diff --git a/examples/llm-memory-db-mssql/.noorm/settings.yml b/examples/llm-memory-db-mssql/.noorm/settings.yml
index 1005f706..f4ae761d 100644
--- a/examples/llm-memory-db-mssql/.noorm/settings.yml
+++ b/examples/llm-memory-db-mssql/.noorm/settings.yml
@@ -4,16 +4,16 @@ paths:
 
 build:
     include:
-        - sql/00_types
-        - sql/01_reference
-        - sql/02_tables
-        - sql/03_validators
-        - sql/04_subtypes
-        - sql/05_binary
-        - sql/06_seeds
-        - sql/07_functions
-        - sql/08_views
-        - sql/09_procedures
+        - 00_types
+        - 01_reference
+        - 02_tables
+        - 03_validators
+        - 04_subtypes
+        - 05_binary
+        - 06_seeds
+        - 07_functions
+        - 08_views
+        - 09_procedures
     exclude: []
 
 stages:
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ rules:
       match:
           isTest: true
       include:
-          - sql/06_seeds
+          - 06_seeds
 
 strict:
     enabled: false
diff --git a/packages/cli/scripts/postinstall.js b/packages/cli/scripts/postinstall.js
index 8a3f97d5..3a8cb7df 100644
--- a/packages/cli/scripts/postinstall.js
+++ b/packages/cli/scripts/postinstall.js
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
  */
 
 import { createHash } from 'crypto';
-import { createReadStream, createWriteStream, existsSync, chmodSync, mkdirSync, renameSync, unlinkSync } from 'fs';
+import { createReadStream, createWriteStream, existsSync, chmodSync, mkdirSync, readFileSync, renameSync, unlinkSync } from 'fs';
 import { get as httpsGet } from 'https';
 import { dirname, resolve } from 'path';
 import { fileURLToPath } from 'url';
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ const PACKAGE_ROOT = resolve(__dirname, '..');
 const BIN_DIR = resolve(PACKAGE_ROOT, 'bin');
 const REPO = 'noormdev/noorm';
 
+const ROOT_PACKAGE_NAME = '@noormdev/main';
+
 const BINARY_NAME = process.platform === 'win32' ? 'noorm.exe' : 'noorm';
 const DEST = resolve(BIN_DIR, BINARY_NAME);
 const DOWNLOAD_DEST = `${DEST}.download`;
@@ -40,6 +42,62 @@ class ChecksumFailure extends Error {
 
 }
 
+/**
+ * Local mirror of `attemptSync` from `@logosdx/utils`, which this script
+ * cannot import: postinstall runs before the workspace is built, and in a
+ * consumer's tree the dependency need not be installed at all.
+ *
+ * Exists so the callers below keep the repo's error-tuple convention instead
+ * of ad-hoc try/catch control flow -- the one unavoidable try/catch is
+ * encapsulated here, exactly as the real utility encapsulates it.
+ */
+function attemptSync(fn) {
+
+    try {
+        return [fn(), null];
+    }
+    catch (err) {
+        return [null, err];
+    }
+
+}
+
+/**
+ * Detects the noorm monorepo source checkout, where this script must not run.
+ *
+ * The download is pinned to the release tag matching this package's version,
+ * which in a source checkout is routinely not a published release -- every
+ * commit after a version bump points at a tag that does not exist yet, and
+ * tags cut before the release workflow started emitting checksums.txt have
+ * nothing to verify against. Either way the download fails, and a failed
+ * verification is a hard failure by design (see main().catch below), so it
+ * takes `bun install` down with it.
+ *
+ * Nothing in the repo needs it: the CLI is built from source here
+ * (`bun run build:packages`, or `bun run build:binary` for a real binary) and
+ * the downloaded asset is never executed. Skipping is the whole fix.
+ *
+ * Keyed on the private workspace root two levels up, which the npm tarball
+ * never ships -- an installed copy lives at node_modules/@noormdev/cli, whose
+ * grandparent is node_modules itself and has no package.json.
+ */
+function isSourceCheckout() {
+
+    const rootPackage = resolve(PACKAGE_ROOT, '..', '..', 'package.json');
+
+    if (!existsSync(rootPackage)) {
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    // An unreadable or malformed package.json two levels up says nothing about
+    // being in the source repo -- fall through to the normal download path
+    // rather than silently skipping a consumer's install.
+    const [pkg] = attemptSync(() => JSON.parse(readFileSync(rootPackage, 'utf8')));
+
+    return pkg?.name === ROOT_PACKAGE_NAME;
+
+}
+
 /**
  * Resolves the platform suffix used in binary asset names.
  *
@@ -290,6 +348,11 @@ async function verifyChecksum(checksumsUrl, assetName) {
  */
 async function main() {
 
+    if (isSourceCheckout()) {
+        console.log('noorm source checkout detected - skipping release binary download (build one with `bun run build:binary`).');
+        return;
+    }
+
     const suffix = getPlatformSuffix();
     const version = await getVersion();
     const assetName = `noorm-${suffix}`;
diff --git a/tests/cli/postinstall-source-checkout.test.ts b/tests/cli/postinstall-source-checkout.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..9a0d794b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/cli/postinstall-source-checkout.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,195 @@
+/**
+ * Tests for the npm postinstall binary download (`packages/cli/scripts/postinstall.js`).
+ *
+ * The script is spawned as a real `node` process rather than imported: it is
+ * plain ESM shipped in the npm tarball (the repo does not set `allowJs`), and
+ * spawning exercises the exact invocation a package manager performs.
+ *
+ * The invariant under test is a split one, and both halves matter:
+ *
+ *   - Inside this monorepo the release binary must NEVER be downloaded. The
+ *     script pins its download to the release tag matching packages/cli's
+ *     version, which in a source checkout is routinely unreleased (any commit
+ *     after a version bump, and every commit before that version is cut). CI
+ *     builds the CLI from source and never executes the downloaded binary, so
+ *     the download is dead weight that can only ever break `bun install`.
+ *
+ *   - For an npm consumer the download must still happen. A skip check that is
+ *     too broad would silently install the wrapper with no binary behind it,
+ *     which is a worse failure than the one it fixes -- it surfaces at first
+ *     use rather than at install time.
+ *
+ * Both cases run against a fabricated directory tree rather than the real
+ * repo, so neither depends on whether packages/cli/bin happens to be populated
+ * on the machine running the tests.
+ */
+import { describe, it, expect, beforeAll, afterAll } from 'bun:test';
+import { mkdtemp, mkdir, rm, writeFile, copyFile } from 'fs/promises';
+import { existsSync } from 'fs';
+import { tmpdir } from 'os';
+import { join, resolve } from 'path';
+
+const REAL_SCRIPT = resolve(import.meta.dir, '../../packages/cli/scripts/postinstall.js');
+
+// Matched loosely (case-insensitive substring) so the test pins the behavior,
+// not the exact prose of the console message.
+const SKIP_MARKER = 'source checkout';
+const DOWNLOAD_MARKER = 'Downloading noorm';
+
+let workDir: string;
+
+/**
+ * Writes a package tree containing a copy of the real postinstall script and
+ * returns the directory the script lands in.
+ *
+ * @param layout directory path, relative to workDir, that plays the role of
+ * packages/cli -- i.e. where package.json and scripts/postinstall.js go.
+ * @param rootPkg package.json to write two levels above `layout`, or null to
+ * leave that level empty (the npm-consumer case).
+ */
+const fabricate = async (layout: string, rootPkg: Record<string, unknown> | null) => {
+
+    const pkgDir = join(workDir, layout);
+
+    await mkdir(join(pkgDir, 'scripts'), { recursive: true });
+    await copyFile(REAL_SCRIPT, join(pkgDir, 'scripts', 'postinstall.js'));
+
+    await writeFile(
+        join(pkgDir, 'package.json'),
+        JSON.stringify({ name: '@noormdev/cli', version: '1.0.0-alpha.39' }),
+    );
+
+    if (rootPkg) {
+
+        await writeFile(
+            join(pkgDir, '..', '..', 'package.json'),
+            JSON.stringify(rootPkg),
+        );
+
+    }
+
+    return pkgDir;
+
+};
+
+/**
+ * Runs the fabricated script to completion and returns its output.
+ *
+ * Only safe for cases that terminate without network access -- see
+ * `runUntilDownload` for the consumer case, which does reach the network.
+ */
+const run = async (pkgDir: string) => {
+
+    const proc = Bun.spawn(['node', join(pkgDir, 'scripts', 'postinstall.js')], {
+        stdout: 'pipe',
+        stderr: 'pipe',
+        env: { ...process.env, NOORM_INSECURE: '' },
+    });
+
+    const [stdout, stderr, exitCode] = await Promise.all([
+        new Response(proc.stdout).text(),
+        new Response(proc.stderr).text(),
+        proc.exited,
+    ]);
+
+    return { stdout, stderr, exitCode, output: stdout + stderr };
+
+};
+
+/**
+ * Runs the script only until it announces the download, then kills it.
+ *
+ * The consumer path deliberately hits GitHub Releases, which a test must not
+ * wait on. Reading up to the announcement is enough to prove the skip check
+ * did not swallow this case, and killing early keeps the test hermetic: the
+ * assertion holds whether or not the machine has network.
+ */
+const runUntilDownload = async (pkgDir: string) => {
+
+    const proc = Bun.spawn(['node', join(pkgDir, 'scripts', 'postinstall.js')], {
+        stdout: 'pipe',
+        stderr: 'pipe',
+        env: { ...process.env, NOORM_INSECURE: '' },
+    });
+
+    let seen = '';
+
+    const reader = proc.stdout.getReader();
+    const decoder = new TextDecoder();
+
+    while (!seen.includes(DOWNLOAD_MARKER)) {
+
+        const { done, value } = await reader.read();
+
+        if (done) break;
+
+        seen += decoder.decode(value, { stream: true });
+
+    }
+
+    proc.kill();
+    await proc.exited;
+
+    return seen;
+
+};
+
+beforeAll(async () => {
+
+    workDir = await mkdtemp(join(tmpdir(), 'noorm-postinstall-'));
+
+});
+
+afterAll(async () => {
+
+    await rm(workDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+
+});
+
+describe('postinstall: binary download', () => {
+
+    it('skips the download inside the noorm monorepo source checkout', async () => {
+
+        const pkgDir = await fabricate('repo/packages/cli', {
+            name: '@noormdev/main',
+            workspaces: ['packages/*'],
+        });
+
+        const { output, exitCode } = await run(pkgDir);
+
+        expect(output.toLowerCase()).toContain(SKIP_MARKER);
+        expect(output).not.toContain(DOWNLOAD_MARKER);
+
+        // The whole point: a source checkout must not be able to fail an install.
+        expect(exitCode).toBe(0);
+
+        expect(existsSync(join(pkgDir, 'bin', 'noorm'))).toBe(false);
+
+    });
+
+    it('still downloads for an npm consumer outside the monorepo', async () => {
+
+        const pkgDir = await fabricate('consumer/node_modules/@noormdev/cli', null);
+
+        const seen = await runUntilDownload(pkgDir);
+
+        expect(seen).toContain(DOWNLOAD_MARKER);
+        expect(seen.toLowerCase()).not.toContain(SKIP_MARKER);
+
+    });
+
+    it('does not mistake an unrelated parent package for the monorepo root', async () => {
+
+        const pkgDir = await fabricate('other/packages/cli', {
+            name: '@someoneelse/monorepo',
+            workspaces: ['packages/*'],
+        });
+
+        const seen = await runUntilDownload(pkgDir);
+
+        expect(seen).toContain(DOWNLOAD_MARKER);
+        expect(seen.toLowerCase()).not.toContain(SKIP_MARKER);
+
+    });
+
+});
diff --git a/tests/sdk/destructive-ops.test.ts b/tests/sdk/destructive-ops.test.ts
index 0a112269..6fd5dc05 100644
--- a/tests/sdk/destructive-ops.test.ts
+++ b/tests/sdk/destructive-ops.test.ts
@@ -72,7 +72,11 @@ function makeState(access: ConfigAccess, options: ContextState['options'] = {}):
 
 }
 
-/** Fake Change fixture for delete() gate tests. rm({ force: true }) on a nonexistent path silently no-ops, so a placeholder path is safe for every test except the dedicated disk-mutation block below. */
+/**
+ * Fake Change fixture for delete() gate tests. rm({ force: true }) on a
+ * nonexistent path silently no-ops, so a placeholder path is safe for every
+ * test except the dedicated disk-mutation block below.
+ */
 function makeFakeChange(changePath: string = join(tmpdir(), 'sample-change')): Change {
 
     return {