diff --git a/gitnexus/src/cli/doctor.ts b/gitnexus/src/cli/doctor.ts
index 0c8e72e9e..aebfc7cf8 100644
--- a/gitnexus/src/cli/doctor.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/src/cli/doctor.ts
@@ -291,13 +291,15 @@ export const doctorCommand = async () => {
       console.log(`  ${padDisplayEnd('', 18)}${remedy}`);
     }
   }
-  // Semantic mode follows the probe, not the platform: without a loadable
-  // VECTOR extension the index can be neither built nor queried, so search is
-  // really on exact scan no matter what the platform would allow.
+  // Doctor has no repository target, so this probe can report only whether the
+  // runtime can load VECTOR. It cannot claim that a repository has built the
+  // named HNSW index. Keep the capability and repository state distinct.
   console.log(
-    `  ${label('doctor.labels.semanticMode', 18)}${
-      vectorProbe.loaded ? capabilities.semanticMode : 'exact-scan'
-    }`,
+    `  ${label('doctor.labels.semanticMode', 18)}${t(
+      vectorProbe.loaded
+        ? 'doctor.vectorCapability.indexUnverified'
+        : 'doctor.vectorCapability.exactScanOnly',
+    )}`,
   );
   // Surface the optional-extension install policy so offline users can see
   // whether analyze/query will reach the network (extension.ladybugdb.com).
diff --git a/gitnexus/src/cli/i18n/en.ts b/gitnexus/src/cli/i18n/en.ts
index a560fa23e..3585a6648 100644
--- a/gitnexus/src/cli/i18n/en.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/src/cli/i18n/en.ts
@@ -123,8 +123,10 @@ export const en = {
   'doctor.labels.onnx': 'ONNX:',
   'doctor.labels.graphStore': 'Graph store:',
   'doctor.labels.fullTextSearch': 'Full-text search:',
-  'doctor.labels.vectorIndex': 'VECTOR index:',
-  'doctor.labels.semanticMode': 'Semantic mode:',
+  'doctor.labels.vectorIndex': 'VECTOR extension:',
+  'doctor.labels.semanticMode': 'Semantic support:',
+  'doctor.vectorCapability.indexUnverified': 'vector-index capable (repository index not checked)',
+  'doctor.vectorCapability.exactScanOnly': 'exact-scan only (VECTOR extension unavailable)',
   'doctor.labels.exactScanLimit': 'Exact scan limit:',
   'doctor.labels.note': 'Note:',
   'doctor.labels.backend': 'Backend:',
diff --git a/gitnexus/src/cli/i18n/zh-CN.ts b/gitnexus/src/cli/i18n/zh-CN.ts
index 536b8ffb9..2f84f4b97 100644
--- a/gitnexus/src/cli/i18n/zh-CN.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/src/cli/i18n/zh-CN.ts
@@ -119,8 +119,10 @@ export const zhCN = {
   'doctor.labels.onnx': 'ONNX：',
   'doctor.labels.graphStore': '图存储：',
   'doctor.labels.fullTextSearch': '全文搜索：',
-  'doctor.labels.vectorIndex': '向量索引：',
-  'doctor.labels.semanticMode': '语义模式：',
+  'doctor.labels.vectorIndex': 'VECTOR 扩展：',
+  'doctor.labels.semanticMode': '语义支持：',
+  'doctor.vectorCapability.indexUnverified': '支持向量索引（未检查仓库索引）',
+  'doctor.vectorCapability.exactScanOnly': '仅精确扫描（VECTOR 扩展不可用）',
   'doctor.labels.exactScanLimit': '精确扫描上限：',
   'doctor.labels.note': '说明：',
   'doctor.labels.backend': '后端：',
diff --git a/gitnexus/test/unit/doctor-format.test.ts b/gitnexus/test/unit/doctor-format.test.ts
index 61c0ddb10..6c9da7752 100644
--- a/gitnexus/test/unit/doctor-format.test.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/test/unit/doctor-format.test.ts
@@ -8,8 +8,20 @@ import {
   pageSizeDoctorLines,
   poolSizeDoctorLine,
 } from '../../src/cli/doctor.js';
+import { setCliLanguage, type SupportedCliLanguage } from '../../src/cli/i18n/index.js';
 import type { NativeCheckResult } from '../../src/core/lbug/native-check.js';
 
+const nativeProbeState = vi.hoisted(() => ({ vectorLoaded: true }));
+
+vi.mock('../../src/core/lbug/native-check.js', () => ({
+  checkLbugNative: () => ({ ok: true, binaryPath: '/synthetic/lbugjs.node' }),
+  probeFtsExtensionLoad: async () => ({ loaded: true }),
+  probeVectorExtensionLoad: async () =>
+    nativeProbeState.vectorLoaded
+      ? { loaded: true }
+      : { loaded: false, reason: 'synthetic VECTOR load failure' },
+}));
+
 describe('doctor output formatting', () => {
   it('keeps ASCII padding equivalent to String.padEnd', () => {
     expect(displayWidth('OS:')).toBe(3);
@@ -29,6 +41,67 @@ describe('doctor output formatting', () => {
   });
 });
 
+describe('doctor VECTOR capability claims', () => {
+  const ENV_KEYS = [
+    'GITNEXUS_EMBEDDING_URL',
+    'GITNEXUS_EMBEDDING_MODEL',
+    'GITNEXUS_EMBEDDING_DIMS',
+  ] as const;
+  const savedEnv = Object.fromEntries(ENV_KEYS.map((key) => [key, process.env[key]]));
+
+  const renderDoctor = async (
+    vectorLoaded: boolean,
+    language: SupportedCliLanguage = 'en',
+  ): Promise<string> => {
+    nativeProbeState.vectorLoaded = vectorLoaded;
+    setCliLanguage(language);
+    process.env.GITNEXUS_EMBEDDING_URL = 'http://127.0.0.1:9/v1';
+    process.env.GITNEXUS_EMBEDDING_MODEL = 'synthetic-doctor';
+    process.env.GITNEXUS_EMBEDDING_DIMS = '384';
+    const log = vi.spyOn(console, 'log').mockImplementation(() => undefined);
+
+    await doctorCommand();
+
+    return log.mock.calls.map((args) => args.map(String).join(' ')).join('\n');
+  };
+
+  afterEach(() => {
+    nativeProbeState.vectorLoaded = true;
+    setCliLanguage(null);
+    vi.restoreAllMocks();
+    for (const key of ENV_KEYS) {
+      if (savedEnv[key] === undefined) delete process.env[key];
+      else process.env[key] = savedEnv[key];
+    }
+  });
+
+  it('reports a loaded extension without claiming a repository index exists', async () => {
+    const output = await renderDoctor(true);
+
+    expect(output).toContain('VECTOR extension: available');
+    expect(output).toContain(
+      'Semantic support: vector-index capable (repository index not checked)',
+    );
+    expect(output).not.toContain('VECTOR index:');
+    expect(output).not.toContain('Semantic mode:');
+  });
+
+  it('reports exact-scan capability when the extension cannot load', async () => {
+    const output = await renderDoctor(false);
+
+    expect(output).toContain('VECTOR extension: unavailable');
+    expect(output).toContain('Semantic support: exact-scan only (VECTOR extension unavailable)');
+  });
+
+  it('keeps the corrected capability claims localized', async () => {
+    const output = await renderDoctor(true, 'zh-CN');
+
+    expect(output).toContain('VECTOR 扩展：');
+    expect(output).toContain('语义支持：');
+    expect(output).toContain('支持向量索引（未检查仓库索引）');
+  });
+});
+
 describe('doctor embedding-runtime support status', () => {
   it('flags local embeddings as unavailable on macOS Intel (darwin/x64)', () => {
     const { status, detail } = localEmbeddingDoctorStatus({