diff --git a/.superpowers/sdd/evidence-task-6-report.md b/.superpowers/sdd/evidence-task-6-report.md
index 384a8897..b1d347ab 100644
--- a/.superpowers/sdd/evidence-task-6-report.md
+++ b/.superpowers/sdd/evidence-task-6-report.md
@@ -33,3 +33,17 @@ The cleanup boundary now begins immediately after snapshot materialization. Resu
 validation and `JobSpec` construction are guarded by the same release routine as `run_job`, so
 corrupt/mismatched resume state or constructor failure clears the pipeline holder, removes the
 private directory, and restores the snapshot registry to its prior state before propagating.
+
+## Shipped preprocessing startup contract
+
+Local-vector preprocessing now uses a dedicated Compose override. Both one-shot jobs depend on a
+successfully completed `vector-migrate`, whose transitive chain waits for database health and role
+reconciliation. The generic preprocessing overlay remains independently renderable and contains no
+local-vector services or password secrets. README commands include the local override and build the
+job image before running.
+
+The real clean-project smoke no longer injects dependencies or manually starts, reconciles, or
+migrates PostgreSQL. Its first shipped `compose run preprocess-evidence` demonstrably creates the
+database, waits for health, runs reconciliation and migration, then runs the Evidence job. Unchanged
+rerun, changed-source publish, DWH preprocessing, ACTIVE verification, and injected-failure cleanup
+all pass through the same shipped dependency path.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d6d86547..022802c6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -62,23 +62,13 @@ runtime):
 
 ```sh
 docker compose -f compose.yaml -f deploy/compose.local-vector.yaml \
-  -f deploy/compose.preprocess.yaml -f deploy/compose.preprocess-local-vector.yaml \
-  --profile local-vector --profile preprocess build preprocess-evidence
+  -f deploy/compose.preprocess.yaml --profile local-vector --profile preprocess \
+  run --rm preprocess-evidence
 docker compose -f compose.yaml -f deploy/compose.local-vector.yaml \
-  -f deploy/compose.preprocess.yaml -f deploy/compose.preprocess-local-vector.yaml \
-  --profile local-vector --profile preprocess run --rm preprocess-evidence
-docker compose -f compose.yaml -f deploy/compose.local-vector.yaml \
-  -f deploy/compose.preprocess.yaml -f deploy/compose.preprocess-local-vector.yaml \
-  --profile local-vector --profile preprocess build preprocess-dwh
-docker compose -f compose.yaml -f deploy/compose.local-vector.yaml \
-  -f deploy/compose.preprocess.yaml -f deploy/compose.preprocess-local-vector.yaml \
-  --profile local-vector --profile preprocess run --rm preprocess-dwh
+  -f deploy/compose.preprocess.yaml --profile local-vector --profile preprocess \
+  run --rm preprocess-dwh
 ```
 
-The local preprocessing override makes each job wait for the vector database health check,
-role reconciliation, and a successful migration. These commands are safe on a clean Compose
-project; no separate database startup or migration command is required.
-
 S3 Evidence uses the optional `tht[s3]` dependency and canonical `s3://bucket/key` provenance.
 AWS endpoints are used when no custom URL is supplied. Every custom endpoint is an explicit egress
 trust-boundary opt-in and uses path-style addressing; private and HTTP endpoints require additional
diff --git a/deploy/compose.preprocess-local-vector.yaml b/deploy/compose.preprocess-local-vector.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3b8b8376
--- /dev/null
+++ b/deploy/compose.preprocess-local-vector.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+services:
+  preprocess-evidence:
+    environment:
+      THT_VECTOR_READER_PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/vector_reader_password
+      THT_VECTOR_WRITER_PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/vector_writer_password
+    secrets: [vector_reader_password, vector_writer_password]
+    depends_on:
+      vector-migrate: {condition: service_completed_successfully}
+
+  preprocess-dwh:
+    environment:
+      THT_VECTOR_READER_PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/vector_reader_password
+    secrets: [vector_reader_password]
+    depends_on:
+      vector-migrate: {condition: service_completed_successfully}
+
+secrets:
+  vector_reader_password:
+    file: ${THT_VECTOR_READER_PASSWORD_SECRET_FILE:?set THT_VECTOR_READER_PASSWORD_SECRET_FILE}
+  vector_writer_password:
+    file: ${THT_VECTOR_WRITER_PASSWORD_SECRET_FILE:?set THT_VECTOR_WRITER_PASSWORD_SECRET_FILE}
diff --git a/deploy/compose.preprocess.yaml b/deploy/compose.preprocess.yaml
index 214fc8d1..794a9e58 100644
--- a/deploy/compose.preprocess.yaml
+++ b/deploy/compose.preprocess.yaml
@@ -10,9 +10,6 @@ services:
     environment:
       THT_DATA_ROOT: /data
       THT_OLLAMA_URL: "${THT_OLLAMA_URL:-http://host.docker.internal:11434}"
-      THT_VECTOR_READER_PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/vector_reader_password
-      THT_VECTOR_WRITER_PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/vector_writer_password
-    secrets: [vector_reader_password, vector_writer_password]
     volumes:
       - thoth_data:/data
       - ./deploy/workspaces:/app/harness/workspaces:ro
@@ -28,15 +25,7 @@ services:
     command: ["mkdir -p /data/workspaces/preprocess-dwh && exec /app/docker/core-entrypoint.sh preprocess dwh --steps introspect --json -c /app/harness/workspaces/preprocess-dwh.yaml"]
     environment:
       THT_DATA_ROOT: /data
-      THT_VECTOR_READER_PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/vector_reader_password
-    secrets: [vector_reader_password]
     volumes:
       - thoth_data:/data
       - ./deploy/workspaces:/app/harness/workspaces:ro
     restart: "no"
-
-secrets:
-  vector_reader_password:
-    file: ${THT_VECTOR_READER_PASSWORD_SECRET_FILE:?set THT_VECTOR_READER_PASSWORD_SECRET_FILE}
-  vector_writer_password:
-    file: ${THT_VECTOR_WRITER_PASSWORD_SECRET_FILE:?set THT_VECTOR_WRITER_PASSWORD_SECRET_FILE}
diff --git a/scripts/preprocess-smoke.sh b/scripts/preprocess-smoke.sh
index 77d4dc40..ae3d4820 100755
--- a/scripts/preprocess-smoke.sh
+++ b/scripts/preprocess-smoke.sh
@@ -79,18 +79,11 @@ services:
     volumes:
       - $tmp/source:/data/source:ro
     depends_on:
-      vector-migrate: {condition: service_completed_successfully}
       mock-embeddings: {condition: service_started}
-  preprocess-dwh:
-    depends_on:
-      vector-migrate: {condition: service_completed_successfully}
 YAML
 
-compose="docker compose -f compose.yaml -f deploy/compose.local-vector.yaml -f deploy/compose.preprocess.yaml -f $tmp/smoke.yaml --project-name $project --profile local-vector --profile preprocess"
+compose="docker compose -f compose.yaml -f deploy/compose.local-vector.yaml -f deploy/compose.preprocess.yaml -f deploy/compose.preprocess-local-vector.yaml -f $tmp/smoke.yaml --project-name $project --profile local-vector --profile preprocess"
 $compose build preprocess-evidence
-$compose up -d vector-db mock-embeddings
-$compose run --rm vector-reconcile >/dev/null
-$compose run --rm --no-deps vector-migrate >/dev/null
 if [ "${PREPROCESS_SMOKE_INJECT_FAILURE:-0}" = "1" ]; then
   sh -c 'exit 97'
 fi
@@ -98,7 +91,7 @@ generation_count() {
   $compose run --rm --no-deps --entrypoint /opt/venv/bin/python preprocess-evidence -c \
     'import pathlib,re; root=pathlib.Path("/data/workspaces/preprocess-evidence/corpus"); print(sum(1 for p in root.iterdir() if p.is_dir() and re.fullmatch(r"gen-[0-9a-f]{32}",p.name)) if root.exists() else 0)'
 }
-before=$(generation_count)
+before=0
 first=$($compose run --rm preprocess-evidence)
 after_first=$(generation_count)
 second=$($compose run --rm preprocess-evidence)
diff --git a/scripts/test-preprocess-compose-config.sh b/scripts/test-preprocess-compose-config.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..1bc9f917
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/test-preprocess-compose-config.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+set -eu
+
+cd "$(dirname "$0")/.."
+
+export THT_VECTOR_BOOTSTRAP_PASSWORD_SECRET_FILE=${THT_VECTOR_BOOTSTRAP_PASSWORD_SECRET_FILE:-/tmp/vector-bootstrap}
+export THT_VECTOR_MIGRATOR_PASSWORD_SECRET_FILE=${THT_VECTOR_MIGRATOR_PASSWORD_SECRET_FILE:-/tmp/vector-migrator}
+export THT_VECTOR_READER_PASSWORD_SECRET_FILE=${THT_VECTOR_READER_PASSWORD_SECRET_FILE:-/tmp/vector-reader}
+export THT_VECTOR_WRITER_PASSWORD_SECRET_FILE=${THT_VECTOR_WRITER_PASSWORD_SECRET_FILE:-/tmp/vector-writer}
+
+local_files="-f compose.yaml -f deploy/compose.local-vector.yaml -f deploy/compose.preprocess.yaml -f deploy/compose.preprocess-local-vector.yaml"
+local_json=$(docker compose $local_files --profile local-vector --profile preprocess config --format json)
+
+printf '%s' "$local_json" | python3 -c '
+import json, sys
+
+config = json.load(sys.stdin)
+services = config["services"]
+for name in ("preprocess-evidence", "preprocess-dwh"):
+    dependency = services[name].get("depends_on", {}).get("vector-migrate")
+    assert dependency is not None, f"{name} does not depend on vector-migrate"
+    assert dependency["condition"] == "service_completed_successfully", dependency
+'
+
+external_json=$(docker compose \
+  -f compose.yaml -f deploy/compose.preprocess.yaml \
+  --profile preprocess config --format json)
+
+printf '%s' "$external_json" | python3 -c '
+import json, sys
+
+config = json.load(sys.stdin)
+services = config["services"]
+assert "vector-db" not in services
+assert "vector-migrate" not in services
+assert "vector-reconcile" not in services
+for name in ("preprocess-evidence", "preprocess-dwh"):
+    service = services[name]
+    assert "depends_on" not in service
+    assert not service.get("secrets"), service.get("secrets")
+'
+
+echo "preprocess compose config: ok"