diff --git a/gitnexus/src/mcp/local/local-backend.ts b/gitnexus/src/mcp/local/local-backend.ts
index 8ea6880e7..7ea98463c 100644
--- a/gitnexus/src/mcp/local/local-backend.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/src/mcp/local/local-backend.ts
@@ -266,10 +266,31 @@ export const IMPACT_RELATION_CONFIDENCE: Readonly<Record<string, number>> = {
 const confidenceForRelType = (relType: string | undefined): number =>
   IMPACT_RELATION_CONFIDENCE[relType ?? ''] ?? 0.5;
 
-/** Structured error logging for query failures — replaces empty catch blocks */
+/**
+ * Structured logging for *swallowed* query failures — replaces empty catch
+ * blocks. Every caller of this helper catches the failure and degrades to a
+ * safe fallback (the operation still returns a result), so these are NOT
+ * operation-level errors and must not be logged at `error`:
+ *
+ *  - A benign missing optional table/label/column — a repo analyzed without
+ *    processes/communities, or a pre-v3 PDG index lacking the `calleeIds`
+ *    column — is a normal configuration, not a failure. Logged at `debug`
+ *    (suppressed at the default `info` level; surfaced only when troubleshooting).
+ *  - Any other swallowed failure is an unexpected-but-handled degradation:
+ *    logged at `warn` so it stays observable without raising a false `error`
+ *    alarm that would drown genuine, operation-aborting failures.
+ *
+ * `error` is intentionally NOT used here — it is reserved for failures that
+ * actually abort an operation, which log directly rather than through this
+ * best-effort-degradation helper.
+ */
 function logQueryError(context: string, err: unknown): void {
   const msg = err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err);
-  logger.error({ context, err: msg }, 'GitNexus query failed');
+  if (isBenignMissingTableError(err)) {
+    logger.debug({ context, err: msg }, 'GitNexus query skipped (missing optional data)');
+    return;
+  }
+  logger.warn({ context, err: msg }, 'GitNexus query failed (degraded)');
 }
 
 /**
@@ -1955,9 +1976,14 @@ export class LocalBackend {
     try {
       ftsResponse = await searchFTSFromLbug(query, limit, repo.lbugPath);
     } catch (err: any) {
-      logger.error(
+      // Swallowed, gracefully-degraded failure: the search falls back to
+      // semantic-only (a valid result), and the most common cause is simply an
+      // un-indexed FTS extension — a normal configuration, not an operation
+      // error. Logged at warn (matching the sibling import-failure fallback
+      // above), never error, so it does not raise a false alarm.
+      logger.warn(
         { err: err.message },
-        'GitNexus: BM25/FTS search failed (FTS indexes may not exist) -',
+        'GitNexus: BM25/FTS search failed (FTS indexes may not exist) — falling back to semantic-only',
       );
       return { results: [], ftsUsed: false };
     }
diff --git a/gitnexus/test/unit/calltool-dispatch.test.ts b/gitnexus/test/unit/calltool-dispatch.test.ts
index 9fc72086f..e8fad5928 100644
--- a/gitnexus/test/unit/calltool-dispatch.test.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/test/unit/calltool-dispatch.test.ts
@@ -1866,15 +1866,27 @@ describe('LocalBackend impact mode (KTD1/KTD5/KTD12)', () => {
       criterionLine: 8,
     });
     const bfsSpy = vi.spyOn(backend as any, '_runImpactBFS');
-    const result = await backend.callTool('impact', {
-      target: 'main',
-      direction: 'downstream',
-      mode: 'pdg',
-      line: 8,
-    });
-    // The error was swallowed: no bridge passed to the BFS, and no error surfaced.
-    expect(result.error).toBeUndefined();
-    expect(bfsSpy.mock.calls[0][4].pdgBridge).toBeUndefined();
+    const cap = _captureLogger();
+    try {
+      const result = await backend.callTool('impact', {
+        target: 'main',
+        direction: 'downstream',
+        mode: 'pdg',
+        line: 8,
+      });
+      // The error was swallowed: no bridge passed to the BFS, and no error surfaced.
+      expect(result.error).toBeUndefined();
+      expect(bfsSpy.mock.calls[0][4].pdgBridge).toBeUndefined();
+      // The swallowed, gracefully-degraded query failure is logged at warn (40),
+      // never error (50): it degraded to a safe fallback and is not an operation
+      // failure. Pinning the severity guards against a regression to a false
+      // ERROR alarm that would drown genuine, operation-aborting failures.
+      const slice = cap.records().find((r) => r.context === 'impact:pdg-slice-callees');
+      expect(slice).toBeDefined();
+      expect(slice?.level).toBe(40);
+    } finally {
+      cap.restore();
+    }
   });
 
   it("mode:'pdg' + crossDepth → hard {error} (single-repo PDG impact)", async () => {