diff --git a/apps/mcp/src/retrieval-receipt.test.ts b/apps/mcp/src/retrieval-receipt.test.ts
index c1f06f17..5396130c 100644
--- a/apps/mcp/src/retrieval-receipt.test.ts
+++ b/apps/mcp/src/retrieval-receipt.test.ts
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ describe("retrieval receipts", () => {
 			},
 			profile: { staticCount: 2, dynamicCount: 1 },
 			latencyMs: 42,
-			hashAlgorithm: "sha256-prefix-16",
+			hashAlgorithm: "hmac-sha256-ephemeral-salt-prefix-16",
 		})
 
 		expect(receipt.queryHash).toHaveLength(16)
@@ -49,6 +49,35 @@ describe("retrieval receipts", () => {
 		expect(JSON.stringify(receipt)).not.toContain("Patient-specific")
 	})
 
+	it("keeps hashes equal within a receipt but unlinkable across receipts", async () => {
+		const args = {
+			query: "repeated query",
+			containerTag: "same-project",
+			results: [
+				{ id: "mem_dup", similarity: 0.5, text: "identical content" },
+				{ id: "mem_dup", similarity: 0.5, text: "identical content" },
+			],
+			latencyMs: 10,
+		}
+
+		const first = await createRetrievalReceipt(args)
+		const second = await createRetrievalReceipt(args)
+
+		// Within one receipt the same value hashes consistently, so duplicates
+		// remain detectable for debugging.
+		expect(first.result.idsHash[0]).toBe(first.result.idsHash[1])
+		expect(first.result.contentHashes[0]).toBe(first.result.contentHashes[1])
+
+		// Across receipts the same private value produces different tokens, so it
+		// cannot be correlated or dictionary-guessed without the ephemeral salt.
+		expect(second.queryHash).not.toBe(first.queryHash)
+		expect(second.projectIdHash).not.toBe(first.projectIdHash)
+		expect(second.result.idsHash[0]).not.toBe(first.result.idsHash[0])
+		expect(second.result.contentHashes[0]).not.toBe(
+			first.result.contentHashes[0],
+		)
+	})
+
 	it("keeps score buckets bounded at edges", () => {
 		expect(toScoreBucket(1)).toBe("1.0")
 		expect(toScoreBucket(0)).toBe("0.0-0.1")
diff --git a/apps/mcp/src/retrieval-receipt.ts b/apps/mcp/src/retrieval-receipt.ts
index 54b2639c..c5ce64b4 100644
--- a/apps/mcp/src/retrieval-receipt.ts
+++ b/apps/mcp/src/retrieval-receipt.ts
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ export type RetrievalReceipt = {
 		dynamicCount: number
 	}
 	latencyMs: number
-	hashAlgorithm: "sha256-prefix-16"
+	hashAlgorithm: "hmac-sha256-ephemeral-salt-prefix-16"
 }
 
 type CreateRetrievalReceiptArgs = {
@@ -44,16 +44,51 @@ type CreateRetrievalReceiptArgs = {
 }
 
 const HASH_PREFIX_LENGTH = 16
+const SALT_BYTES = 32
 
-async function hashValue(value: string): Promise<string> {
-	const digest = await crypto.subtle.digest(
-		"SHA-256",
-		new TextEncoder().encode(value),
+function bytesToHex(bytes: Uint8Array): string {
+	return Array.from(bytes, (byte) => byte.toString(16).padStart(2, "0")).join(
+		"",
 	)
-	return [...new Uint8Array(digest)]
-		.map((byte) => byte.toString(16).padStart(2, "0"))
-		.join("")
-		.slice(0, HASH_PREFIX_LENGTH)
+}
+
+/**
+ * Builds a one-time keyed hasher for a single receipt.
+ *
+ * Plain deterministic SHA-256 is not privacy-safe for the values we hash here:
+ * queries, container tags, memory IDs, and (especially short) memory content
+ * are low-entropy, so a raw digest can be dictionary-guessed offline, and the
+ * same value would always produce the same digest and stay linkable across
+ * every receipt forever.
+ *
+ * Instead we key an HMAC with a cryptographically random salt that is generated
+ * per receipt and never emitted. Without the salt an attacker cannot precompute
+ * or brute-force the inputs, and because the salt is fresh for every receipt the
+ * same private value produces a different token each time, so receipts cannot be
+ * correlated against each other. Equality is preserved only within a single
+ * receipt (e.g. duplicate content in one result set), which is what debugging
+ * needs.
+ */
+async function createSaltedHasher(): Promise<
+	(value: string) => Promise<string>
+> {
+	const salt = crypto.getRandomValues(new Uint8Array(SALT_BYTES))
+	const key = await crypto.subtle.importKey(
+		"raw",
+		salt,
+		{ name: "HMAC", hash: "SHA-256" },
+		false,
+		["sign"],
+	)
+
+	return async (value: string): Promise<string> => {
+		const signature = await crypto.subtle.sign(
+			"HMAC",
+			key,
+			new TextEncoder().encode(value),
+		)
+		return bytesToHex(new Uint8Array(signature)).slice(0, HASH_PREFIX_LENGTH)
+	}
 }
 
 export function toScoreBucket(score: number): string {
@@ -74,11 +109,13 @@ export async function createRetrievalReceipt({
 	latencyMs,
 	profile,
 }: CreateRetrievalReceiptArgs): Promise<RetrievalReceipt> {
+	const hash = await createSaltedHasher()
+
 	const [queryHash, projectIdHash, idsHash, contentHashes] = await Promise.all([
-		hashValue(query),
-		containerTag ? hashValue(containerTag) : Promise.resolve(undefined),
-		Promise.all(results.map((result) => hashValue(result.id))),
-		Promise.all(results.map((result) => hashValue(result.text))),
+		hash(query),
+		containerTag ? hash(containerTag) : Promise.resolve(undefined),
+		Promise.all(results.map((result) => hash(result.id))),
+		Promise.all(results.map((result) => hash(result.text))),
 	])
 
 	return {
@@ -98,6 +135,6 @@ export async function createRetrievalReceipt({
 		},
 		...(profile ? { profile } : {}),
 		latencyMs,
-		hashAlgorithm: "sha256-prefix-16",
+		hashAlgorithm: "hmac-sha256-ephemeral-salt-prefix-16",
 	}
 }