diff --git a/trustgraph-base/trustgraph/api/async_flow.py b/trustgraph-base/trustgraph/api/async_flow.py
index 68899341..8c0189e4 100644
--- a/trustgraph-base/trustgraph/api/async_flow.py
+++ b/trustgraph-base/trustgraph/api/async_flow.py
@@ -584,7 +584,7 @@ class AsyncFlowInstance:
         result = await self.request("document-rag", request_data)
         return result.get("response", "")
 
-    async def graph_embeddings_query(self, text: str, user: str, collection: str, limit: int = 10, **kwargs: Any):
+    async def graph_embeddings_query(self, text: str, collection: str, limit: int = 10, user: str = "", **kwargs: Any):
         """
         Query graph embeddings for semantic entity search.
 
diff --git a/trustgraph-base/trustgraph/api/async_socket_client.py b/trustgraph-base/trustgraph/api/async_socket_client.py
index da581f73..8ef3a0ec 100644
--- a/trustgraph-base/trustgraph/api/async_socket_client.py
+++ b/trustgraph-base/trustgraph/api/async_socket_client.py
@@ -381,7 +381,7 @@ class AsyncSocketFlowInstance:
             if hasattr(chunk, 'content'):
                 yield chunk.content
 
-    async def graph_embeddings_query(self, text: str, user: str, collection: str, limit: int = 10, **kwargs):
+    async def graph_embeddings_query(self, text: str, collection: str, limit: int = 10, user: str = "", **kwargs):
         """Query graph embeddings for semantic search"""
         emb_result = await self.embeddings(texts=[text])
         vector = emb_result.get("vectors", [[]])[0]
diff --git a/trustgraph-base/trustgraph/api/socket_client.py b/trustgraph-base/trustgraph/api/socket_client.py
index aee9d450..5584827a 100644
--- a/trustgraph-base/trustgraph/api/socket_client.py
+++ b/trustgraph-base/trustgraph/api/socket_client.py
@@ -755,9 +755,9 @@ class SocketFlowInstance:
     def graph_embeddings_query(
         self,
         text: str,
-        user: str,
         collection: str,
         limit: int = 10,
+        user: str = "",
         **kwargs: Any
     ) -> Dict[str, Any]:
         """Query knowledge graph entities using semantic similarity."""
@@ -777,9 +777,9 @@ class SocketFlowInstance:
     def document_embeddings_query(
         self,
         text: str,
-        user: str,
         collection: str,
         limit: int = 10,
+        user: str = "",
         **kwargs: Any
     ) -> Dict[str, Any]:
         """Query document chunks using semantic similarity."""
diff --git a/trustgraph-flow/trustgraph/librarian/collection_manager.py b/trustgraph-flow/trustgraph/librarian/collection_manager.py
index a450aded..09932adf 100644
--- a/trustgraph-flow/trustgraph/librarian/collection_manager.py
+++ b/trustgraph-flow/trustgraph/librarian/collection_manager.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ Collection management for the librarian - uses config service for storage
 """
 
 import asyncio
+import dataclasses
 import logging
 import json
 import uuid
@@ -173,10 +174,17 @@ class CollectionManager:
             if response.error:
                 raise RuntimeError(f"Config query failed: {response.error.message}")
 
-            # Every value in this workspace is a collection for this user
+            # Every value in this workspace is a collection.
+            # Filter to fields the current schema knows about — older
+            # persisted values may carry fields that have since been
+            # dropped (e.g. `user` from the pre-workspace-refactor era).
+            known_fields = {f.name for f in dataclasses.fields(CollectionMetadata)}
             collections = []
             for config_value in response.values:
                 metadata_dict = json.loads(config_value.value)
+                metadata_dict = {
+                    k: v for k, v in metadata_dict.items() if k in known_fields
+                }
                 metadata = CollectionMetadata(**metadata_dict)
                 collections.append(metadata)