diff --git a/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-redaction.test.ts b/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-redaction.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..90e61e758b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-redaction.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@
+import { mkdtemp, rm, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises'
+import { tmpdir } from 'node:os'
+import { join } from 'node:path'
+import { afterEach, beforeEach, describe, expect, it } from 'vitest'
+import { resetSessionParseCacheForTests } from '../ai-vault/session-scanner-parse-cache'
+import { registerSessionSearchIndexSink } from '../ai-vault/session-search-capture'
+import { redactSessionSearchText } from './session-search-redaction'
+import { SessionSearchStore } from './session-search-store'
+import {
+  CLAUDE_SESSION_ID as SESSION_ID,
+  parseTranscript,
+  userRecord
+} from './session-search-transcript-fixtures'
+
+const GITHUB_TOKEN = `ghp_${'A1b2C3d4E5f6G7h8I9j0K1l2M3n4O5p6Q7r8'}`
+const AWS_KEY = 'AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE'
+const JWT =
+  'eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxMjM0NTY3ODkwIn0.dozjgNryP4J3jVmNHl0w5N_XgL0n3I9PlFUP0THsR8U'
+const PEM = [
+  '-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----',
+  'MIIEowIBAAKCAQEAqhVmVvXTPQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA',
+  '-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----'
+].join('\n')
+
+let tempRoots: string[] = []
+let store: SessionSearchStore
+
+beforeEach(async () => {
+  resetSessionParseCacheForTests()
+  const root = await makeTempDir()
+  store = new SessionSearchStore(join(root, 'index.sqlite'), (error) => {
+    throw error
+  })
+  registerSessionSearchIndexSink(store)
+})
+
+afterEach(async () => {
+  registerSessionSearchIndexSink(null)
+  store.close()
+  await Promise.all(tempRoots.map((root) => rm(root, { recursive: true, force: true })))
+  tempRoots = []
+})
+
+async function makeTempDir(): Promise<string> {
+  const root = await mkdtemp(join(tmpdir(), 'orca-session-redaction-'))
+  tempRoots.push(root)
+  return root
+}
+
+describe('session search redaction', () => {
+  it('keeps the fingerprint patterns and leaves ordinary transcript shapes alone', () => {
+    expect(redactSessionSearchText(`key ${AWS_KEY} here`)).toBe(
+      'key [redacted:aws-access-key-id] here'
+    )
+    expect(redactSessionSearchText(`Authorization: Bearer ${JWT}`)).toBe(
+      'Authorization: Bearer [redacted:jwt]'
+    )
+    // Opaque (non-JWT) bearer values are covered too; the label survives.
+    expect(redactSessionSearchText('Bearer abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz012345')).toBe(
+      'Bearer [redacted:bearer-token]'
+    )
+    // Why these and not `redactString`: env-shaped code lines and `token:` prose
+    // are ordinary transcript content and must stay searchable.
+    for (const benign of [
+      'MAX_RETRIES = 3',
+      'the auth token: refreshed on 401',
+      'API_KEY_HEADER'
+    ]) {
+      expect(redactSessionSearchText(benign)).toBe(benign)
+    }
+  })
+
+  it('never indexes a credential that appeared in tool output', async () => {
+    const root = await makeTempDir()
+    const path = join(root, `${SESSION_ID}.jsonl`)
+    await writeFile(
+      path,
+      `${[
+        userRecord(0, 'deploy the staging worker'),
+        userRecord(1, [
+          {
+            type: 'tool_result',
+            tool_use_id: 'toolu_1',
+            content: [
+              'writing deployment credentials to the staging environment',
+              `github_token=${GITHUB_TOKEN}`,
+              `aws_access_key_id=${AWS_KEY}`,
+              `authorization: Bearer ${JWT}`,
+              PEM,
+              'deployment finished with a green rollout'
+            ].join('\n')
+          }
+        ])
+      ].join('\n')}\n`
+    )
+    await parseTranscript(path)
+
+    // The surrounding words stay searchable...
+    const hit = store.search({ query: 'deployment credentials staging' })
+    expect(hit.hits).toHaveLength(1)
+    expect(store.search({ query: 'green rollout' }).hits).toHaveLength(1)
+    // ...and the redaction marker rides along in the snippet.
+    expect(store.search({ query: 'redacted' }).hits[0]?.evidence.snippet).toContain('redacted')
+
+    // ...but none of the secrets are findable.
+    for (const secret of [
+      GITHUB_TOKEN,
+      AWS_KEY,
+      JWT,
+      'MIIEowIBAAKCAQEAqhVmVvXTPQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA'
+    ]) {
+      expect(store.search({ query: secret }).hits).toHaveLength(0)
+    }
+  })
+})
diff --git a/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-redaction.ts b/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-redaction.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..13c800a12c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-redaction.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+import { PROVIDER_PATTERNS } from '../observability/redactor'
+
+// Why not `redactString`: its labeled-kv and .env-line rules are tuned for
+// stack traces and are far too eager over transcript text — every pasted
+// `MAX_RETRIES = 3` diff line would lose its value, and prose like
+// `token: the next token` would lose the word `token` itself, taking the
+// searchable content with it. The provider fingerprints are shape-matched and
+// safe over prose, so those are reused verbatim, plus the one shape they miss:
+// an opaque (non-JWT) bearer token.
+const BEARER_TOKEN = /\b(Bearer)\s+[A-Za-z0-9._~+/=-]{16,}/g
+
+// One scan decides whether the eight fingerprint passes run at all: every
+// pattern above is anchored on one of these, so text without them cannot match.
+const SECRET_ANCHOR = /sk-|gh[pousr]_|AKIA|eyJ|xox|-----|[Bb]earer|aws_secret_access_key/
+
+/** Strips credential-shaped spans so the index (and every snippet) never holds one. */
+export function redactSessionSearchText(text: string): string {
+  if (!SECRET_ANCHOR.test(text)) {
+    return text
+  }
+  let out = text
+  for (const { tag, re } of PROVIDER_PATTERNS) {
+    out = out.replace(re, `[redacted:${tag}]`)
+  }
+  return out.replace(BEARER_TOKEN, '$1 [redacted:bearer-token]')
+}
diff --git a/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-schema.ts b/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-schema.ts
index f15fc7009f0..3e6fd41e04b 100644
--- a/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-schema.ts
+++ b/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-schema.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import SyncDatabase from '../sqlite/sync-database'
 
 // Bump to drop and rebuild: the index is a cache over the transcripts, never a source.
-export const SESSION_SEARCH_SCHEMA_VERSION = 3
+export const SESSION_SEARCH_SCHEMA_VERSION = 4
 
 // unicode61 keeps `_ . - /` inside tokens so paths and identifiers match exactly;
 // the `identifiers` column carries the split form (see session-search-identifier-split).
diff --git a/src/main/ai-vault/session-search-content.ts b/src/main/ai-vault/session-search-content.ts
index 50cad8da623..b49f9b9c475 100644
--- a/src/main/ai-vault/session-search-content.ts
+++ b/src/main/ai-vault/session-search-content.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import { redactSessionSearchText } from '../ai-vault-search/session-search-redaction'
 import {
   captureSessionSearchMessage,
   isSessionSearchCaptureActive,
@@ -168,7 +169,11 @@ export function captureIndexableText(
     return
   }
   const limit = indexed === 'tool' ? SESSION_SEARCH_TOOL_OUTPUT_CAP : SESSION_SEARCH_TEXT_CAP
-  const cleaned = cap(stripHiddenBlocks(cap(text, limit * 4)), limit).trim()
+  // Redact before the final cap so a credential straddling it cannot survive in halves.
+  const cleaned = cap(
+    redactSessionSearchText(stripHiddenBlocks(cap(text, limit * 4))),
+    limit
+  ).trim()
   if (!cleaned) {
     return
   }
diff --git a/src/main/observability/redactor.ts b/src/main/observability/redactor.ts
index 7ddab42a0c9..8f8b7eedc56 100644
--- a/src/main/observability/redactor.ts
+++ b/src/main/observability/redactor.ts
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ const LABELED_KV =
   /\b(?:api[-_]?key|token|secret|password|bearer|authorization)\b\s*[:=]\s*(?:Bearer\s+\S+|Token\s+\S+|\S+)/gi
 
 // Tagged tokens let triage see what was redacted without the key. Order is most-specific-first: `sk-ant-` before `sk-`, or the Anthropic tag is lost.
-const PROVIDER_PATTERNS: { tag: string; re: RegExp }[] = [
+export const PROVIDER_PATTERNS: { tag: string; re: RegExp }[] = [
   { tag: 'anthropic-key', re: /sk-ant-[a-zA-Z0-9_-]{40,}/g },
   { tag: 'openai-key', re: /sk-(?:proj-)?[a-zA-Z0-9_-]{32,}/g },
   { tag: 'github-token', re: /gh[pousr]_[A-Za-z0-9]{36,}/g },