diff --git a/backend/src/db/migrations/047_message_tags.sql b/backend/src/db/migrations/047_message_tags.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..49dc7e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/src/db/migrations/047_message_tags.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+-- 055: message_tags + tagger bookkeeping schema.
+--
+-- The core backend reads message_tags for feed enrichment, packet detail and
+-- the WebSocket initial state, but the table was previously created only by
+-- tagger_worker.py's startup DDL -- which runs after a TYPESAFE_API_KEY gate
+-- and exits before any DDL when the key is unset. Fresh stacks therefore had
+-- no table: WS clients were closed with 1013 on connect and the CI smoke's
+-- MQTT->WebSocket fanout check timed out.
+--
+-- The schema now lives in the migration ledger so every deployment has it
+-- independently of the optional worker; the worker's CREATE TABLE IF NOT
+-- EXISTS stays as a harmless no-op. Prefix 055 deliberately leaves 052-054
+-- reserved for the owner packet sharing workstream.
+
+SET LOCAL lock_timeout = '30s';
+SET LOCAL statement_timeout = '0';
+
+CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS message_tags (
+  packet_hash  text PRIMARY KEY,
+  packet_time  timestamptz NOT NULL,
+  tagged_at    timestamptz NOT NULL DEFAULT now(),
+  model        text,
+  latency_ms   integer,
+  tags         jsonb NOT NULL,
+  confidence   jsonb
+);
+
+CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS tagger_state (
+  id int PRIMARY KEY CHECK (id = 1),
+  cursor_time timestamptz,
+  seen bigint NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+  tagged bigint NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+  errors bigint NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+  http_429 bigint NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+  last_error text,
+  avg_latency_ms_50 real,
+  started_at timestamptz NOT NULL DEFAULT now(),
+  updated_at timestamptz
+);
+INSERT INTO tagger_state (id) VALUES (1) ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING;
+ALTER TABLE tagger_state ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS retried bigint NOT NULL DEFAULT 0;
+ALTER TABLE tagger_state ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS given_up bigint NOT NULL DEFAULT 0;
+
+CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS tagger_retry (
+  packet_hash      text PRIMARY KEY,
+  packet_time      timestamptz NOT NULL,
+  attempts         int NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+  last_error       text,
+  first_failed_at  timestamptz NOT NULL DEFAULT now(),
+  exhausted        boolean NOT NULL DEFAULT false
+);
diff --git a/backend/src/ram/liveRead.ts b/backend/src/ram/liveRead.ts
index c268b4d..786974f 100644
--- a/backend/src/ram/liveRead.ts
+++ b/backend/src/ram/liveRead.ts
@@ -149,6 +149,8 @@ function buildMergedRow(group: EntryWithTx[], includePayload: boolean, fields: '
     rssi: input.rssi,
     snr: input.snr,
     summary,
+    tags: null,
+    tag_confidence: null,
     advert_count: input.advertCount,
     path_hashes: input.pathHashes,
     path_hash_size_bytes: input.pathHashSizeBytes,
@@ -207,7 +209,7 @@ function augmentRow(row: RecentRow, group: EntryWithTx[], aliases: Map<string, s
     || (candidateTime === rowTime && String(candidate['_representative_id']) > String(row['_representative_id'] ?? ''))))) {
     // Counts describe all observations; representative fields follow the same
     // SQL preference across both sources, including retained overlap.
-    const { observer_node_ids: _nodes, observer_iatas: _iatas, rx_count: _rx, tx_count: _tx, ...fields } = candidate;
+    const { observer_node_ids: _nodes, observer_iatas: _iatas, rx_count: _rx, tx_count: _tx, tags: _tags, tag_confidence: _tagConfidence, ...fields } = candidate;
     Object.assign(row, fields);
   }
 }
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 22b7b78..6d5a01b 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -971,7 +971,7 @@ services:
     volumes:
       - alert_receiver_data:/var/lib/meshcore-alerts
     healthcheck:
-      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "wget -qO- http://127.0.0.1:8080/readyz >/dev/null"]
+      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "wget -qO- http://127.0.0.1:8080/healthz >/dev/null"]
       interval: 30s
       timeout: 5s
       retries: 5