diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6219140
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+name: CI
+
+# Bespoke (not the reusable ci-node.yml) because better-sqlite3 is a NATIVE
+# addon: `npm ci` compiles it from source, so we verify the binding actually
+# loads, not just that install succeeded. The server is a stdio MCP process
+# (it exits on stdin EOF — there is no long-running daemon to smoke-boot in CI),
+# so the gates are install + native-binding load + typecheck + build. A real
+# MCP-handshake smoke test is a follow-up.
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: [main]
+  pull_request:
+    branches: [main]
+
+permissions:
+  contents: read
+
+concurrency:
+  group: ci-${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
+  cancel-in-progress: true
+
+jobs:
+  ci:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+
+      # Node 22 matches @types/node ^22 and the native ABI better-sqlite3 builds against.
+      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
+        with:
+          node-version: "22"
+          cache: npm
+
+      # npm ci compiles better-sqlite3 from source against this Node's ABI.
+      - name: Install dependencies (rebuilds native better-sqlite3)
+        run: npm ci
+
+      # Fail fast if the native binding can't be loaded after the rebuild.
+      - name: Verify native better-sqlite3 binding loads
+        run: node -e "const D=require('better-sqlite3'); const db=new D(':memory:'); db.exec('create table t(x)'); db.close(); console.log('better-sqlite3 OK');"
+
+      - name: Typecheck
+        run: npx tsc --noEmit
+
+      - name: Build
+        run: npm run build