diff --git a/crates/noxa-rag/Cargo.toml b/crates/noxa-rag/Cargo.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7e8287
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/noxa-rag/Cargo.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+[package]
+name = "noxa-rag"
+description = "RAG pipeline for noxa — TEI embeddings + Qdrant vector store"
+version.workspace = true
+edition.workspace = true
+license.workspace = true
+
+[[bin]]
+name = "noxa-rag-daemon"
+path = "src/bin/noxa-rag-daemon.rs"
+
+[dependencies]
+noxa-core = { workspace = true }
+
+# Async runtime
+tokio = { workspace = true }
+
+# Serialization
+serde = { workspace = true }
+serde_json = { workspace = true }
+toml = "0.8"
+
+# Error handling
+thiserror = { workspace = true }
+
+# Tracing
+tracing = { workspace = true }
+tracing-subscriber = { workspace = true }
+
+# Async traits
+async-trait = "0.1"
+
+# HTTP client (plain reqwest — no primp patches needed for TEI/Qdrant)
+reqwest = { version = "0.12", default-features = false, features = ["json", "rustls-tls"] }
+
+# Vector store — REST transport only (reqwest feature, no protoc required)
+qdrant-client = { version = "1", default-features = false, features = ["reqwest"] }
+
+# Chunking
+text-splitter = { version = "0.25", features = ["markdown", "tokenizers"] }
+tokenizers = "0.21"
+
+# UUID v5 for deterministic point IDs
+uuid = { version = "1", features = ["v5", "serde"] }
+
+# Filesystem watcher
+notify = "6"
+notify-debouncer-mini = "0.4"
+
+# Concurrent data structures
+dashmap = "6"
+
+# URL parsing
+url = "2"
+
+# CLI args
+clap = { workspace = true }
+
+# Date/time for failed-jobs log
+chrono = { version = "0.4", features = ["serde"] }
+
+# CancellationToken for coordinated shutdown
+tokio-util = { version = "0.7", features = ["io"] }
+
+[dev-dependencies]
+tokio = { workspace = true }
diff --git a/crates/noxa-rag/src/bin/noxa-rag-daemon.rs b/crates/noxa-rag/src/bin/noxa-rag-daemon.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6f8c76e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/noxa-rag/src/bin/noxa-rag-daemon.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+// noxa-rag-daemon — implemented in noxa-68r.8
+fn main() {
+    eprintln!("[noxa-rag] daemon stub — not yet implemented (noxa-68r.8)");
+    std::process::exit(1);
+}
diff --git a/crates/noxa-rag/src/chunker.rs b/crates/noxa-rag/src/chunker.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..76b1ab5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/noxa-rag/src/chunker.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+// Chunker — implemented in noxa-68r.2
+use noxa_core::types::ExtractionResult;
+use crate::config::ChunkerConfig;
+use crate::types::Chunk;
+
+pub fn chunk(
+    _result: &ExtractionResult,
+    _config: &ChunkerConfig,
+    _tokenizer: &tokenizers::Tokenizer,
+) -> Vec<Chunk> {
+    // Full implementation in noxa-68r.2
+    vec![]
+}
diff --git a/crates/noxa-rag/src/config.rs b/crates/noxa-rag/src/config.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5ba6814
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/noxa-rag/src/config.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,145 @@
+use serde::Deserialize;
+use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};
+
+use crate::error::RagError;
+
+/// Top-level configuration deserialized from noxa-rag.toml.
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize)]
+pub struct RagConfig {
+    pub source: SourceConfig,
+    pub embed_provider: EmbedProviderConfig,
+    pub vector_store: VectorStoreConfig,
+    pub chunker: ChunkerConfig,
+    pub pipeline: PipelineConfig,
+    /// UUID namespace for deterministic point IDs.
+    /// Default: 6ba7b810-9dad-11d1-80b4-00c04fd430c8
+    #[serde(default = "default_uuid_namespace")]
+    pub uuid_namespace: uuid::Uuid,
+}
+
+fn default_uuid_namespace() -> uuid::Uuid {
+    uuid::Uuid::parse_str("6ba7b810-9dad-11d1-80b4-00c04fd430c8").unwrap()
+}
+
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize)]
+#[serde(tag = "type", rename_all = "snake_case")]
+pub enum SourceConfig {
+    FsWatcher {
+        watch_dir: PathBuf,
+        #[serde(default = "default_debounce_ms")]
+        debounce_ms: u64,
+    },
+}
+
+fn default_debounce_ms() -> u64 {
+    500
+}
+
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize)]
+#[serde(tag = "type", rename_all = "snake_case")]
+pub enum EmbedProviderConfig {
+    Tei {
+        url: String,
+        model: String,
+        /// Optional: load tokenizer from local path (avoids HF Hub at startup).
+        local_path: Option<PathBuf>,
+    },
+    OpenAi {
+        api_key: String,
+        model: String,
+    },
+    VoyageAi {
+        api_key: String,
+        model: String,
+    },
+}
+
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize)]
+#[serde(tag = "type", rename_all = "snake_case")]
+pub enum VectorStoreConfig {
+    Qdrant {
+        /// REST URL — port 6333, NOT 6334 (gRPC).
+        url: String,
+        collection: String,
+        /// Optional API key. Override with NOXA_RAG_QDRANT_API_KEY env var.
+        api_key: Option<String>,
+    },
+    /// Dev/test only — factory returns RagError::Config("not implemented").
+    InMemory,
+}
+
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize)]
+pub struct ChunkerConfig {
+    #[serde(default = "default_target_tokens")]
+    pub target_tokens: usize,
+    #[serde(default = "default_overlap_tokens")]
+    pub overlap_tokens: usize,
+    #[serde(default = "default_min_words")]
+    pub min_words: usize,
+    #[serde(default = "default_max_chunks_per_page")]
+    pub max_chunks_per_page: usize,
+}
+
+impl Default for ChunkerConfig {
+    fn default() -> Self {
+        Self {
+            target_tokens: default_target_tokens(),
+            overlap_tokens: default_overlap_tokens(),
+            min_words: default_min_words(),
+            max_chunks_per_page: default_max_chunks_per_page(),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+fn default_target_tokens() -> usize { 512 }
+fn default_overlap_tokens() -> usize { 64 }
+fn default_min_words() -> usize { 50 }
+fn default_max_chunks_per_page() -> usize { 100 }
+
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize)]
+pub struct PipelineConfig {
+    #[serde(default = "default_embed_concurrency")]
+    pub embed_concurrency: usize,
+    /// MUST be an absolute path — systemd daemon runs with CWD = /.
+    pub failed_jobs_log: Option<PathBuf>,
+}
+
+impl Default for PipelineConfig {
+    fn default() -> Self {
+        Self {
+            embed_concurrency: default_embed_concurrency(),
+            failed_jobs_log: None,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+fn default_embed_concurrency() -> usize { 4 }
+
+/// Load and validate config from a TOML file.
+pub fn load_config(path: &Path) -> Result<RagConfig, RagError> {
+    let content = std::fs::read_to_string(path)
+        .map_err(|e| RagError::Config(format!("cannot read config file {}: {}", path.display(), e)))?;
+
+    let config: RagConfig = toml::from_str(&content)
+        .map_err(|e| RagError::Config(format!("config parse error: {}", e)))?;
+
+    // Validate embed_concurrency > 0
+    if config.pipeline.embed_concurrency == 0 {
+        return Err(RagError::Config(
+            "pipeline.embed_concurrency must be > 0 (0 causes Semaphore deadlock)".to_string(),
+        ));
+    }
+
+    // Validate failed_jobs_log is absolute if set
+    if let Some(ref log_path) = config.pipeline.failed_jobs_log {
+        if !log_path.is_absolute() {
+            return Err(RagError::Config(format!(
+                "pipeline.failed_jobs_log must be an absolute path (got: {}). \
+                 systemd daemon runs with CWD = / and relative paths resolve there.",
+                log_path.display()
+            )));
+        }
+    }
+
+    Ok(config)
+}
diff --git a/crates/noxa-rag/src/embed/mod.rs b/crates/noxa-rag/src/embed/mod.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b275add
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/noxa-rag/src/embed/mod.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+use async_trait::async_trait;
+use std::sync::Arc;
+
+use crate::error::RagError;
+
+/// Pluggable embedding provider.
+///
+/// Trait surface is minimal by design — only what ALL impls share.
+/// `is_available()` and `dimensions()` are concrete methods on each provider struct,
+/// called during factory startup probes (not via dyn dispatch).
+#[async_trait]
+pub trait EmbedProvider: Send + Sync {
+    async fn embed(&self, texts: &[String]) -> Result<Vec<Vec<f32>>, RagError>;
+}
+
+pub type DynEmbedProvider = Arc<dyn EmbedProvider + Send + Sync>;
+
+pub mod tei;
+pub use tei::TeiProvider;
diff --git a/crates/noxa-rag/src/embed/tei.rs b/crates/noxa-rag/src/embed/tei.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1004a26
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/noxa-rag/src/embed/tei.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+// TeiProvider — implemented in noxa-68r.3
+use async_trait::async_trait;
+use crate::embed::EmbedProvider;
+use crate::error::RagError;
+
+pub struct TeiProvider {
+    pub(crate) client: reqwest::Client,
+    pub(crate) url: String,
+    pub(crate) model: String,
+    pub(crate) dimensions: usize,
+}
+
+impl TeiProvider {
+    pub async fn is_available(&self) -> bool {
+        self.client
+            .get(format!("{}/health", self.url))
+            .timeout(std::time::Duration::from_secs(2))
+            .send()
+            .await
+            .map(|r| r.status().is_success())
+            .unwrap_or(false)
+    }
+
+    pub fn dimensions(&self) -> usize {
+        self.dimensions
+    }
+
+    pub fn name(&self) -> &str {
+        "tei"
+    }
+}
+
+#[async_trait]
+impl EmbedProvider for TeiProvider {
+    async fn embed(&self, _texts: &[String]) -> Result<Vec<Vec<f32>>, RagError> {
+        // Full implementation in noxa-68r.3
+        Err(RagError::Embed("TeiProvider not yet implemented".to_string()))
+    }
+}
diff --git a/crates/noxa-rag/src/error.rs b/crates/noxa-rag/src/error.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..df6dbce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/noxa-rag/src/error.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+use thiserror::Error;
+
+#[non_exhaustive]
+#[derive(Debug, Error)]
+pub enum RagError {
+    #[error("embed error: {0}")]
+    Embed(String),
+    #[error("store error: {0}")]
+    Store(String),
+    #[error("chunk error: {0}")]
+    Chunk(String),
+    #[error("config error: {0}")]
+    Config(String),
+    #[error("io error: {0}")]
+    Io(#[from] std::io::Error),
+    #[error("http error: {0}")]
+    Http(#[from] reqwest::Error),
+    #[error("json error: {0}")]
+    Json(#[from] serde_json::Error),
+    #[error("error: {0}")]
+    Generic(String),
+}
diff --git a/crates/noxa-rag/src/factory.rs b/crates/noxa-rag/src/factory.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce33ab6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/noxa-rag/src/factory.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+// Factory — implemented in noxa-68r.6
+use crate::config::RagConfig;
+use crate::embed::DynEmbedProvider;
+use crate::error::RagError;
+use crate::store::DynVectorStore;
+
+pub async fn build_embed_provider(_config: &RagConfig) -> Result<DynEmbedProvider, RagError> {
+    // Full implementation in noxa-68r.6
+    Err(RagError::Config("factory not yet implemented".to_string()))
+}
+
+pub async fn build_vector_store(
+    _config: &RagConfig,
+    _embed_dims: usize,
+) -> Result<DynVectorStore, RagError> {
+    // Full implementation in noxa-68r.6
+    Err(RagError::Config("factory not yet implemented".to_string()))
+}
diff --git a/crates/noxa-rag/src/lib.rs b/crates/noxa-rag/src/lib.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f37a7a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/noxa-rag/src/lib.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+/// noxa-rag — RAG pipeline crate.
+///
+/// Watches noxa output directory for ExtractionResult JSON files,
+/// chunks them, embeds via TEI, and upserts to Qdrant.
+///
+/// # Crate structure
+/// - `embed` — EmbedProvider trait + TeiProvider impl
+/// - `store` — VectorStore trait + QdrantStore impl
+/// - `chunker` — ExtractionResult → Vec<Chunk>
+/// - `config` — RagConfig (TOML deserialization)
+/// - `factory` — build_embed_provider / build_vector_store
+/// - `pipeline` — filesystem watcher orchestration
+/// - `error` — RagError enum
+
+// Tokenizer Sync compile-time assertion.
+// tokenizers::Tokenizer must be Sync to be used across tokio workers.
+// If this fails to compile, workers cannot safely share the tokenizer.
+const _: () = {
+    fn assert_sync<T: Sync>() {}
+    fn _check() {
+        assert_sync::<tokenizers::Tokenizer>();
+    }
+};
+
+pub mod chunker;
+pub mod config;
+pub mod embed;
+pub mod error;
+pub mod factory;
+pub mod pipeline;
+pub mod store;
+pub mod types;
+
+// Re-export most-used types at crate root
+pub use config::{load_config, RagConfig};
+pub use embed::{DynEmbedProvider, EmbedProvider};
+pub use error::RagError;
+pub use factory::{build_embed_provider, build_vector_store};
+pub use store::{DynVectorStore, VectorStore};
+pub use types::{Chunk, Point, PointPayload, SearchResult};
diff --git a/crates/noxa-rag/src/pipeline.rs b/crates/noxa-rag/src/pipeline.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c911bae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/noxa-rag/src/pipeline.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+// Pipeline — implemented in noxa-68r.7
+use std::sync::Arc;
+use tokio_util::sync::CancellationToken;
+
+use crate::config::RagConfig;
+use crate::embed::DynEmbedProvider;
+use crate::error::RagError;
+use crate::store::DynVectorStore;
+
+pub struct Pipeline {
+    pub config: RagConfig,
+    pub embed: DynEmbedProvider,
+    pub store: DynVectorStore,
+    pub tokenizer: Arc<tokenizers::Tokenizer>,
+    pub shutdown: CancellationToken,
+}
+
+impl Pipeline {
+    pub async fn run(&self) -> Result<(), RagError> {
+        // Full implementation in noxa-68r.7
+        self.shutdown.cancelled().await;
+        Ok(())
+    }
+}
diff --git a/crates/noxa-rag/src/store/mod.rs b/crates/noxa-rag/src/store/mod.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f9d7aaf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/noxa-rag/src/store/mod.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+use async_trait::async_trait;
+use std::sync::Arc;
+
+use crate::error::RagError;
+use crate::types::{Point, SearchResult};
+
+/// Pluggable vector store backend.
+///
+/// Trait surface is minimal — only what ALL impls share.
+/// Collection lifecycle (create_collection, collection_exists) lives in factory.rs
+/// as concrete methods on each store struct, called during startup probes.
+#[async_trait]
+pub trait VectorStore: Send + Sync {
+    async fn upsert(&self, points: Vec<Point>) -> Result<(), RagError>;
+    async fn delete_by_url(&self, url: &str) -> Result<(), RagError>;
+    async fn search(&self, vector: &[f32], limit: usize) -> Result<Vec<SearchResult>, RagError>;
+    fn name(&self) -> &str;
+}
+
+pub type DynVectorStore = Arc<dyn VectorStore + Send + Sync>;
+
+pub mod qdrant;
+pub use qdrant::QdrantStore;
diff --git a/crates/noxa-rag/src/store/qdrant.rs b/crates/noxa-rag/src/store/qdrant.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cadb063
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/noxa-rag/src/store/qdrant.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+// QdrantStore — implemented in noxa-68r.4
+use async_trait::async_trait;
+use crate::error::RagError;
+use crate::store::VectorStore;
+use crate::types::{Point, SearchResult};
+
+pub struct QdrantStore {
+    pub(crate) client: qdrant_client::Qdrant,
+    pub(crate) collection: String,
+}
+
+#[async_trait]
+impl VectorStore for QdrantStore {
+    async fn upsert(&self, _points: Vec<Point>) -> Result<(), RagError> {
+        // Full implementation in noxa-68r.4
+        Err(RagError::Store("QdrantStore not yet implemented".to_string()))
+    }
+
+    async fn delete_by_url(&self, _url: &str) -> Result<(), RagError> {
+        Err(RagError::Store("QdrantStore not yet implemented".to_string()))
+    }
+
+    async fn search(&self, _vector: &[f32], _limit: usize) -> Result<Vec<SearchResult>, RagError> {
+        Err(RagError::Store("QdrantStore not yet implemented".to_string()))
+    }
+
+    fn name(&self) -> &str {
+        "qdrant"
+    }
+}
diff --git a/crates/noxa-rag/src/types.rs b/crates/noxa-rag/src/types.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bb26127
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/noxa-rag/src/types.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
+use uuid::Uuid;
+
+/// A chunk produced from an ExtractionResult.
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Serialize, Deserialize)]
+pub struct Chunk {
+    pub text: String,
+    pub source_url: String,
+    pub domain: String,
+    pub chunk_index: usize,
+    pub total_chunks: usize,
+    pub char_offset: usize,
+    pub token_estimate: usize,
+}
+
+/// A point ready for upsert into the vector store.
+#[derive(Debug, Clone)]
+pub struct Point {
+    /// UUID v5 deterministic ID: url#chunkN
+    pub id: Uuid,
+    pub vector: Vec<f32>,
+    pub payload: PointPayload,
+}
+
+/// Payload stored alongside each vector in the store.
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Serialize, Deserialize)]
+pub struct PointPayload {
+    pub text: String,
+    /// Normalized URL (strip fragment, trailing slash, lowercase scheme+host).
+    pub url: String,
+    pub domain: String,
+    pub chunk_index: usize,
+    pub total_chunks: usize,
+    pub token_estimate: usize,
+}
+
+/// A search result returned by VectorStore::search().
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Serialize, Deserialize)]
+pub struct SearchResult {
+    pub text: String,
+    pub url: String,
+    pub score: f32,
+    pub chunk_index: usize,
+    pub token_estimate: usize,
+}