI breakage.
+4. **Plane restrictions are accidental, not declared.** `init` / `optimize` /
+   `repair` / `cleanup` / `cluster *` are storage-only and `graphs list` is
+   server-only by code shape; pointing `optimize` at an `https://` target
+   fails with whatever `Omnigraph::open` says about an https URI. Per Hyrum,
+   that accidental error text is already someone's dependency.
+5. **Parity pinning is thin.** One explicit parity test
+   (`cli_schema_config.rs::schema_plan_parity_cli_and_sdk`), flow coverage in
+   `system_local.rs`, and the OpenAPI drift test. No systematic
+   per-verb embedded-vs-remote comparison exists. Two bugs from the current
+   cycle argue the referee's value concretely: the operator-alias positional
+   bug (the hidden `legacy_uri` positional swallowed the first arg — local
+   and remote disagreed until a live smoke caught it) and the
+   `write_text_if_absent` flush bug (one of N implementations of an
+   unwritten contract) would both have failed a parity matrix.
+
+## Design
+
+Ordered so each phase is independently shippable and the referee exists before
+anything moves — mirroring the storage collapse, where the pinned contract
+tests gated the swap, and the test-monolith modularization (#192/#193), which
+makes Phase 3 tractable: the CLI dispatch is 1,184 lines today, not 4,200.
+
+### Phase 1 — Parity matrix (the referee; do first, no refactor)
+
+A CLI integration test (extend the `system_local.rs` harness, which already
+spawns both binaries): one fixture graph; for every forked verb, run the
+command once against the local URI and once against a spawned server with
+identical inputs; diff the `--json` outputs against an explicit allowlist of
+transport-only fields (e.g. resolved URI). Assert identical exit codes for the
+shared error cases.
+
+This pins today's behavior so Phase 3 can't silently change it, and catches
+every future fork drift. It also incidentally covers utoipa annotation↔route
+mismatches (a lying `#[utoipa::path]` makes the remote leg 404).
+
+### Phase 2 — One wire-DTO crate
+
+Move the HTTP request/response types and the single `engine result → DTO`
+mapping per verb into a shared crate (working name `omnigraph-api-types`),
+carrying serde + utoipa `ToSchema` derives:
+
+- `omnigraph-server` handlers serialize these types; utoipa derives
+  `openapi.json` from them (the existing `openapi.rs` regeneration test stays
+  the spec referee).
+- The CLI embedded path constructs them via the shared mapping.
+- The CLI remote path deserializes the literal same types.
+
+The mapping then exists once, next to the type — it cannot fork. Spec codegen
+remains exactly where it belongs: foreign-language clients (the TS SDK
+pipeline). Generating a Rust client from the spec is explicitly rejected — it
+would round-trip Rust types through a lossy intermediate when compile-time
+type sharing is available.
+
+**Prior art to salvage:** PR #139's review explicitly found the
+`omnigraph-api-types` extraction *clean* ("the crate extraction itself is
+clean and the openapi.json byte-identical claim holds" —
+[pr-139 findings](rfc-002-config-cli-architecture.md)); it was the behavior
+changes bundled alongside that killed the PR. Seed this phase from the
+extraction commits on `ragnorc/scrutinize-rfc-002` rather than rebuilding —
+cherry-picked narrowly, never relanded wholesale.
+
+Boundary note: this does NOT violate "transport/auth stay at the boundary"
+(invariants §11). The shared crate holds plain serde DTOs; it depends on
+neither axum nor the engine's internals. The engine crate does not depend on
+it — the `engine result → DTO` mapping lives in the shared crate (or the CLI/
+server side), taking engine result types as input.
+
+### Phase 3 — `GraphClient` trait, two implementations
+
+```text
+trait GraphClient        // verb-level: load, mutate, query, branch_*, schema_*, export, commit_*
+ ├── EmbeddedClient      // wraps Omnigraph + the shared mapping; actor: explicit (--as cascade, RFC-007)
+ └── RemoteClient        // reqwest + bearer; actor: resolved server-side from the token
+```
+
+Each CLI command body is written once against the trait; the 15 forks become
+2 impls × 1 contract. Actor resolution is a constructor-time difference of the
+impls, never a per-verb branch — the trust model (storage credentials =
+self-declared actor via the RFC-007 actor chain; server = token-resolved
+actor via the RFC-007 keyed-credential chain) is a feature, not drift.
+`RemoteClient` construction is where RFC-007's addressing lands once:
+positional URI, `--target`, `--server <name>`, and operator aliases all
+resolve to the same (base URL, credential) pair before the trait is touched.
+The Phase 1 matrix becomes the trait's conformance suite, run against both
+impls.
+
+### Phase 4 — Declared plane capabilities
+
+Each CLI command declares `Storage | Server | Both`. Dispatch checks the
+resolved target against the declaration and fails with one deliberate message
+("maintenance commands operate on storage directly; use a storage URI, not a
+server target") instead of today's incidental errors. The declaration table is
+also documentation: it makes the control-plane/data-plane split (maintenance
+and cluster commands must work with the server down) explicit in code.
+"Server" targets include operator-config named servers (RFC-007), not only
+literal `http(s)://` URIs.
+
+### Phase 5 — Route alignment
+
+Add a canonical `/load` endpoint (the handler already exists behind the
+`/ingest` shim); point `RemoteClient` at it; keep `/ingest` on its existing
+deprecation path. While here, check whether the server uses `utoipa-axum`'s
+router-coupled registration (`OpenApiRouter`/`routes!`); if it hand-mounts
+routes beside `#[utoipa::path]` annotations, prefer migrating registration so
+path annotations and mount points are the same declaration (the modularization
+already hit one orphaned-attribute incident of exactly this class).
+
+## Non-goals
+
+- **No localhost-server funnel for the embedded path.** Routing embedded use
+  through a daemon would destroy the embedded/CLI/test story to buy parity the
+  trait + matrix already provide.
+- **No trust-model unification.** `--as` vs bearer-resolved actors stay.
+- **No spec-codegen for the Rust client** (see Phase 2).
+- **No change to plane-restricted command availability** — maintenance stays
+  storage-direct by design; Phase 4 only makes the restriction explicit.
+- **No config-authority work** — that was RFC-008, already landed through
+  stage 4; this RFC neither accelerates nor blocks stage 5, though Phases 4–5
+  make the eventual yaml-boot removal a smaller diff.
+
+## Compatibility
+
+- CLI `--json` output is observable contract; Phase 1 freezes it before
+  Phase 3 moves code. Any field-level unification that *changes* output is a
+  deliberate, release-noted decision, not a refactor side effect.
+- Error-message text for mis-planed commands changes in Phase 4 — release-note
+  it (Hyrum).
+- `openapi.json` should be byte-stable through Phase 2 if the DTO move is
+  faithful; the regeneration test enforces this.
+
+## Testing
+
+- Phase 1 matrix is the spine; it must stay green, textually unchanged,
+  through Phases 2–3 (the storage-collapse playbook).
+- Phase 2: `openapi.rs` byte-stability + existing server tests.
+- Phase 4: one test per capability class asserting the deliberate error.
+- Phase 5: parity matrix leg for `load` flips to `/load`; an `/ingest` shim
+  test stays until removal.
+
+## Open questions
+
+1. Crate granularity: one `omnigraph-api-types` crate vs folding into an
+   existing one. (Leaning separate: server and CLI both depend on it; the
+   engine must not. The #139 extraction already answered this with a separate
+   crate that reviewed clean.)
+2. Does the `query`/`read` streaming path (NDJSON export) fit the trait, or is
+   export a documented per-impl method? (Streaming over HTTP vs an iterator
+   over the embedded engine differ in shape, not content.)
+3. ~~Whether `graphs list` belongs on the trait.~~ **Answered by the
+   two-surface architecture**: the embedded impl enumerates the **cluster
+   catalog** (`read_serving_snapshot` exists for exactly this), never
+   `omnigraph.yaml` (deprecated, RFC-008). `graphs list` becomes
+   `Both`-capability: remote = `GET /graphs` (policy-gated), embedded =
+   catalog enumeration from a cluster storage root.
+
+## Relationship to prior work
+
+The third application of the same principle in this lineage: storage adapters
+(collapsed to one implementation + an executable contract — and its CAS/flush
+bugs were exactly the no-referee class), recovery liveness, and now access
+paths. RFC-007 supplied the addressing and credential surfaces `RemoteClient`
+consumes; RFC-008 removed the competing config authority; RFC-002 remains the
+umbrella whose remaining unimplemented pieces (`GraphLocator`, the State
+layer) would build on the trait introduced here rather than on per-command
+forks.