diff --git a/.changeset/storage-rebuild-fts.md b/.changeset/storage-rebuild-fts.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9219d00
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/storage-rebuild-fts.md
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+---
+'@colony/storage': minor
+'@imdeadpool/colony': patch
+---
+
+Add `Storage.rebuildFts()` so the CLI `reindex` command no longer
+reaches through the type system to poke `better-sqlite3`. Behavior is
+unchanged — `reindex` still runs the FTS5 `'rebuild'` statement — but
+the public API is now typed and callers do not cast through `unknown`.
diff --git a/apps/cli/src/commands/reindex.ts b/apps/cli/src/commands/reindex.ts
index 43919b9..5bc0896 100644
--- a/apps/cli/src/commands/reindex.ts
+++ b/apps/cli/src/commands/reindex.ts
@@ -10,15 +10,11 @@ export function registerReindexCommand(program: Command): void {
     .action(async () => {
       const settings = loadSettings();
       const s = new Storage(join(resolveDataDir(settings.dataDir), 'data.db'));
-      // FTS5 rebuild pattern.
-      const db = (s as unknown as { db: { exec: (q: string) => void } }).db;
-      // Fallback to raw exec via better-sqlite3 if exposed; otherwise use public API to no-op.
       try {
-        if (db?.exec) db.exec("INSERT INTO observations_fts(observations_fts) VALUES('rebuild');");
-      } catch {
-        // swallow — rebuild is best-effort
+        s.rebuildFts();
+      } finally {
+        s.close();
       }
-      s.close();
       process.stdout.write('reindex ok\n');
     });
 }
diff --git a/packages/storage/src/storage.ts b/packages/storage/src/storage.ts
index 5a2309e..549e054 100644
--- a/packages/storage/src/storage.ts
+++ b/packages/storage/src/storage.ts
@@ -218,6 +218,10 @@ export class Storage {
     }));
   }
 
+  rebuildFts(): void {
+    this.db.exec("INSERT INTO observations_fts(observations_fts) VALUES('rebuild');");
+  }
+
   // --- embeddings ---
 
   putEmbedding(observationId: number, model: string, vec: Float32Array): void {
diff --git a/packages/storage/test/storage.test.ts b/packages/storage/test/storage.test.ts
index 06fda68..1a078b9 100644
--- a/packages/storage/test/storage.test.ts
+++ b/packages/storage/test/storage.test.ts
@@ -108,6 +108,26 @@ describe('Storage', () => {
     expect(hits[0]?.snippet).toContain('[auth]');
   });
 
+  it('rebuildFts leaves FTS queryable', () => {
+    storage.createSession({
+      id: 'sfts',
+      ide: 'claude-code',
+      cwd: null,
+      started_at: Date.now(),
+      metadata: null,
+    });
+    storage.insertObservation({
+      session_id: 'sfts',
+      kind: 'note',
+      content: 'token bucket rate limiter',
+      compressed: true,
+      intensity: 'full',
+    });
+    expect(() => storage.rebuildFts()).not.toThrow();
+    const hits = storage.searchFts('bucket');
+    expect(hits.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+  });
+
   it('stores and retrieves embeddings', () => {
     storage.createSession({
       id: 's2',