diff --git a/npm/packages/ruvector/bin/mcp-server.js b/npm/packages/ruvector/bin/mcp-server.js
index 166d593649..2b77c3adfd 100644
--- a/npm/packages/ruvector/bin/mcp-server.js
+++ b/npm/packages/ruvector/bin/mcp-server.js
@@ -3837,6 +3837,15 @@ async function main() {
   const transport = new StdioServerTransport();
   await server.connect(transport);
   console.error('RuVector MCP server running on stdio');
+
+  // Exit cleanly when the parent process closes the stdio pipe or sends a
+  // termination signal. Without these handlers, the MCP server can survive
+  // the parent's death (e.g. when the client is killed with SIGKILL) and
+  // accumulate as an orphaned process under PPID=1, consuming RSS for the
+  // lifetime of the user session.
+  process.stdin.on('end', () => process.exit(0));
+  process.on('SIGINT', () => process.exit(0));
+  process.on('SIGTERM', () => process.exit(0));
 }
 
 main().catch(console.error);
diff --git a/npm/packages/ruvector/package.json b/npm/packages/ruvector/package.json
index 2d77cb3683..67aa0c1935 100644
--- a/npm/packages/ruvector/package.json
+++ b/npm/packages/ruvector/package.json
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
     "verify-dist": "node scripts/verify-dist.js",
     "prepack": "npm run build && npm run verify-dist",
     "prepublishOnly": "npm run build && npm run verify-dist",
-    "test": "node test/integration.js && node test/cli-commands.js"
+    "test": "node test/integration.js && node test/cli-commands.js && node test/sigterm-cleanup.js"
   },
   "keywords": [
     "vector",
diff --git a/npm/packages/ruvector/test/sigterm-cleanup.js b/npm/packages/ruvector/test/sigterm-cleanup.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e3457415d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/npm/packages/ruvector/test/sigterm-cleanup.js
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+
+/**
+ * Regression test: bin/mcp-server.js must exit on SIGTERM/SIGINT.
+ *
+ * Catches the case where the MCP server kept alive by stdin does not
+ * respond to termination signals and survives parent death as an
+ * orphaned process (PPID=1).
+ */
+
+const { spawn } = require('child_process');
+const assert = require('assert');
+const path = require('path');
+const fs = require('fs');
+
+const MCP_SERVER = path.join(__dirname, '..', 'bin', 'mcp-server.js');
+const SDK_PATH = path.join(__dirname, '..', 'node_modules', '@modelcontextprotocol', 'sdk');
+
+let passed = 0;
+let failed = 0;
+let skipped = 0;
+const failures = [];
+
+function pass(name) {
+  passed++;
+  console.log(`  PASS  ${name}`);
+}
+
+function fail(name, err) {
+  failed++;
+  failures.push({ name, error: err && err.message ? err.message : String(err) });
+  console.log(`  FAIL  ${name}`);
+  console.log(`        ${err && err.message ? err.message : err}`);
+}
+
+function skip(name, reason) {
+  skipped++;
+  console.log(`  SKIP  ${name} -- ${reason}`);
+}
+
+function waitForExit(child, timeoutMs) {
+  return new Promise((resolve) => {
+    const timer = setTimeout(() => {
+      try { child.kill('SIGKILL'); } catch (_) {}
+      resolve(-1);
+    }, timeoutMs);
+    child.once('exit', (code) => {
+      clearTimeout(timer);
+      resolve(code === null ? -1 : code);
+    });
+  });
+}
+
+function waitForReady(child, marker, timeoutMs) {
+  return new Promise((resolve) => {
+    const timer = setTimeout(resolve, timeoutMs);
+    const onData = (buf) => {
+      if (buf.toString().includes(marker)) {
+        clearTimeout(timer);
+        child.stderr.off('data', onData);
+        resolve();
+      }
+    };
+    child.stderr.on('data', onData);
+  });
+}
+
+async function testSignal(name, signal) {
+  const child = spawn(process.execPath, [MCP_SERVER], {
+    stdio: ['pipe', 'pipe', 'pipe'],
+    env: { ...process.env, NO_COLOR: '1' },
+  });
+
+  await waitForReady(child, 'running on stdio', 2000);
+  child.kill(signal);
+  const code = await waitForExit(child, 5000);
+
+  try {
+    assert.strictEqual(code, 0, `Expected clean exit on ${signal}, got code ${code}`);
+    pass(name);
+  } catch (err) {
+    fail(name, err);
+  }
+}
+
+(async () => {
+  console.log('\nruvector MCP server signal-handling tests');
+  console.log('='.repeat(60));
+
+  if (!fs.existsSync(SDK_PATH)) {
+    skip('SIGTERM cleanup', 'MCP SDK not installed (run npm install)');
+    skip('SIGINT cleanup', 'MCP SDK not installed (run npm install)');
+  } else {
+    await testSignal('SIGTERM cleanup', 'SIGTERM');
+    await testSignal('SIGINT cleanup', 'SIGINT');
+  }
+
+  console.log();
+  console.log(`Passed:  ${passed}`);
+  console.log(`Failed:  ${failed}`);
+  console.log(`Skipped: ${skipped}`);
+
+  if (failed > 0) {
+    console.log('\nFailures:');
+    failures.forEach(({ name, error }) => console.log(`  - ${name}: ${error}`));
+    process.exit(1);
+  }
+})();