diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 18ca814..17402e2 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ ssearch/
 │   ├── retrieve_clippings.py   # Verbatim clippings chunk retrieval
 │   └── store_clippings/        # Persisted clippings vector store (ChromaDB)
 ├── data/                       # Symlink to journal .txt files
-├── clippings/                  # Symlink to clippings (PDFs, TXT, webarchive, RTF)
+├── clippings/                  # Symlink to clippings (PDFs, TXT, Markdown, webarchive, RTF)
 ├── store/                      # Persisted journal vector store
 ├── models/                     # Cached HuggingFace models (offline)
 ├── pyproject.toml              # Project metadata and dependencies (uv)
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ uv run python clippings_search/build_clippings.py --rebuild
 
 The default incremental mode loads the existing index, compares file sizes and modification dates, and only re-indexes what changed. A full rebuild is only needed when chunk parameters, the embedding model, or the metadata policy change.
 
-`build_clippings.py` handles PDFs, TXT, webarchive, and RTF files. PDFs are validated before indexing — those without extractable text are skipped and written to `ocr_needed.txt` for later OCR.
+`build_clippings.py` handles PDFs, TXT, Markdown, webarchive, and RTF files. PDFs are validated before indexing — those without extractable text are skipped and written to `ocr_needed.txt` for later OCR.
 
 ### Search journals
 
diff --git a/clippings_search/build_clippings.py b/clippings_search/build_clippings.py
index 1d1b369..fb66d89 100644
--- a/clippings_search/build_clippings.py
+++ b/clippings_search/build_clippings.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 # Default mode (incremental): loads the existing index and adds only
 # new or modified files.  Use --rebuild for a full rebuild from scratch.
 #
-# Handles PDFs, TXT, webarchive, and RTF files. Skips non-extractable PDFs
+# Handles PDFs, TXT, Markdown, webarchive, and RTF files. Skips non-extractable PDFs
 # and writes them to ocr_needed.txt for later OCR processing.
 #
 # February 2026
@@ -50,7 +50,9 @@ CHUNK_SIZE = 256
 CHUNK_OVERLAP = 25
 
 # File types handled by SimpleDirectoryReader (PDF + TXT)
-READER_EXTS = {".pdf", ".txt"}
+# .md is read as plain text by SimpleDirectoryReader (one document, full
+# text, standard metadata) -- no special Markdown handling needed.
+READER_EXTS = {".pdf", ".txt", ".md"}
 # File types handled by custom loaders
 CUSTOM_EXTS = {".webarchive", ".rtf"}
 # All supported extensions
@@ -241,7 +243,13 @@ def scan_clippings():
                 continue
             reader_files.append(fpath)
 
-        elif ext == ".txt":
+        elif ext in READER_EXTS:
+            # Everything else in READER_EXTS is plain text that
+            # SimpleDirectoryReader handles directly (.txt, .md). Keyed off the
+            # set rather than a literal so adding an extension there is enough;
+            # previously this was `elif ext == ".txt"`, so .md passed the
+            # SUPPORTED_EXTS guard and then fell through every branch below,
+            # silently indexing nothing and not even counting as skipped.
             reader_files.append(fpath)
 
         elif ext == ".webarchive":
@@ -258,6 +266,11 @@ def scan_clippings():
             else:
                 skipped.append((fpath, "no extractable text from RTF"))
 
+        else:
+            # Reachable only if SUPPORTED_EXTS gains a type with no handler.
+            # Make that loud rather than silently dropping the file.
+            skipped.append((fpath, f"NO HANDLER for supported type {ext}"))
+
     return reader_files, custom_docs, skipped, ocr_needed