diff --git a/gitnexus-web/src/App.tsx b/gitnexus-web/src/App.tsx
index 59fa83159..553a4c7cd 100644
--- a/gitnexus-web/src/App.tsx
+++ b/gitnexus-web/src/App.tsx
@@ -218,8 +218,8 @@ const AppContent = () => {
         setProgress({ phase: 'extracting', percent: 97, message: 'Processing...', detail: 'Extracting file contents' });
       }
     }).then(async (result) => {
-      // Run connect and repo list in parallel (avoid waterfall)
       await handleServerConnect(result);
+      setProgress(null);
       setServerBaseUrl(baseUrl);
       fetchRepos(baseUrl)
         .then((repos) => setAvailableRepos(repos))
@@ -258,6 +258,7 @@ const AppContent = () => {
         onGitClone={handleGitClone}
         onServerConnect={async (result, serverUrl) => {
           await handleServerConnect(result);
+          setProgress(null);
           if (serverUrl) {
             const baseUrl = normalizeServerUrl(serverUrl);
             setServerBaseUrl(baseUrl);
diff --git a/gitnexus-web/src/workers/ingestion.worker.ts b/gitnexus-web/src/workers/ingestion.worker.ts
index 1063eff6d..240864bec 100644
--- a/gitnexus-web/src/workers/ingestion.worker.ts
+++ b/gitnexus-web/src/workers/ingestion.worker.ts
@@ -259,7 +259,9 @@ const workerApi = {
         console.log('📁 Stored', storedFileContents.size, 'files for grep/read tools');
       }
     } catch (err) {
-      console.warn('LadybugDB load failed (non-fatal, continuing without it):', err);
+      if (import.meta.env.DEV) {
+        console.warn('LadybugDB load failed (non-fatal, continuing without it):', err);
+      }
       // Still build BM25 index even if LadybugDB fails
       buildBM25Index(fileMap);
     }
diff --git a/gitnexus/package.json b/gitnexus/package.json
index cba150460..76f6a368f 100644
--- a/gitnexus/package.json
+++ b/gitnexus/package.json
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@
     "test:integration": "vitest run test/integration",
     "test:watch": "vitest",
     "test:coverage": "vitest run --coverage",
-    "prepare": "npm run build && cd .. && husky",
+    "prepare": "node scripts/prepare.cjs",
     "postinstall": "node scripts/patch-tree-sitter-swift.cjs",
     "prepack": "npm run build && chmod +x dist/cli/index.js"
   },
diff --git a/gitnexus/scripts/prepare.cjs b/gitnexus/scripts/prepare.cjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..73c3568d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gitnexus/scripts/prepare.cjs
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+/**
+ * Prepare script: build TypeScript and install husky hooks.
+ * Uses Node child_process so it works on Windows (cmd.exe) and POSIX.
+ */
+const { execSync } = require('child_process');
+const path = require('path');
+
+// 1. Build
+execSync('npm run build', { stdio: 'inherit', cwd: __dirname + '/..' });
+
+// 2. Install husky (from repo root — one level up from gitnexus/)
+try {
+  execSync('npx husky', { stdio: 'inherit', cwd: path.resolve(__dirname, '../..') });
+} catch {
+  // Husky install is optional — may fail in CI or tarball installs
+}