diff --git a/backend/requirements.txt b/backend/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..39e28d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+fastapi>=0.115.0,<1.0
+uvicorn[standard]>=0.32.0,<1.0
+sqlalchemy[asyncio]>=2.0,<3.0
+asyncpg>=0.30.0,<1.0
+alembic>=1.14.0,<2.0
+pydantic>=2.0,<3.0
+pydantic-settings>=2.0,<3.0
+celery[redis]>=5.4.0,<6.0
+redis>=5.0,<6.0
+python-dotenv>=1.0,<2.0
+python-multipart>=0.0.9,<1.0
+httpx>=0.27.0,<1.0
+openai>=1.0,<2.0
+qdrant-client>=1.9,<2.0
+pyyaml>=6.0,<7.0
+psycopg2-binary>=2.9,<3.0
+watchdog>=4.0,<5.0
+# Test dependencies
+pytest>=8.0,<10.0
+pytest-asyncio>=0.24,<1.0
diff --git a/backend/watcher.py b/backend/watcher.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..43c8de3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/watcher.py
@@ -0,0 +1,244 @@
+"""Transcript folder watcher — monitors a directory for new JSON files and POSTs them to the ingest API.
+
+Designed to run as a standalone service (or Docker container) that watches for Whisper
+transcript JSON files dropped via SCP/rsync and automatically ingests them into Chrysopedia.
+
+Uses PollingObserver (not inotify) for reliability on ZFS and network-mounted filesystems.
+
+Environment variables:
+    WATCH_FOLDER              — directory to monitor (default: /watch)
+    WATCHER_API_URL           — ingest endpoint URL (default: http://chrysopedia-api:8000/api/v1/ingest)
+    WATCHER_STABILITY_SECONDS — seconds file size must be stable before processing (default: 2)
+    WATCHER_POLL_INTERVAL     — seconds between filesystem polls (default: 5)
+"""
+
+import json
+import logging
+import os
+import shutil
+import sys
+import time
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import httpx
+from watchdog.events import FileSystemEventHandler
+from watchdog.observers.polling import PollingObserver
+
+# ── Configuration ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+WATCH_FOLDER = os.environ.get("WATCH_FOLDER", "/watch")
+API_URL = os.environ.get("WATCHER_API_URL", "http://chrysopedia-api:8000/api/v1/ingest")
+STABILITY_SECONDS = float(os.environ.get("WATCHER_STABILITY_SECONDS", "2"))
+POLL_INTERVAL = float(os.environ.get("WATCHER_POLL_INTERVAL", "5"))
+
+REQUIRED_KEYS = {"source_file", "creator_folder", "duration_seconds", "segments"}
+
+logger = logging.getLogger("watcher")
+
+
+# ── Helpers ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+def wait_for_stability(path: str, seconds: float = STABILITY_SECONDS) -> bool:
+    """Wait until a file's size is unchanged for *seconds* consecutive seconds.
+
+    Returns True when stable, False if the file disappears during the wait.
+    Polls every 0.5 s.
+    """
+    prev_size = -1
+    stable_since: float | None = None
+
+    while True:
+        try:
+            current_size = os.path.getsize(path)
+        except OSError:
+            logger.warning("File disappeared during stability wait: %s", path)
+            return False
+
+        if current_size == prev_size:
+            if stable_since is None:
+                stable_since = time.monotonic()
+            elif time.monotonic() - stable_since >= seconds:
+                return True
+        else:
+            prev_size = current_size
+            stable_since = None
+
+        time.sleep(0.5)
+
+
+def validate_transcript(data: dict) -> str | None:
+    """Validate that *data* has the required transcript keys.
+
+    Returns None on success, or a human-readable error string on failure.
+    """
+    if not isinstance(data, dict):
+        return "Top-level JSON value is not an object"
+    missing = REQUIRED_KEYS - data.keys()
+    if missing:
+        return f"Missing required keys: {', '.join(sorted(missing))}"
+    if not isinstance(data.get("segments"), list):
+        return "'segments' must be an array"
+    return None
+
+
+def post_to_ingest(filepath: str) -> tuple[bool, str]:
+    """Read *filepath*, validate its JSON, and POST it to the ingest API.
+
+    Returns (success: bool, detail: str).
+    """
+    # Read and parse
+    try:
+        raw_bytes = Path(filepath).read_bytes()
+    except OSError as exc:
+        return False, f"File read error: {exc}"
+
+    if not raw_bytes:
+        return False, "File is empty"
+
+    try:
+        data = json.loads(raw_bytes)
+    except json.JSONDecodeError as exc:
+        return False, f"JSON parse error: {exc}"
+
+    # Validate structure
+    error = validate_transcript(data)
+    if error:
+        return False, f"Validation error: {error}"
+
+    # POST as multipart upload (field name: "file")
+    filename = os.path.basename(filepath)
+    try:
+        with httpx.Client(timeout=30.0) as client:
+            response = client.post(
+                API_URL,
+                files={"file": (filename, raw_bytes, "application/json")},
+            )
+    except httpx.TimeoutException:
+        return False, f"HTTP timeout after 30s contacting {API_URL}"
+    except httpx.ConnectError as exc:
+        return False, f"Connection error: {exc}"
+    except httpx.HTTPError as exc:
+        return False, f"HTTP error: {exc}"
+
+    if response.status_code >= 400:
+        body = response.text[:500]  # cap sidecar size
+        return False, f"HTTP {response.status_code}: {body}"
+
+    return True, f"HTTP {response.status_code} — ingested successfully"
+
+
+def move_to_processed(filepath: str, watch_folder: str) -> None:
+    """Move *filepath* into the ``processed/`` subfolder of *watch_folder*."""
+    dest_dir = os.path.join(watch_folder, "processed")
+    os.makedirs(dest_dir, exist_ok=True)
+    dest = os.path.join(dest_dir, os.path.basename(filepath))
+    shutil.move(filepath, dest)
+    logger.info("Moved to processed: %s", dest)
+
+
+def move_to_failed(filepath: str, error: str, watch_folder: str) -> None:
+    """Move *filepath* into the ``failed/`` subfolder and write a ``.error`` sidecar."""
+    dest_dir = os.path.join(watch_folder, "failed")
+    os.makedirs(dest_dir, exist_ok=True)
+    dest = os.path.join(dest_dir, os.path.basename(filepath))
+    shutil.move(filepath, dest)
+
+    sidecar = dest + ".error"
+    try:
+        Path(sidecar).write_text(error, encoding="utf-8")
+    except OSError as exc:
+        logger.error("Failed to write error sidecar %s: %s", sidecar, exc)
+
+    logger.warning("Moved to failed: %s — %s", dest, error)
+
+
+# ── Watchdog handler ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+class TranscriptHandler(FileSystemEventHandler):
+    """Handle new ``.json`` files in the watch folder."""
+
+    def __init__(self, watch_folder: str) -> None:
+        super().__init__()
+        self.watch_folder = watch_folder
+
+    def on_created(self, event):  # noqa: ANN001
+        if event.is_directory:
+            return
+
+        filepath = event.src_path
+
+        # Only process .json files
+        if not filepath.lower().endswith(".json"):
+            return
+
+        # Ignore files inside processed/ or failed/ subdirs
+        rel = os.path.relpath(filepath, self.watch_folder)
+        parts = Path(rel).parts
+        if parts and parts[0] in ("processed", "failed"):
+            return
+
+        logger.info("Detected new file: %s", filepath)
+
+        # Wait for file to finish writing (SCP/rsync)
+        if not wait_for_stability(filepath):
+            logger.warning("File vanished before stable: %s", filepath)
+            return
+
+        logger.info("File stable, processing: %s", filepath)
+
+        # Attempt ingest
+        success, detail = post_to_ingest(filepath)
+
+        if success:
+            logger.info("Ingest succeeded for %s: %s", filepath, detail)
+            try:
+                move_to_processed(filepath, self.watch_folder)
+            except OSError as exc:
+                logger.error("Failed to move %s to processed/: %s", filepath, exc)
+        else:
+            logger.error("Ingest failed for %s: %s", filepath, detail)
+            try:
+                move_to_failed(filepath, detail, self.watch_folder)
+            except OSError as exc:
+                logger.error("Failed to move %s to failed/: %s", filepath, exc)
+
+
+# ── Main ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+def main() -> None:
+    """Entry point — start the polling observer and block until interrupted."""
+    logging.basicConfig(
+        level=logging.INFO,
+        format="%(asctime)s [%(name)s] %(levelname)s %(message)s",
+        stream=sys.stdout,
+    )
+
+    watch_path = os.path.abspath(WATCH_FOLDER)
+    logger.info("Starting watcher on %s (poll every %.1fs, stability %.1fs)",
+                watch_path, POLL_INTERVAL, STABILITY_SECONDS)
+
+    # Ensure base dirs exist
+    os.makedirs(watch_path, exist_ok=True)
+    os.makedirs(os.path.join(watch_path, "processed"), exist_ok=True)
+    os.makedirs(os.path.join(watch_path, "failed"), exist_ok=True)
+
+    handler = TranscriptHandler(watch_path)
+    observer = PollingObserver(timeout=POLL_INTERVAL)
+    observer.schedule(handler, watch_path, recursive=True)
+    observer.start()
+
+    logger.info("Watcher running. Press Ctrl+C to stop.")
+    try:
+        while observer.is_alive():
+            observer.join(timeout=1)
+    except KeyboardInterrupt:
+        logger.info("Shutting down watcher.")
+    finally:
+        observer.stop()
+        observer.join()
+
+    logger.info("Watcher stopped.")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()