diff --git a/internal/query/degradation.go b/internal/query/degradation.go
index 94f5730d..01acfdee 100644
--- a/internal/query/degradation.go
+++ b/internal/query/degradation.go
@@ -59,5 +59,23 @@ func (e *Engine) GetDegradationWarnings() []DegradationWarning {
 		}
 	}
 
-	return GenerateDegradationWarnings(scipAvailable, gitAvailable, scipStale, commitsBehind)
+	warnings := GenerateDegradationWarnings(scipAvailable, gitAvailable, scipStale, commitsBehind)
+
+	// LIP mixed-models warning: cosine similarity across different vector spaces
+	// is meaningless, so semantic rerank/search is gated off when this is set.
+	// Only emitted once lipSemanticAvailable has probed the daemon — otherwise
+	// we would falsely claim a mixed-model state before any query has run.
+	e.lipHealthMu.RLock()
+	lipMixed := e.cachedLipMixed
+	lipChecked := !e.lipHealthCheckedAt.IsZero()
+	e.lipHealthMu.RUnlock()
+	if lipChecked && lipMixed {
+		warnings = append(warnings, DegradationWarning{
+			Code:              "lip_mixed_models",
+			Message:           "LIP index contains vectors from multiple embedding models — semantic ranking disabled until re-index.",
+			CapabilityPercent: 70,
+		})
+	}
+
+	return warnings
 }
diff --git a/internal/query/engine.go b/internal/query/engine.go
index 2f82ba54..54ceeb2f 100644
--- a/internal/query/engine.go
+++ b/internal/query/engine.go
@@ -64,6 +64,12 @@ type Engine struct {
 	cachedState     *RepoState
 	stateComputedAt time.Time
 
+	// LIP health (cached; refreshed on a short TTL to avoid per-query RPCs).
+	lipHealthMu        sync.RWMutex
+	cachedLipMixed     bool
+	cachedLipAvailable bool
+	lipHealthCheckedAt time.Time
+
 	// Cache stats
 	cacheStatsMu sync.RWMutex
 	cacheHits    int64
diff --git a/internal/query/lip_health.go b/internal/query/lip_health.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a4d5f609
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/query/lip_health.go
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+package query
+
+import (
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/SimplyLiz/CodeMCP/internal/lip"
+)
+
+// lipHealthTTL caps how often we re-probe the LIP daemon for index status.
+// IndexStatus is a 200 ms RPC, so we do not want this per-query.
+const lipHealthTTL = 60 * time.Second
+
+// lipSemanticAvailable reports whether LIP semantic operations (rerank, semantic
+// search) can be trusted. Returns false when the daemon is unavailable OR when
+// the index contains vectors from more than one embedding model — cosine
+// similarity across different vector spaces is mathematically meaningless, so a
+// mixed-model index silently produces garbage rankings.
+func (e *Engine) lipSemanticAvailable() bool {
+	e.lipHealthMu.RLock()
+	fresh := !e.lipHealthCheckedAt.IsZero() && time.Since(e.lipHealthCheckedAt) < lipHealthTTL
+	avail, mixed := e.cachedLipAvailable, e.cachedLipMixed
+	e.lipHealthMu.RUnlock()
+	if fresh {
+		return avail && !mixed
+	}
+
+	status, _ := lip.IndexStatus()
+	e.lipHealthMu.Lock()
+	e.lipHealthCheckedAt = time.Now()
+	if status == nil {
+		e.cachedLipAvailable, e.cachedLipMixed = false, false
+	} else {
+		e.cachedLipAvailable, e.cachedLipMixed = true, status.MixedModels
+	}
+	avail, mixed = e.cachedLipAvailable, e.cachedLipMixed
+	e.lipHealthMu.Unlock()
+	return avail && !mixed
+}
diff --git a/internal/query/lip_health_test.go b/internal/query/lip_health_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..196b760f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/query/lip_health_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,154 @@
+package query
+
+import (
+	"encoding/binary"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"io"
+	"net"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"sync/atomic"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// startLipHealthDaemon launches a test LIP socket that replies to every
+// connection with the supplied indexStatusResp-shaped payload, and returns
+// a counter of handled requests. Points LIP_SOCKET at itself.
+func startLipHealthDaemon(t *testing.T, mixedModels bool) *int64 {
+	t.Helper()
+
+	payload, err := json.Marshal(map[string]any{
+		"indexed_files":           1,
+		"pending_embedding_files": 0,
+		"last_updated_ms":         nil,
+		"mixed_models":            mixedModels,
+		"models_in_index":         []string{"model-a"},
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("marshal: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	dir, err := os.MkdirTemp("/tmp", "lip")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("mkdirtemp: %v", err)
+	}
+	sockPath := filepath.Join(dir, "s.sock")
+	ln, err := net.Listen("unix", sockPath)
+	if err != nil {
+		os.RemoveAll(dir)
+		t.Fatalf("listen: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	prev := os.Getenv("LIP_SOCKET")
+	os.Setenv("LIP_SOCKET", sockPath)
+
+	var reqs int64
+	go func() {
+		for {
+			conn, err := ln.Accept()
+			if err != nil {
+				return
+			}
+			go func(c net.Conn) {
+				defer c.Close()
+				_ = c.SetDeadline(time.Now().Add(2 * time.Second))
+				var lenBuf [4]byte
+				if _, err := io.ReadFull(c, lenBuf[:]); err != nil {
+					return
+				}
+				reqLen := binary.BigEndian.Uint32(lenBuf[:])
+				if _, err := io.CopyN(io.Discard, c, int64(reqLen)); err != nil {
+					return
+				}
+				atomic.AddInt64(&reqs, 1)
+				var out [4]byte
+				binary.BigEndian.PutUint32(out[:], uint32(len(payload)))
+				_, _ = c.Write(out[:])
+				_, _ = c.Write(payload)
+			}(conn)
+		}
+	}()
+
+	t.Cleanup(func() {
+		ln.Close()
+		os.RemoveAll(dir)
+		os.Setenv("LIP_SOCKET", prev)
+	})
+	return &reqs
+}
+
+func TestLipSemanticAvailable_HealthyIndex(t *testing.T) {
+	startLipHealthDaemon(t, false)
+	e := &Engine{}
+	if !e.lipSemanticAvailable() {
+		t.Fatal("lipSemanticAvailable = false for healthy single-model index, want true")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestLipSemanticAvailable_MixedModels(t *testing.T) {
+	startLipHealthDaemon(t, true)
+	e := &Engine{}
+	if e.lipSemanticAvailable() {
+		t.Fatal("lipSemanticAvailable = true while MixedModels is set, want false")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestLipSemanticAvailable_DaemonDown(t *testing.T) {
+	// Point at a socket that doesn't exist.
+	prev := os.Getenv("LIP_SOCKET")
+	os.Setenv("LIP_SOCKET", "/tmp/ckb-lip-nonexistent.sock")
+	t.Cleanup(func() { os.Setenv("LIP_SOCKET", prev) })
+
+	e := &Engine{}
+	if e.lipSemanticAvailable() {
+		t.Fatal("lipSemanticAvailable = true with no daemon, want false")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestLipSemanticAvailable_CacheWithinTTL(t *testing.T) {
+	reqs := startLipHealthDaemon(t, false)
+	e := &Engine{}
+
+	for i := 0; i < 5; i++ {
+		if !e.lipSemanticAvailable() {
+			t.Fatalf("call %d: lipSemanticAvailable = false, want true", i)
+		}
+	}
+	if got := atomic.LoadInt64(reqs); got != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("daemon RPC count = %d, want 1 (TTL cache should suppress subsequent probes)", got)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestGetDegradationWarnings_LipMixedModels(t *testing.T) {
+	startLipHealthDaemon(t, true)
+	e := &Engine{}
+	// Prime the cache so GetDegradationWarnings has something to read.
+	_ = e.lipSemanticAvailable()
+
+	warnings := e.GetDegradationWarnings()
+	var found bool
+	for _, w := range warnings {
+		if w.Code == "lip_mixed_models" {
+			found = true
+			break
+		}
+	}
+	if !found {
+		t.Fatalf("expected lip_mixed_models warning, got %+v", warnings)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestGetDegradationWarnings_NoWarningBeforeFirstProbe(t *testing.T) {
+	// Daemon exists and is mixed, but we never call lipSemanticAvailable so
+	// the cache has not been populated — we should not emit a warning.
+	startLipHealthDaemon(t, true)
+	e := &Engine{}
+
+	warnings := e.GetDegradationWarnings()
+	for _, w := range warnings {
+		if w.Code == "lip_mixed_models" {
+			t.Fatalf("lip_mixed_models warning surfaced before first probe: %+v", w)
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/internal/query/symbols.go b/internal/query/symbols.go
index 5c8dace4..b50e900f 100644
--- a/internal/query/symbols.go
+++ b/internal/query/symbols.go
@@ -514,7 +514,7 @@ func (e *Engine) SearchSymbols(ctx context.Context, opts SearchSymbolsOptions) (
 	// content table. The threshold of 3 mirrors the PPR/LIP re-ranking gate — below
 	// that the lexical results aren't trustworthy enough to stand alone.
 	const lipFallbackThreshold = 3
-	if len(results) < lipFallbackThreshold {
+	if len(results) < lipFallbackThreshold && e.lipSemanticAvailable() {
 		lipSymLimit := opts.Limit * 3
 		lipResults := SemanticSearchWithLIP(opts.Query, 20, "", 0, func(fileURIs []string) map[string][]SearchResultItem {
 			// Convert file:// URIs back to repo-relative paths for the batch query.
@@ -639,7 +639,7 @@ func (e *Engine) SearchSymbols(ctx context.Context, opts SearchSymbolsOptions) (
 				results = reranked
 			}
 		}
-	} else if len(results) > 3 && !lipRanked {
+	} else if len(results) > 3 && !lipRanked && e.lipSemanticAvailable() {
 		// Fast tier: use LIP file embeddings as a semantic re-ranking signal.
 		// Skip when results already came from LIP semantic search (lipRanked=true) —
 		// they're already ordered by similarity, a second pass would be redundant.