diff --git a/app/indexing/hybrid_search.py b/app/indexing/hybrid_search.py
index d7a2959..f48a506 100644
--- a/app/indexing/hybrid_search.py
+++ b/app/indexing/hybrid_search.py
@@ -72,14 +72,18 @@ def run_search(req: SearchRequest) -> SearchResponse:
     merged = _merge(lexical, semantic, mode)
     candidates = merged[: settings.rerank_candidates]
 
-    reranker = get_reranker()
     reranked_flag = False
-    if settings.reranker_enabled and reranker.available and candidates:
-        scores = reranker.score(req.query, [c.text for c in candidates])
-        for c, s in zip(candidates, scores, strict=True):
-            c.dense_score = s
-        candidates.sort(key=lambda c: (c.dense_score or 0.0), reverse=True)
-        reranked_flag = True
+    if settings.reranker_enabled and candidates:
+        # Lazy-load only when the flag is on; FlagReranker construction
+        # downloads the model and we do not want that on the cold path when
+        # the operator has disabled reranking.
+        reranker = get_reranker()
+        if reranker.available:
+            scores = reranker.score(req.query, [c.text for c in candidates])
+            for c, s in zip(candidates, scores, strict=True):
+                c.dense_score = s
+            candidates.sort(key=lambda c: (c.dense_score or 0.0), reverse=True)
+            reranked_flag = True
 
     final = candidates[: req.limit]
 
diff --git a/app/indexing/opensearch_client.py b/app/indexing/opensearch_client.py
index 61679d0..cb7fc4e 100644
--- a/app/indexing/opensearch_client.py
+++ b/app/indexing/opensearch_client.py
@@ -72,8 +72,12 @@ INDEX_SETTINGS: dict[str, Any] = {
             },
             "ocr_confidence": {"type": "float"},
             "language_hint": {"type": "keyword"},
-            "metadata": {"type": "object", "enabled": True},
-            "quality_flags": {"type": "object", "enabled": True},
+            # metadata + quality_flags carry chunker-specific keys
+            # (section_heading, table_index, low_ocr_confidence, ...) that we do
+            # not want to enumerate up-front. Top-level mapping is dynamic:
+            # "strict", but these two sub-objects opt-in to dynamic insertion.
+            "metadata": {"type": "object", "enabled": True, "dynamic": True},
+            "quality_flags": {"type": "object", "enabled": True, "dynamic": True},
             "created_at": {"type": "date"},
         },
     },
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index be2f91a..8e517e4 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ x-common-env: &common-env
   EMBEDDING_DEVICE: ${EMBEDDING_DEVICE:-cpu}
   RERANKER_MODEL: ${RERANKER_MODEL:-BAAI/bge-reranker-v2-m3}
   RERANKER_DEVICE: ${RERANKER_DEVICE:-cpu}
+  RERANKER_ENABLED: ${RERANKER_ENABLED:-true}
   APP_LOG_LEVEL: ${APP_LOG_LEVEL:-INFO}
   APP_INPUT_DIR: /data/input
   APP_WORK_DIR: /data/work
@@ -44,7 +45,7 @@ services:
       POSTGRES_USER: ${POSTGRES_USER:-legacyhub}
       POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD:-legacyhub}
     ports:
-      - "5432:5432"
+      - "5440:5432"
     volumes:
       - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
     healthcheck: