diff --git a/crates/gateway/src/main.rs b/crates/gateway/src/main.rs
index 4a30b62..283683b 100644
--- a/crates/gateway/src/main.rs
+++ b/crates/gateway/src/main.rs
@@ -108,6 +108,13 @@ async fn main() {
             .allow_headers(Any))
         .layer(TraceLayer::new_for_http());
 
+    // File watcher — auto-ingest from ./inbox
+    let _watcher = ingestd::watcher::spawn_watcher(
+        ingestd::watcher::WatchConfig::default(),
+        store.clone(),
+        registry.clone(),
+    );
+
     // Start gRPC server on port+1
     let grpc_port = config.gateway.port + 1;
     let catalog_grpc = catalogd::grpc::CatalogGrpc::new(registry);
diff --git a/crates/ingestd/src/lib.rs b/crates/ingestd/src/lib.rs
index b4485c7..e21ee5b 100644
--- a/crates/ingestd/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/ingestd/src/lib.rs
@@ -5,3 +5,4 @@ pub mod pdf_ingest;
 pub mod pipeline;
 pub mod schema_evolution;
 pub mod service;
+pub mod watcher;
diff --git a/crates/ingestd/src/watcher.rs b/crates/ingestd/src/watcher.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf342e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/ingestd/src/watcher.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
+/// File watcher: monitors a directory for new files and auto-ingests them.
+/// Drop a CSV, JSON, PDF, or text file → auto-detected → Parquet → queryable.
+/// Processed files are moved to a "processed/" subdirectory.
+
+use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};
+use std::sync::Arc;
+use std::time::Duration;
+use tokio::time;
+
+use catalogd::registry::Registry;
+use object_store::ObjectStore;
+
+use crate::pipeline;
+
+/// Watch config.
+pub struct WatchConfig {
+    pub watch_dir: PathBuf,
+    pub processed_dir: PathBuf,
+    pub failed_dir: PathBuf,
+    pub poll_interval: Duration,
+}
+
+impl Default for WatchConfig {
+    fn default() -> Self {
+        Self {
+            watch_dir: PathBuf::from("./inbox"),
+            processed_dir: PathBuf::from("./inbox/processed"),
+            failed_dir: PathBuf::from("./inbox/failed"),
+            poll_interval: Duration::from_secs(10),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// Start the file watcher as a background task.
+pub fn spawn_watcher(
+    config: WatchConfig,
+    store: Arc<dyn ObjectStore>,
+    registry: Registry,
+) -> tokio::task::JoinHandle<()> {
+    // Create directories
+    std::fs::create_dir_all(&config.watch_dir).ok();
+    std::fs::create_dir_all(&config.processed_dir).ok();
+    std::fs::create_dir_all(&config.failed_dir).ok();
+
+    tracing::info!("file watcher started: watching {}", config.watch_dir.display());
+
+    tokio::spawn(async move {
+        let mut interval = time::interval(config.poll_interval);
+        loop {
+            interval.tick().await;
+            if let Err(e) = process_inbox(&config, &store, &registry).await {
+                tracing::error!("watcher error: {e}");
+            }
+        }
+    })
+}
+
+/// Scan inbox directory and process any new files.
+async fn process_inbox(
+    config: &WatchConfig,
+    store: &Arc<dyn ObjectStore>,
+    registry: &Registry,
+) -> Result<(), String> {
+    let entries = std::fs::read_dir(&config.watch_dir)
+        .map_err(|e| format!("can't read inbox: {e}"))?;
+
+    for entry in entries {
+        let entry = match entry {
+            Ok(e) => e,
+            Err(_) => continue,
+        };
+
+        let path = entry.path();
+
+        // Skip directories and hidden files
+        if path.is_dir() || path.file_name().map_or(true, |n| n.to_string_lossy().starts_with('.')) {
+            continue;
+        }
+
+        let filename = path.file_name().unwrap().to_string_lossy().to_string();
+        tracing::info!("watcher: found new file '{}'", filename);
+
+        // Read file
+        let content = match std::fs::read(&path) {
+            Ok(c) => c,
+            Err(e) => {
+                tracing::error!("watcher: can't read '{}': {e}", filename);
+                move_file(&path, &config.failed_dir.join(&filename));
+                continue;
+            }
+        };
+
+        // Ingest
+        match pipeline::ingest_file(&filename, &content, None, store, registry).await {
+            Ok(result) => {
+                if result.deduplicated {
+                    tracing::info!("watcher: '{}' already ingested, skipping", filename);
+                } else {
+                    tracing::info!("watcher: ingested '{}' → {} ({} rows, {} cols)",
+                        filename, result.dataset_name, result.rows, result.columns);
+                }
+                // Move to processed
+                move_file(&path, &config.processed_dir.join(&filename));
+            }
+            Err(e) => {
+                tracing::error!("watcher: failed to ingest '{}': {e}", filename);
+                move_file(&path, &config.failed_dir.join(&filename));
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+fn move_file(from: &Path, to: &Path) {
+    if let Err(e) = std::fs::rename(from, to) {
+        // rename fails across filesystems, try copy+delete
+        if let Err(e2) = std::fs::copy(from, to).and_then(|_| std::fs::remove_file(from)) {
+            tracing::warn!("can't move {} → {}: {e}, copy failed: {e2}", from.display(), to.display());
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/data/_catalog/manifests/f0b6f408-71a5-4365-bd1d-98c1e176096a.json b/data/_catalog/manifests/f0b6f408-71a5-4365-bd1d-98c1e176096a.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f3bb6ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/_catalog/manifests/f0b6f408-71a5-4365-bd1d-98c1e176096a.json
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+{
+  "id": "f0b6f408-71a5-4365-bd1d-98c1e176096a",
+  "name": "new_candidates",
+  "schema_fingerprint": "0fcee1ac176b9bc45ab392bbd4401042803eb80d0de48b1fa6a5e20ffb27fa8d",
+  "objects": [
+    {
+      "bucket": "data",
+      "key": "datasets/new_candidates.parquet",
+      "size_bytes": 2731,
+      "created_at": "2026-03-28T01:04:22.787759218Z"
+    }
+  ],
+  "created_at": "2026-03-28T01:04:22.787759835Z",
+  "updated_at": "2026-03-28T01:04:22.788113964Z",
+  "description": "",
+  "owner": "",
+  "sensitivity": "pii",
+  "columns": [
+    {
+      "name": "name",
+      "data_type": "Utf8",
+      "sensitivity": "pii",
+      "description": "",
+      "is_pii": true
+    },
+    {
+      "name": "phone",
+      "data_type": "Utf8",
+      "sensitivity": "pii",
+      "description": "",
+      "is_pii": true
+    },
+    {
+      "name": "email",
+      "data_type": "Utf8",
+      "sensitivity": "pii",
+      "description": "",
+      "is_pii": true
+    },
+    {
+      "name": "city",
+      "data_type": "Utf8",
+      "sensitivity": null,
+      "description": "",
+      "is_pii": false
+    },
+    {
+      "name": "state",
+      "data_type": "Utf8",
+      "sensitivity": null,
+      "description": "",
+      "is_pii": false
+    },
+    {
+      "name": "skills",
+      "data_type": "Utf8",
+      "sensitivity": null,
+      "description": "",
+      "is_pii": false
+    },
+    {
+      "name": "years",
+      "data_type": "Int64",
+      "sensitivity": null,
+      "description": "",
+      "is_pii": false
+    }
+  ],
+  "lineage": {
+    "source_system": "csv",
+    "source_file": "new_candidates.csv",
+    "ingest_job": "ingest-1774659862787",
+    "ingest_timestamp": "2026-03-28T01:04:22.787759218Z",
+    "parent_datasets": []
+  },
+  "freshness": null,
+  "tags": [],
+  "row_count": 3
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/data/datasets/new_candidates.parquet b/data/datasets/new_candidates.parquet
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..34753b7
Binary files /dev/null and b/data/datasets/new_candidates.parquet differ
diff --git a/inbox/processed/new_candidates.csv b/inbox/processed/new_candidates.csv
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..872ad12
--- /dev/null
+++ b/inbox/processed/new_candidates.csv
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+Name,Phone,Email,City,State,Skills,Years
+Sarah Connor,(312) 555-0001,sarah@gmail.com,Chicago,IL,"Python,AWS,Docker",8
+John Wick,(212) 555-0002,john.wick@outlook.com,New York,NY,"Java,Spring Boot,Kubernetes",12
+Ellen Ripley,(713) 555-0003,ripley@yahoo.com,Houston,TX,"C++,Linux,Embedded",15